“Something to Be Desired: Essays on Design”, by Veronique Vienne, is an interesting collection of random topics spanning 198 pages in design, architecture, branding, commercial industry and cultural differences. I’d recommend the book to designers of all sorts as a good distraction from instructional or reference literature, but not as an essential read.

Vienne is a wonderful writer who, as she explains a little bit of her history in this book, quit doing commercial work to pursue writing in the English language. Her writing is very amusing and thought provoking. Through her essays in this book I even got a little history of the design world since the early 1900’s. That history is what makes me appreciate this book the most, her honesty about the industries and her talents secondly and finally, her ability to get the reader’s attention to finish the book.

You’ll find an essay about the Landor company and how Vienne met the original Landor, an essay on how complicated making a perfume can be, history about Condé Nast, thoughts and musings about architectural education, differences on American and European marketing fronts and various other topics. I enjoyed the diversity of topics and how Vienne related them all into one book about design. And although I enjoyed her ability to be honest, a reader must be aware that the book is opinionated and not be taken as factual.

For instance, I distinctly remember Vienne saying that branding only occurs strongly in the United States. That statement is highly opinionated and false. Some of the largest companies in the world have succeeded in growing because of their success in their branding across nations. A wonderful example would be HSBC, the third largest bank in the world across multiple nations. HSBC found a way to succeed in their branding across the globe with their idea of “the world’s local bank”. (You can find more about the HSBC story in the book Brand Simple. Read my review about the book.) One of the most international brands to date though, would be Coca~Cola. When Vienne says this statement she also refers to the European market in that when you want a coke, they ask for a coke. That’s a perfect example of a brand being so strong that refer to the beverage not as a “soda” or “carbonated corn syrup” but as a “coke”, which is short for “Coca~Cola”. Without realizing it, she proves the point that branding is so strong across the globe that a company’s main product is asked for by name every time. In Europe years past it’d be absurd to think a coffee could also be a rich branding venture, but now-a-days you’d be hard-pressed to find a city street without a Starbucks in Europe’s largest cities. Branding, by far, is an international trend that continually grows based upon the economic status and number of manufactured products in that nation. So although Vienne is honest in her statements, sometimes they can be over-exaggerated.

What you’ll find in this book is a great distraction from usual instructional reading and a lot of thought-provoking material in a relatively short read. I’m glad that I read the book and received some history lessons, but most of the reading I can say has no actual use to me. Though, for the price it’s going for online I would definitely pick it up.

Buy it on Amazon used for under a dollar. They rated it 4.5 out of 5 stars.