Professor Penny Sparke is Dean of the Faculty of Design at Kingston University in London. Before this one she has published numerous books on design in general or on particular themes like Japanese Design or Italian design - as well as 'A Century of Design - Design Pioneers of the 20th Century' which sounds like a mammoth work, but isn't.
Actually, her 2002 work about the same century, but focused exclusively on car design and designers, is slightly thicker and contains, it seems, even more pictures than the book about design in general, and is just as superficial. Which, of course, it has to be when such a wide subject is covered in slightly less than 300 pages.
The trouble is, she tries to pack in too much superfluous information. Why does, for instance, Aston Martin design history deserve two pages, when Architects and cars have to settle for four? And why Aston Martin when Bristol isn't mentioned with a single word? I do of course agree that Fiat's legendary engineer Dante Giacosa was a very good intuitive designer, but most would argue that Giorgetto Giugiaro is the more influential. Both get the same attention in this book.
But then, the subjects chosen, and not chosen, does not detract from the fact that the book is an excellent read, and also a delight just to browse. Photo research is generally very well done, even if some of the recent photos may be very familiar and could maybe have been exchanged with relevant styling sketches, but older photos and illustrations are very much to the point, and many of them are very seldom seen. Reproduction and production is also excellent.
This, in addition to a fairly exhaustive index, and an impressive bibliography, will make it easy for those whose interest is awakened, to get on to more exhaustive studies of design and car design. As long as it is understood that this book is a 'Slanted Digest of A Century of Car Design' it is recommended.
