Organized in the chapters Superbitch Bag 1, The Ted Offensive and The Ubiquist, the pages of The Cube, The Stage, The Square and The Market show next to interesting essays the works with great photos on individual works with explaining texts. The well-made book breathes the attitude of Ted Noten on design as it acts as a critique on contemporary life and on the history of jewellery, as well as on the wider context of product design. With photos, sketches, drawings, graphic material, the making-of and the installation of shows the reader is in the theme of his work which challenges convention and processes of habituation, the familiar and the unusual, as Noten says on the Biography pages.
A great book to read and a must for students to learn how each step in design processes is taken seriously. As the back cover text says: “This book illustrates the pitiless precision of each separate design.” As photo coverage by the photographer Johannes Schwartz we follow in this book Noten’s journey through his creative life, shifting role – as Jennifer Allen remarks – from artist to designer, from mediator to free agent telling stories and extricating for us memories to be reworn, retold and recollected.
Angela van der Burght
