Jasper Morrison

The Hard Life

By what means did so much beauty and ingenuity appear in articles of everyday rural life in Portugal? How did the shape of these objects balance necessity and formal perfection so skillfully? The Hard Life by Jasper Morrison is a book of photographs taken by Morrison of objects in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon, Portugal.

This book explores the effect that generations of trial and error, individual craftsmanship and an instinct to carve out the essential with the slenderest of means brought to objects that made life both livable and meaningful to a pre-industrial society. The objects photographed and described by designer Jasper Morrison may be appreciated both for their beauty and for the example they set of design at its purest.

The Hard Life is a continuation of Morrison’s celebration of the ordinary and offers a new perspective on his design philosophy. It’s an homage to the beauty of ancient commodities.

By what means did so much beauty and ingenuity appear in articles of everyday rural life in Portugal? How did the shape of these objects balance necessity and formal perfection so skillfully? The Hard Life by Jasper Morrison is a book of photographs taken by Morrison of objects in the collection of the National Museum of Ethnology in Lisbon, Portugal.

This book explores the effect that generations of trial and error, individual craftsmanship and an instinct to carve out the essential with the slenderest of means brought to objects that made life both livable and meaningful to a pre-industrial society. The objects photographed and described by designer Jasper Morrison may be appreciated both for their beauty and for the example they set of design at its purest.

The Hard Life is a continuation of Morrison’s celebration of the ordinary and offers a new perspective on his design philosophy. It’s an homage to the beauty of ancient commodities.

Author(s): Jasper Morrison

Design: Jasper Morrison and Integral Lars Müller

22 × 30 cm, 8 ½ × 11 ¾ in

208 pages, 188 illustrations

hardback

2017, 978-3-03778-514-0, English
CHF 49.00

Jasper Morrison

Born in London in 1959, Jasper Morrison works as a designer and travels between London, Paris and Tokyo. His designs are produced in Europe, the USA and Japan by leading manufacturers of furniture, lighting, electronics, shoes, wristwatches and more. He has also published a number of books including A World Without Words, Super Normal (co-authored with Naoto Fukasawa), Everything but the Walls and A Book of Things at Lars Müller Publishers.