Dominic Bradbury’s Mid-Century Modern Designers is a massive and lavishly illustrated tome that reinterprets Mid-century design for the 21st century. While most of the designers have since left this world their designs continue to fascinate society today. 

Organized alphabetically—from Alvar Aalto to Eva Zeisel—the book implies encyclopedic comprehensiveness and while it doesn’t quite cover everything, its breadth is nonetheless impressive; spanning furniture, lighting, textiles, ceramics, glass, and consumer goods and encompassing everything from lemon squeezers to automobiles. One category recurred more than others: chairs– I counted about 94 chairs featured in this book. This is not surprising, as chairs are often regarded as a pinnacle of design - mid-century modern or otherwise. To quote Vladimir Kagan, 'Chairs are uniquely the best expression of design. They encompass more of the challenges by which I live and work than any other single component of furniture.'

Bradbury emphasizes the polymathic nature of many mid-century designers, who often moved fluidly between different artistic mediums. The book intentionally sidesteps architectural works, even though a handful of these designers were architects at some point in their careers. Indeed, notable figures like Le Corbusier and Jørn Utzon are mostly known for their architectural works but are included for their forays into industrial and furniture design. Architecture-inclined readers are thoughtfully directed to Phaidon’s complementary titles ‘Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Masterpieces’ and ‘Atlas of Mid-Century Modern Homes’ to further explore these figures and their architectural works 

Most of the designers featured in this book were admittedly entirely new to me, but I recognized a few of their pieces and was able to finally connect the design to the designer—Eero Aarnio’s Ball Chair, Poul Christiansen’s Sinus pendant, and David Rowland’s 40/4 chair.  Bradbury shines a light on the pervasiveness of some of the recurring themes of mid-century design—modularity, bent plywood, and plastics treated as premium materials are taken for granted today, but were at the forefront of priorities several decades ago. I also discovered new favorite designers– Wendell Castle, Luigi Colani, Henry Dreyfuss, and Carlo Mollino, all particularly stood out to me.  Bradbury’s curation of 300+ designers in his book reaffirms my preference for pop art and space age design while stimulating a new interest in organic timber design. As an architecture-oriented reader, I inevitably drew connections between the featured furnishings and their compatible architectural settings – Saarinen’s Tulip Chair and his TWA Flight Center is a match made in Googie Heaven. I also appreciate how the book acknowledges the inherent overlap between mid-century modernism and postmodernism, featuring pieces like Castle’s 1968 Molar Settee, DDL Studio’s Joe Chair, and Ingo Maurer’s Bulb. As postmodernism has been described as a resistance from within, it only makes sense that some of these more subversive designers appealed to the consumerist zeitgeist, while also subtly challenging conventions. The Superstudio group in particular stood out as one of the more radical design collectives, with the iconic black and white grid on their Quaderna furniture series that ‘ironically suggests that every aspect of the life of the end user would take place within these codifying frameworks.’

The book’s alphabetical structure was not my preference as it sacrifices a more coherent historical or regional narrative, but I admit it allows each designer to stand on their own. While some may find this format limits contextual depth, numerous cross-references between designers at least offer a path for exploring the network of influence among contemporaries. Most of my nitpicks can loosely be summarized as wanting to see even more of what I liked, so I would say Bradbury did a fantastic job of whetting my appetite to learn even more about mid-century design.  

A detailed bibliography of over 100 sources in this tome makes a valuable starting point for those interested in pursuing further research or for obsessive book collectors like me. The design of a book about design should be impeccable, and this book certainly stands out as exemplary. As mid-century modern design encompasses not just one style, but spans a spectrum from clean minimalism to joyful pop art, how should a book reflect such a topic?  Phaidon’s solution was to maintain an elegant minimalist layout of the book’s content within an exuberantly colorful hardcover. What initially appears to be a psychedelic abstract design resolves into a playful collage of some of the standout pieces featured within. This book will look great on both your bookshelf and your coffee table; it is perhaps the ultimate coffee table book as it features coffee tables among its many designs. Be sure to read this at Janete Costa’s Borsoi or Philippe Hiquily’s Rothschild coffee table.