This work captures the essence of the style which swept across the globe in the 1920s and 1930s, altering the skylines of cities from Shanghai to Rio and adding an exotic, vibrant edge to everything from cinema and fashion to ocean liners and automobiles. It explores the visual language of the style, juxtaposing source material and iconic Deco pieces to show how designers borrrowed from the cultures of Ancient Egypt, Meso-America, the oriental East and Africa and from the man-made world of skyscrapers and machines to develop a new and distinctive iconography.