Eva Zeisel - On Design Book Review

I recently finished reading Eva Zeisel's book On Design, The Magic Language of Things.   This is a highly illustrated book full of images of Eva's work and things that have inspired her.  You get the sense that you are looking through the author's favorite scrapbook as some of the images are rather old looking and not of any kind of flashy quality.  Still, you understand the attraction, you know why she was moved by what she saw in each photograph.

She doesn't spend a lot of time telling you what she thinks is right or wrong in design, she just explains some thoughts on design.  She tells the reader what someone might feel when seeing certain design elements and even gives a brief history of recent design trends.

I really loved this book for several reasons not the least of which is that while reading it I really started to think of what I'm doing as designing.  I think of myself as a potter, but what I really am doing is designing pots, designing forms.  The surface decoration whether it be glaze or horse hair or something very different is part of the design. 

The other thing that I loved was the photographs.  It was just another view through another artist eye but many of the pictures were moving.  Not in the sense that an image of a child in a third world country or something like that might move us, but in the way that the simplicity of beautiful things can move us.
I highly recommend reading this book.  The words can be read in an afternoon, but you might want to linger with the images.

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