Notes from Metropolis
By Susan S. Szenasy
Our era requires a whole new way of looking at industrial design.
Observed
Essays
By Martin C. Pedersen
An introduction to our annual special products issue
By Deyan Sudjic
A curious lineage exists between the dapper Frenchman and today’s contemporary stars.
By John Hockenberry
What are the implications for industrial designers if the strongest consumer impulse becomes not buying?
By Niels Diffrient
The master of modern ergonomics talks about the ultimate form of market analysis.
By Bruce Sterling
What’s an industrial designer to do in the midst of economic chaos? Our columnist offers some career advice.
By Karrie Jacobs
Can Amazon’s new digital reader do for print what the iPod did for music?
Productsphere
By Paul Makovsky
Spruce up your backyard with these inventive new outdoor furnishings.
In Production
By Belinda Lanks
Alexander Pelikan updates a DIY concept with high-tech methods and high-end materials.
Materials
By Mason Currey
A porous metal screen elevates the parking garage to a thing of beauty.
Reference Page
By Suzanne LaBarre and Claire Levenson
More information on people, places, and products covered in this issue of Metropolis.
|  | By Peter Hall
The 20th-century definition of “good design” was driven primarily by form. Today the stakes are too high, and the world too complex, for a superficial response.
By Julie Taraska
Eric Chan’s bamboo armchair is not only a tribute to his native country, it’s a primer on the physical properties of one of our most renewable materials.
By Michael Silverberg
Can the Big Three automakers stave off bankruptcy, kick their addiction to gas guzzlers, and create the next generation of cleaner, greener vehicles?
By Kristi Cameron
The Perkins Brailler—which has served as a literary lifeline to the blind community for almost 60 years—gets a long overdue redesign.
By Jennifer Kabat
Once they have left the factory floor and are actually being put to use, products get deployed in myriad unintended ways. It’s a lesson the industry should take to heart.
By Paul Makovsky
In a recent exhibition, Jasper Morrison coined a term for a collection of humble, well-made objects. His own work exhibits the same simplicity of purpose.
By Donald Norman
Creating an evocative user experience involves tapping into our most powerful method of recall and recognition.
By Martin C. Pedersen
The legendary Italian designer—a man of fiery polemics and rigorously pure forms—has produced a remarkable body of work, built surely for the ages.
By Ken Shulman
After years of lagging behind architecture, industrial design begins tackling some of the world’s most vexing problems.
By Kristi Cameron and Caroline Cole
Given the dismal state of the economy, we decided to ask students about their career plans.
By Mason Currey
The mastermind behind Muji’s global brand explains the stripped-down beauty of Japanese design.
By Suzanne LaBarre
The Iraq war has produced thousands of wounded veterans, propelling research into the ultimate ergonomic challenge: the perfect prosthetic.
By Paul Makovsky
Sam Hecht’s intriguing Under a Fiver collection highlights the ingenuity and folly of some of the world’s most inexpensive objects.
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