American Style: Classic Product Design
from Airstream to Zippo
San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1987
Photographed and written by Richard Sexton
Foreword by Walter Landor
Book design by Thomas Ingalls + Assoc.
Chronicle Books, 1987
$16.95 retail
Out-of-print: signed, collector copies available directly from the author for $40 each. For inquiries, email Richard Sexton: rsstudio@mac.com.
Synopsis
American Style is Richard Sexton's first book. Conceived in the
mid-1980s, it was published in the spring of 1987. At the time,
Chronicle Books was a small press known exclusively for their
illustrated books. American Style appropriated the format of a product
design showcase to serve an alternative purpose: the crafting of an essay
on popular American culture through its products. Though Sexton was
quite serious about his choices for inclusion and felt that each was a
legitimate example of design, engineering, and marketing excellence,
also important was how each product had influenced and endeared itself
with the American public. Products like Levi jeans, Weber grills,
mid-60s Ford Mustangs, Frisbees, and Harleys are defining elements of
American culture. The essential concept of American Style was to
celebrate these cultural artifacts.
Reviews
Sexton, a photographer, has produced a book that is fun to look at, fun to read, and fun to argue about.
- John Neary, Americana, December 1987
...there is information of value to every American and there is something oddly comforting in going through this catalog of the furniture of our lives.
- American Heritage, December 1987
American Style is an iconographic look at contemporary American culture.
- Peter Turnbull, Scripps Howard News Service
Even without the excellent color and black and white photographs of the well chronicled products, the foreword by Walter Landor and the introduction by Richard Sexton are something all American designers should read. Sexton has done excellent research into the products selected.
- Industrial Designers Society of America Newsletter, Design Perspectives, January 1989