Soft Electronics

Jaro Gielens has spent years collecting the electronics everyone else threw out: coffee grinders, fondue sets, hairdryers, and other home appliances from the 1960s through the 1980s, an era when a kitchen tool doubled as a design statement. Soft Electronics pulls from that collection, one of the largest of its kind, assembled from a period before manufacturing moved overseas and planned obsolescence became the default. The book runs 256 pages, full color, stick-bound, with photography by Studio Sucrow capturing each object's curves and colorways in high gloss. These were appliances designed to be displayed, not tucked into a cabinet.