Design 2004: Meet the Titans of Taste

Design 2004 Meet the Titans of Taste
Newsweek devotes its first design issue ever to the celebration of this fresh life-affirming spirit.

Today, the best designers worry as much about the way things feel as the way they look. On the following pages, you'll encounter not just cool new objects but a welcome optimism that's driving both the folks who design the lamp and the folks who switch it on.

Everyday tools pack such high good humor, they put the fun back in function. Cars have shapes you can actually remember. Being new is no longer enough. The best furniture honors its roots-and ours. (What was up with those chairs that were so edgy you could cut yourself on them?) Rooms are illuminated by the inevitable signs of life within. Controlled messiness, we've discovered at last, is far preferable to airless perfection.