New Book Formica Forever
New Book Formica Forever

Formica® is 100 years old! To celebrate this centennial, Formica Corporation has published Formica Forever. The book takes us on a lively, information-packed walk through the life of this much-loved material: from its humble beginnings as electrical insulation; to its initial adoption by designers including Donald Deskey in the 1930s; to a golden age ushered in by the post-World War II housing boom; through global expansion in the second half of the twentieth century; to the laminate's inventive uses by designers, artists and architects such as Jasper Morrison, Daniel Buren, Frank Gehry, Laurinda Spear and Zaha Hadid; through to the present, which finds the Formica Group working with young designers to push the limits of this pioneering material. The book's designer, Abbott Miller, has brought together an exuberant array of archival illustrations of original product samples, advertisements and other ephemera.

New Book Formica ForeverThese are anchored by three essays by Phil Patton on the history of Formica Corporation; by Alexandra Lange on Formica Materials and the design world; and by Peter York on the "wipe-clean world" made possible by Formica laminates. Also included are an illustrated chronology and "100 Years of Color and Pattern," a 128-page Formica-by-color sequence, modeled after a 1960s Formica swatch book and punctuated by excerpts from literary works by luminaries such as John Updike, Janet Evanovich, Jhumpa Lahiri and Ian Fleming that refer to Formica materials.

Formica Forever features:

•100 years of worldwide visual assets, including advertisements, logos and products watches organized by color

•Three essays in which notable authors lend perspective to the various Formica Group story-lines that have unfolded over the course of the last century, including: •Global Business Expansion (authored by Phil Patton)

•Modernist Design Legacy (authored by Alexandra Lange)

• Cultural Impact (authored by Peter York)

•Literary excerpts referencing the Formica® brand, which demonstrate both its importance in pop culture as well as the challenges faced by Formica Group to diligently protect the brand

•An appendix featuring six color-coded translations: French, Spanish, Finnish, Thai and Simplified and Traditional Mandarin

Formica Forever

Text by Alexandra Lange, Phil Patton, Peter York

Published by Metropolis Books / Formica Corporartion

$39.95 CDN $39.95 | ISBN 9781938922152

Pbk, 6.5 x 9.5 in., 408 pgs, illustrated throughout

Source: Metropolis Bookds

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