Minimalism DesignSource

Allegra Hicks

Allegra Hicks: An Eye for Design

Allegra Hicks: An Eye for Design examines textile, interior, and the fashion designer's approach to design and luxury--retracing the genesis of her patterns over the past decades of her work. "With her delicate prints inspired by nature and her feminine but energetic hand, Allegra's interiors are as harmonious as they are excessive, imaginative and timeless." --Enric Pastor, editor in chief, Architectural Digest (Spain) Season by season, Allegra Hicks presents her original textile and pattern designs alongside beautiful photography of interiors, landscapes, and unexpected points of nature. She writes in her introduction: "When I began to work as a designer--after finishing my studies, during which time I learned a variety of techniques--I had to find my own vocabulary. And I started by looking at nature. Patterns are always an elaboration of nature, a microcosm that takes off from shapes in the macrocosm. I observed everything is part of our everyday life, searching for the essence of these things. I still work in this way. Out of observation of the world, there emerges an abstraction, a pattern, which finds its own life once I remove it from the original context." Essays on ...

William Davies King

Collections of Nothing

Nearly everyone collects something, even those who don't think of themselves as collectors. William Davies King, on the other hand, has devoted decades to collecting nothing--and a lot of it. With Collections of Nothing, he takes a hard look at this habitual hoarding to see what truths it can reveal about the impulse to accumulate.Part memoir, part reflection on the mania of acquisition, Collections of Nothing begins with the stamp collection that King was given as a boy. In the following years, rather than rarity or pedigree, he found himself searching out the lowly and the lost, the cast-off and the undesired: objects that, merely by gathering and retaining them, he could imbue with meaning, even value. As he relates the story of his burgeoning collections, King also offers a fascinating meditation on the human urge to collect. This wry, funny, even touching appreciation and dissection of the collector's art as seen through the life of a most unusual specimen will appeal to anyone who has ever felt the unappeasable power of that acquisitive fever."What makes this book, bred of a midlife crisis, extraordinary is the way King weaves his autobiography into the account of his ...

Alexa Hampton

The Language of Interior Design

At an early age, Alexa Hampton learned the language of good design, the vocabulary to speak it, and the elements that define it. As the daughter of interior design legend Mark Hampton, she traveled the world by her father's side, touring the great architectural landmarks and discovering beauty, training her eye. Now one of America's most influential designers herself, Alexa Hampton provides a tour of stunning residences from her own portfolio. Eighteen classic spaces illustrate in rich detail the elements that govern cultivated design--contrast, proportion, color, and balance. Among the residences are a landmark 1912 McKim, Mead & White restoration on Fifth Avenue in New York City; an eclectic house by the sea layered in textures, patterns, and colors; a contemporary apartment distinguished by simple geometry and clean lines; and Hampton's own apartment, filled with an exquisite collection of architectural elements. Hampton also explains how she tailored each space to meet her clients' needs while retaining a timeless aesthetic, and she provides design expertise on everything from fabric schemes to the particulars of paint. From a French neoclassical tour de force of architec-ture, ...