Arranging Things: A Rhetoric of Object Placement by Leonard Koren treats the placement of objects not as decoration but as a communicational act — a language-like form of aesthetic expression with its own grammar and principles.
About This Book
Originally published in 2003 and now long sought-after, this new edition from Apartamento restores Koren's compact but searching meditation on object placement to wide circulation. Working through eight rhetorical principles, Koren constructs a framework for understanding visual arrangement as meaningful expression — applicable to any configuration of objects, in any space. The text is accompanied by 23 paintings by artist Nathalie Du Pasquier, whose idiosyncratic compositions illuminate the principles at work rather than merely decorating the page. For practitioners in interior design, architecture, and spatial curation, this is a rare text that makes the implicit logic of arrangement explicit, and does so with both rigour and accessibility.
Key Features
- 80 pages of rhetorical analysis and object placement theory paired with original paintings
- 23 paintings by artist Nathalie Du Pasquier
- Published by Apartamento, 2003
What You'll Discover
- Eight rhetorical principles that provide a transferable framework for analysing and constructing any visual arrangement
- How the language of rhetoric reframes object placement as aesthetic communication rather than instinctive or arbitrary choice
- The relationship between Du Pasquier's painted compositions and Koren's theoretical principles — image and text working as mutual demonstration
- Why certain arrangements command attention while others go unnoticed — and the underlying logic that distinguishes them
About the Author
Leonard Koren is a writer and artist whose work consistently investigates the philosophy of aesthetics and design. He is the author of several influential texts on design thinking and visual culture, of which Arranging Things has become one of the most cited and sought-after.
Specifications
- Format: Hardcover
- Pages: 80
- Dimensions: 240 x 285 mm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9788409581528
- Publisher: Apartamento
- Publication Date: 2003
Perfect For: Interior designers and architects interested in the theory of spatial arrangement; design students and academics working at the intersection of aesthetics and communication; collectors of design philosophy texts and artist-illustrated volumes.