Jonathan Olivares – författare

As seen in Vogue, Thrasher, HYPEBEAST, and The Art NewspaperAn authoritative chronicle of the history and evolution of skateboard design from 1950 to the present dayFrom its starting point as a simple wooden plank to the high-tech models of today, the skateboard has undergone a dramatic evolution. Skateboard explores the golden eras of skateboarding through over 100 boards that brought about turning points in the sport’s history.Across six thematic chapters, organized chronologically by decade, the book focuses on the materials, designs, and events that have defined the art, sport, and culture of skateboarding. Developed in close collaboration with Converse – a brand engrained in skateboarding culture since its inception – Skateboard is packed with information and insights about the people and events that have shaped the sport, with more than 500 illustrations spanning newly studio-shot and historical images that fully capture the skateboard’s technical, makeup and structural development across time.Each board featured in the book – from the 1963 Skee-Skate to the 1989 Mike Vallely pro model – is photographed to scale, allowing the reader to gauge the board’s individual flair and size in relation to its counterparts, and accompanied by engaging text from author, designer, and former skater Jonathan Olivares. Pro models of iconic skaters such as Laura Thornhill, Ray ‘Bones’ Rodriquez, Tony Hawk, Natas Kaupas, and Mike Vallely are also brought to life in a selection of archival action shots.Skateboardfeatures a foreword by Paul 'Professor' Schmitt.

I have had three great love affairs in my creative life: skateboarding, graffiti and industrial design. I started skateboarding when I was twelve, graffiti at sixteen, and industrial design at nineteen. I saw them as unrelated activities or disparate visual cultures, and I – somewhat myopically – felt that to be truly devoted to one, I had to set aside the others. Recently I have started to reconcile my past interests, seeing the connections between them, and how they have all informed my aesthetic values. Jonathan OlivaresJonathan Olivares was born in Boston in 1981 and graduated from Pratt Institute. In 2006 he established his practice, which is based in Los Angeles and works in the fields of industrial, spatial and communication design. His designs engage a legacy of form and technology, and ask to be used rather than observed. His clients include Vitra, Knoll Moros and Kvadrat. Olivares’ work has been published internationally, granted several design awards — including Italy’s Compasso d’Oro – and is included in the permanent design collections of the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Art Museum, The Victoria and Albert Museum, and the Vitra Design Museum.

An in-depth study of the work of German-born industrial designer Richard Sapper, most famous for designs such as the Tizio lamp and the Brionvega radio.Richard Sapper (1932-2015) a German-born designer who was based in Milan most of his working career, is considered one of the most important designers of his generation. Within his lifetime, he received numerous international design accolades, including ten prestigious Compasso d'Oro awards.Sapper developed and designed a wide variety of products, ranging from ships and cars, to computers and electronics as well as furniture and kitchen appliances. His clients included Alessi, Artemide, B&B Italia, Brionvega, FIAT, Heuer, Kartell, Knoll, IBM, Lenovo, Lorenz Milano, Magis, Molteni, Pirelli and many others.This investigation of Sapper's work, based on over forty hours of interviews with the designer Jonathan Olivares, studies his objects, the circumstances that shaped them and the resulting ideals that emerge. The inter-generational conversation explores themes that reoccur throughout Sapper's oeuvre, and which have a particular importance for a younger generation of designers and those with a desire to understand Sapper's work from a fresh perspective.An illustrated timeline, packed with images from Sapper's personal archives, reveals the incredible variety and technical brilliance of his work.Richard Sapper died in Milan on 31 December 2015.Designed by SM Associati, the agency of Marco Velardi from Apartamento magazine, the book opens with an image essay featuring candid commissioned photography by Ramak Fazel.

The story and teachings of one of the world’s most creative design schools, as told by its teachers, alumni, and student projects – the ideal book for educators and students alike, posing the question 'How should design be taught today?'Swiss university ECAL is widely considered to be among the leading art and design institutions of the past two decades. Here, for the first time, ECAL’s teaching methods are revealed to a wider readership. The book poses the question ‘How should design be taught today?’ to select designers, critics, and writers, and the answers highlight the school’s unique approach to design pedagogy: encouraging individual and personal styles, and rigorously pushing them to develop into their most coherent forms. This is the only book to explain ECAL's innovative teaching methods, which encourage students to be business minded as well as creative.