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Reinventing the Wheel

By Jessica Helfand

7.5 x 9.5 in; 160 pp ; 100 color photographs, 20 black-and-white photographs
Hardcover
Published in June, 2002
ISBN 1568983387
ISBN13 9781568983387
Sorry, this book is out of print. Please contact alibris.com for limited availability.

$24.95  

Reinventing the Wheel -- As inventive as instructive, information wheels-or volvelles-have been used since the fourteenth century to measure, record, predict, and calculate everything form time and space to military history and recipes. In this fascinating book, designer and critic Jessica Helfand offers and in-depth look at these unique artifacts, which are not only clever and amusing-where else could you dial-in ingredients to concoct "Creamed Oysters and Celery"?-but, Helfand argues, relevant as a model for modern interactive design. From circular mathematical slide rules to Captain Marvel phonetic decoders; from nuclear bomb blast calculators to gestational breeding planners; and from astronomical planispheres to presidential trivia plotters, Reinventing the Wheel demonstrates the astonishing range and remarkable utility of these ingenious "interactive" tools.

Jessica Helfand is partner with William Drenttel in Jessica Helfand/William Drenttel, a design consultancy. She has been collecting wheels for several years.