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Formica & design : from the counter top to high art / editor, Susan Grant Lewin ; introduction by R. Craig Miller ; essays by Sarah Bayliss [and others] ; afterword by Vincent P. Langone.
LIBRA NK2004.3.F67 F67 1991
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Formica Corporation.
- Laminated plastics.
- Laminated plastics in interior decoration.
- Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.
- Popular culture.
- United States.
- History.
- Local Subjects:
- Formica Corporation.
- Genre:
- History.
- Penn Provenance:
- Venturi, Robert; Brown, Denise Scott
- Physical Description:
- 191 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 26 cm
- Other Title:
- Formica and design.
- Place of Publication:
- New York : Rizzoli, 1991.
- Summary:
- "This profusely illustrated and comprehensive examination of Formica surveys all aspects of the brand's artistic and cultural influence. Soon after its invention, Formica laminate was used as a decorative material, adorning such interiors as those of the Queen Mary and Radio City Music Hall, among others. Formica's easy-to-clean features and its chameleon-like capacity to adopt to any pattern and color soon made it a ubiquitous surface material for kitchens and bathrooms across America. More importantly, Formica laminate has changed with the tastes of the times from the modern style in the 1930s to the postmodern style of the 1980s. Individual chapters and essays explore Formica's many applications-in diners, hotels, homes, furniture, and jewelry"--Publisher description.
- Contents:
- The Formica history : it isn't what you think / Steven Holt
- The logo / Karrie Jacobs
- Plastics / Jeffrey L. Meikle
- Evolutions in surface design / Marybeth Shaw
- The autonomous image / Alessandro De Gregori
- Formica in the fifties / Barbara Goldstein
- Brooks Stevens / Simon Leung
- Formica and diners / Richard J.S. Gutman
- Plastic expression / Sarah Bodine and Michael Dumas
- The laminate woman : Formica in women's lives / Sarah Bayliss
- Wood grains / Simon Leung
- From magical to mundane and back / Susan Grant Lewin
- The phenomenon of Formica / Steven Holt
- Afterword / Vincent P. Langone.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 184-185) and index.
- Local Notes:
- Presented to the Penn Libraries by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown
- Other Format:
- Online version: Formica & design.
- ISBN:
- 0847813347
- 9780847813346
- OCLC:
- 22731694
- Online:
- Contributor biographical information
- Publisher description
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