George Nelson’s influential manifesto, published in 1977 by American furniture producer Herman Miller, was nothing less than a guide to better recognize, evaluate, and understand the objects and landscapes of the manmade world. There was hardly an architect or designer who learned his trade in the 1970s that didn’t come across the holistic work. George Nelson’s How to See will be reissued by the Phaidon publishing house on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, and the refresher comes just in time: For what could our eyes, tired of the social media brigade, need more than a reminder that at each corner of the world lies visual adventures — and not merely for the Instagrammers. George Nelson’s book was reworked and ‘restored’ with great sensitivity by designer Michael Bierut.

Video: Herman Miller