The appeal, function, and significance of a design object depend largely on the design of its surface. For example, a Panton Chair with a high-gloss finish may be perceived as more valuable than one with a matte finish; chrome plating can protect or deceive; metallic paint can evoke automobiles or fingernails; and patina might provide clues about an object's age. In addition to conveying such values via visual and tactile stimuli, functional coatings interact with their surroundings. When needed, sur-faces can be endowed with adhesive, repellent, aseptic, or conductive properties. How do designers negotiate this creative potential? "Make up" presents design classics in dialogue with objects by contemporary designers and studios such as Big-Game, Front, Naoto Fukasawa, Alfredo Háberli, Kenya Hara, Jasper Morrison, and Patricia Urquiola. This volume weaves images and texts into an enlightening and attractive reference work on the design of surfaces. Rather than organizing works by technique, the emphasis here is on the sensuous phenomena found at the intersection of aesthetics, haptic experience, function, and meaning. This approach offers new insight into current aesthetic discourse on materiality and decoration within architecture and design, and allows us to question the traditional dichotomies of identity and representation, authentic and fake, valuable and cheap, modern and postmodern.