Book Review: Allegra Hicks

I have been impatiently awating the arrival of Allegra Hicks: An Eye for Design. Most people fall in love with the cover alone, which is eye-catching and interesting, but the contents are also visually stimulating and the words, actually, thought provoking.

On first glance I was almost disappointed to see page after page of few words and many pictures which were not of interiors, which I was expecting. HOWEVER, I began reading the introduction of the book and that is where Allegra Hicks explains her upbringing and how that affected her eye for design. She also speaks of how she finds beauty and inspiration through nature, fabric, culture, etc. Through her explanation of seeking design inspiration, her selection of images and minimal wording not only makes sense, but allows you to understand how and why she sees what she does.

The images are vibrant and the message of the book is beautiful and this book steers in a different direction from a couple of my other favorites that focus on the how to of interiors alone.

And yes, the cover is fun and beautiful.

"Really good designers have no inhibitions about the depth of pleasure that taste can give both to them and to others."

"This idea of art and life being fused harmoniously together has shaped my work. I let designs evolve out of pleasure, out of seeing something that I find inspiring and beautiful."

"I feel that they way one can put all these thoughts together in the most inspiring and concrete way of all is in interiors. A room can define an era as much as the clothes worn in it or those who inhabit it. A harmoniously decorated room embodies the spirit of its owners and creators, like a self portrait. A very well-designed room evokes and involves all the sense, from the visual to the physical. And the scent of a room can be as powerful as its colors and shapes. . . A color, a texture, or a pattern can become very personal, like a Proustian key to a place in one's memory. And the places we have chosen to put together in this book are all touchstones of this kind for me. I can effortlessly see them with my inner eye. They are my constant companions, my inspirations, and are crucial to my work as a designer."

 "I observe everything that is part of our everyday life, searching for the essence of these things. I still work in this way. Out of the observation of the world, there emerges an abstraction, a pattern, which finds its own life once I remove it from its original context."

"As a small child, my parents taught me to look at things. Not just to see the world around me, but to be conscious understanding it. In other words they taught me how to appreciate beauty."