You don’t need to board a rocket to feel the thrill of the Space Age. Sometimes, it’s right there in the smooth curve of a fiberglass chair or the glossy shell of a 1960s radio that looks like it could double as a moon rover. In Space Age Design: Icons of the Space Age Design Movement, author Peter Martin invites us on a visual journey through the optimism, eccentricity, and future-forward imagination that defined an era where anything seemed possible.

The book is a feast of bubble domes, swooping silhouettes, and pop colors—all pulled from a time when the world was looking skyward and dreaming big. From Eero Aarnio’s Ball Chair to the sleek lines of the 1964 Ford Aurora, Martin maps a constellation of objects that fused technology, playfulness, and fantasy into everyday life. The aesthetic? Think Stanley Kubrick meets The Jetsons, with a dash of Barbie’s Dreamhouse.

But Martin’s book is more than just eye candy. It captures the cultural electricity of the 1950s through 1970s, when design became a form of utopian thinking. As the Space Race lit up imaginations across the globe, everything from furniture and fashion to appliances and architecture got a cosmic upgrade. Homes had modular layouts. TVs came in circular casings. Even teapots were reimagined with curves that looked ready for zero gravity.

What I love about this book is how it balances the retro kitsch we associate with Space Age style with the serious design principles behind it. These weren’t just funky forms—they were reflections of a genuine belief in progress. Designers were rethinking how we live, how we move, how we gather, all with the future in mind. Materials like plastic, aluminum, and Plexiglas weren’t just trendy—they were symbols of a new world in the making.

Visually, Space Age Design is stunning. Each page pops with archival photos, product spreads, and original advertising that feels as fresh as it is nostalgic. The book’s layout plays with white space and curvature in a way that mirrors its subject matter: dynamic, fluid, and forward-looking. It’s easy to get lost in the details, whether you’re admiring a pod-shaped sofa or a toy robot that promised to revolutionize playtime.

Martin also nods to the resurgence of these aesthetics today—from collectible markets and design retrospectives to the influence on brands like Apple and IKEA. There’s a real conversation here about how past visions of the future keep looping back into our present. Maybe that’s the true magic of Space Age design: it never really landed. It keeps orbiting.

Space Age Design doesn’t just chronicle an aesthetic—it celebrates an attitude. One that said yes to invention, yes to optimism, yes to the strange beauty of imagining what life could look like if we let go of gravity, just for a little while.