Here Design and Thames & Hudson pay homage to mid-century style with a new book

If we were to wake up on sunny Sunday morning with a winning lottery ticket stuffed into the back pocket of our jeans, we know exactly what we’d do and how we’d start spending it. You can keep your month-long luxury cruises and high dividend investments, thank you very much: we’ve got mid-century furniture to buy.

Given that our chances of finding said ticket are beyond slim, we were relieved when Here Design announced a collaboration with Thames & Hudson. Mid-Century Modern: Icons of Design explores the work of over 60 designers and design duos through original graphics that straddle the line between playful and informative, from the Eames chairs to the Morris Mini Minor and Gio Ponti bookcase.

An expanded, re-jigged version of the concertina books Thames & Hudson released on the topic back in 2016, the new edition features insightful insights into each object courtesy of writer and editor Frances Ambler.

Explaining why so many of us out there lust after Edward Wormley magazine trees and walnut chairs by Gio Ponti, Here Design’s creative partner Caz Hildebrand tells It’s Nice That, “Mid-century remains a very desirable style of design and still connects with anyone interested in design because it is both beautiful and functional. It pre-dated flatpack furniture which sometimes seems to lack craft and quality whereas mid-century pieces were often well-made and built to last.”

Caz goes on to say that an appreciation of mid-century design is intrinsic to understanding current aesthetics and styles, and still relevant, especially for those interested in design and how to incorporate it into their lives.”

Reflecting the fact that, as Caz says, “Mid-century design heralded a new, simpler, less fussy approach to design, stripping products and furniture back to their simplest essence and using function to inform the design,” Mid-Century Modern functions as a bright, breezy, and easy to parse primer of an important moment in design time.