IDEO: Masters of Innovation
It's hard to believe that objects such as the Palm V organizer, the neat-squeeze dispenser, and the Polaroid i-zone camera have anything in common. Yet these were all developed at IDEO, a Palo Alto-based engineering and design firm.IDEO: Masters of Innovationgives us page after page of products that are compelling not just in name, but in concept, whether they are prototypes or manufactured products. The text of the book, unfortunately, is more about the firm than the firm's work, and, in keeping with that, the adjective-laden writing does not do much more than lavish praise. Still, the book is mostly composed of photographs of products and the sketches that produced them. Their strength, and the book's clean and beautiful design, transcend the lack of information in the writing, making it a worthy sourcebook of ideas and a good introduction to the work of this remarkable firm.--Juliette Cezzar