Target: 20 Years of Design for All: How Target Revolutionized Accessible Design Book Review

On September 14, 2019, Target released their 20th anniversary collection of their design partnership. Before the collection hit stores, they released a book called Target: 20 Years of Design for All: How Target Revolutionized Accessible Design. Out of everything Target released to celebrate their 20th anniversary of their design partnerships, this book was by far the one I wanted the most. There are two main reasons why I wanted the book: I already owned everything I wanted from the design partnerships from their original release and, based off previous experience, it’s nearly impossible to obtain everything I wanted without fighting everyone in store or online. Since the book was available in mass quantities, it was easy for me to pick it up without struggling to beat others to buy it.

Now that I owned the book for a few weeks, and it’s been a week since the full collection was released, I wanted to write a review about it. (By the way, this post is not sponsored. And yes, I really did buy this book with my own money because I’m really excited to own it.)The book in store (and online, but I purchased mine in store) came in a plastic wrap that needed to be removed before reading or looking at the book. Once the plastic wrap is off, the book looks like this…

The book is hard bound with a textured cloth cover. It is printed by Rizzoli New York, contains 352 pages, and costs $28.99 at Target.

The table of contents looks like this…

All the design partnerships for the past twenty years are featured in the book. The book divides the design partnerships up based off five styles: Futuristic, maximalist, optimist, romantics, and mavericks.

Since the design partnerships are divided up by styles, they are not in chronological order of when they were released. Target does have all the partnerships listed in chronological order in a pull out time line, located in the back cover of the book…

The book also has an index at the end of the book so if you would like to read each designer partnership in order, you can find which page number each partnership is located on in the book.

Each designer partnership has photographs of pieces from the partnership collection, but not all the sections of the book partnerships have a summary about the partnership, and what inspired each designer. I thought the book would explain each partnership and show every single item in each designer partnership, but the book did not. I’m not very upset about it though, but I am disappointed because I wanted to see all the items from the collections for memory’s sake.

Even though the book did not include all the items in the collections, they did include some of the designs that are part of the fabric designs in the collection, such as this two page layout of the design from the Liberty Design collection…

And this Lilly Pulitzer layout featuring a dress and dish that was part of the collection on Lilly Pulitzer print…

There are also photographs of the items in the collection as used in advertisements, such as this one from Victoria Beckham’s collection…

And there are also collage pages featuring some of the items from specific collections, such as this two page layout from Target x Neiman Marcus…

The photographs are beautiful and very clear. The book does not specific each item’s name from the collection photographs, but there are captions describing who and what the photographs are about, such as the Neiman Marcus with a caption in the lower left hand corner of the right page identifying Karlie Kloss as the model for the ad campaign…

I do wish the book had more captions about each photograph. Although I remember some of the items in the photographs and what they are of, I’m unsure if I will remember them 20 years from now without some sort of description to jog my memory.

As for the descriptions and reflections about each collection, the description of each collection varies depending on the collection. Some collections have a summary about the namesake of the house as well as a description about the collection’s inspiration and why the designer was chosen for the designer partnership. Some of those collections are Michael Graves…

And Zac Posen…

But other collections also has an interview with the designer. One of the collections that had a combination of summary as well as an interviewer with the designer is Sonia Kashuk. There is a summary of her collection as well as an interview with her.

What took me by (happy) surprise was features about fans and fashion lovers that made the designer partnership a success. One of those features is about a fan of Victoria Beckham that talked about her YouTube haul of the Victoria Beckham collection in 2017…

Overall, I’m very happy with the book. Although this book is not what I hoped it would be, I’m not upset about owning it. I love my coffee table books about fashion and design to have plenty of information that I can use as a reference book and this book gives me plenty of information. Even though I wish the book had more information and featured pages showing every design in each collection, it is a great coffee table book for Target lovers and fashion lovers alike. It strikes a great balance for those who want to learn more about the designer partnerships and the style of a book that guests at their house can leaf through while they get snacks or something to drink.

 

Also, in keeping with Target’s design for all philosophy, the book is, without tax or shipping, less than $30.00 USD. I own many coffee books that has less pages, less information, and cost far more than this book does, which makes this book, in my eyes, a huge bargain and a must own for fashion lovers, no matter what their shopping budget is.

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!