The Original: Timeless Product Design Genealogy
About this book
The Original: Timeless Product Design Genealogy, by Naoto Fukasawa, Takahiro Tsuchida, and Kaoru Tashiro, was published by Seigensha in 2024 after the 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT exhibition in Tokyo. The 232-page bilingual Japanese–English hardcover presents about 150 products from the nineteenth century to today, chosen for pioneering originality and arranged so furniture, lighting, tableware, toys, and other everyday goods can be read as a genealogy. Commentaries describe each object's appeal from a contemporary viewpoint and place it in its social background.
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For students, the book is a compact design-history textbook organised by objects rather than by movements alone. It is useful for tracing how an archetype appears, is copied, and remains in use, and for discussing what originality means in product design. On a university reading list it belongs with design history, Japanese Design, and product design surveys.
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