With a trailblazing career that spans more than seventy-five years and continues to this day, and recent creations that include a Martini glass featured in Bombay Sapphire ads and vases for Klein-Reid, Eva Zeisel stands at the forefront of modern designers. Her works are a reflection of a profoundly independent vision and are featured in the permanent collections of museums throughout the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art.


In this richly illustrated, full-color book, the designer for the first time communicates the ideas that have guided and inspired her. Each aspect of the design process is analyzed--variety, spontaneity, line, contour, shading, and texture, among others--to show how the best works are formed through a dialog between creator and object, the result of which is an environment that is pleasurable, comfortable, and elegant. The language in which this dialog is conducted, "the language of things," is one in which Zeisel's fluency is unparalleled. Her thoughts, read alongside the photos of her stunning creations and those that have inspired her, make this book indispensable to every enthusiast of art, design, and ceramics.



Eva Zeisel was born in Budapest in l906 and emigrated to the United States in 1938. She has received a senior award from the National Endowments for the Arts, and was the subject of a touring exhibition sponsored by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and the Musee des Arts Decoratifs de Montreal. She lives in New York City.