book on NZ product design through the years

the Designline "Bullet" bus

the Martin jetpack

The scope of this book is pretty big - the appearance of consumer products originating in NZ from pre-European times to the present.  And, as you might expect, it has a lot of pages, nearly 500, all in colour, although a major gripe is that the format is only 220 x 170 mm rather than A4, so it has smallish type and mostly quite small illustrations - presumably an economy measure by the publisher to save on the paper bill.

It covers a big range of items from household vessels, appliances, tools, toys, apparel, to our field of vehicles.   These don't occupy a lot of the pages, but enough to be of interest to transport enthusiasts.  They include bikes, buggies, boats including the jetboat, the Nova car project, multiple unit train design and Designline buses, a few aircraft and the Martin jet-backpack.

After reading about objects in your particular subjects of interest, it's the sort of book to pick up and read an entry at a time at random rather than attempting to make your way from cover to cover, although that is an option of course.   Don't expect it to cover everything that has been designed and made, it aims to cover the most significant product designs, regardless of their ultimate success. It has a softcover with flaps, available in our shop.