»Phaidon Design Classics

I finally got my paws on the "special edition" of the Phaidon Design Classics ,a href="http://www.phaidon.com/designclassics/" title="Offsite: Phaidon Design Classics">three-volume compendium of industrial and product design. Incredibly, indelibly, unbeliveably ironic that a book on design comes in such a backwards, poorly-design case. The designer Konstantin Gricic is to blame for this: "The collection comes in a specifically commissioned carrying unit exclusively designed by Konstantin Gricic."

Apparently one needs to destroy the case in order to read the books! On the way home, I used the plastic handle to carry the books by the carrier, rather than support them from beneath. The carrier completely fell apart: the plastic dowels holding the top and bottom separated from the base, and the books almost fell out.

Surprisingly and embarassingly poor product design. Damned thing is not even recyclable.