In this wonderfully succinct yet expansive A to Z of contemporary design, A is for Authentic. For Deyan Sudjic, director of the Design Museum, authenticity means “an irresistible combination of sincerity with authority”. This quality is embodied in a second-hand parka he owns, “a garment beyond fashion”. Occasionally portentous (“striving for authenticity signals its antithesis”), but always interesting and readable, Sudjic takes his reader through an eclectic mix of topics, from the “chilly neutrality” of the Bauhaus (or “bauhaus” as it was supposed to be written), to the design of the original QWERTY keyboard (“it was as if the machine were revealing an underlying personality”) and the PayPal button: “perhaps the most valuable switch ever made”. He ends up with the zip (or “Zip-er-Up” as it was first called), a “small marvel” of anonymous design. One of the best entries is C is for Chair, which is a masterly survey of the history of contemporary design in a mere 10 pages. It’s a book that cries out for illustrations, but even so this is an essential handbook for the design conscious.

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