Robert V. Novák: Brussels Dream Is a Book

(jiří macek) Brussels Dream is an exhibition mapping Czechoslovak design and lifestyles after the Expo 58 World Exhibition. Today, the accompanying catalogue has been released. It is a great catalogue by Robert V. Novák. A book, actually…

Robert V. Novák has significantly contributed to this instalation in the Municipal Library in Prague. Graphic design and photos are the fundamental parts of the architecture he designed in collaboration with Olgoj Chorchoj. However, Brussels seems to get its proper dimension in the book. Graphic design evoking the essential magazine of that time – Mladý svět and VTM – is not only the cover, but also included as the content of the book. This is no coincidence.
“The era after Brussels was the last style-setting era, in my opinion. Since then nothing has had such a huge impact on life style – fashion, graphic design, furniture design, and architecture – as Brussels. It is a phenomenon whose folk version lingers on. We all know broken bolts of lightning from our pubs and silver rolls,” says Robert V. Novák, author of graphic design of the Brussels Dream book, explaining his perspective on the 1960s in the Disegno program of Radio One.
Talking about the most popular object of that time, he says: “I can still hear the sound of the mixer when I was a child, so it would be the ETA mixer.” The mixer was designed by Stanislav Lachman, the first designer to enter the Czech Grand Design Hall of Fame in 2007. He would be happy. His mixer has become an icon together with a scooter, a Felície, black-rim glasses, and mackintoshes. You can find them all in the book with a story in such a wonderful graphic form that will draw you completely in and cause you to turn on the Framus Five and start cooking in the Remoska pot.

< back