It’s easy to feel bored with new cars today. Designs driven by safety and emissions standards have reduced many of them to looking like lozenges or home appliances at best. Half the time, if you remove the brand badging, it’s difficult to tell them apart. That’s if you can remember them at all.

Here’s an antidote for the malaise: The Atlas of Car Design ($150, Phaidon) by Jason Barlow and Guy Bird. It’s a symphony of fins, wedges, bubbles, rivets, pop-up headlights and hundreds of air vents located in the most unexpected places. Organized by region, country and timeline, the more than 650 vehicles from 190 automakers and 30 countries—plus associated advertising, studio shots and vintage photography—are pure delight to see.