Recommended Reading: A Book List on Graphic Design

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  Damiani Electrical Banana: Masters of Psychedelic Art From advertising and fashion to music and film, the psychedelic aesthetic defined the look of the 1960s. And yet neither the true scope of psychedelic art nor its key practitioners have ever been the subject of a thorough overview. Electrical Banana is the first definitive examination of the international language of psychedelia, focusing on the most important practitioners in their respective fields. Compiling hundreds of unseen images plus exclusive interviews and essays, it revises and expands the common perception of psychedelic art, revealing it to be more innovative, compelling and revolutionary than is usually acknowledged. Electrical Banana documents the great virtuosos of psychedelic art: men and women whose work combines avant-garde design with highly sophisticated image-making. Launching a million Day-glo dreams, the artists include: Marijke Koger, the Dutch artist responsible for dressing the Beatles; Mati Klarwein, who painted the cover for Miles Davis’ Bitches Brew; Keiichi Tanaami, the Japanese master of . . . . [see book details]

  Foreword by Paul McCartney.Text by Norman Hathaway, Dan Nadel. Pbk, 9.5 x 10.25 in. / 208 pgs / illustrated throughout. Publication Date: 2/29/2012 List Price: US $39.95

  Walker Art Center Graphic Design: Now In Production Graphic design has broadened its reach dramatically over the past decade, expanding from a specialized profession to a widely deployed skill. The rise of user-generated content, new methods of publishing and systems of distribution, and the wide dissemination of creative software have opened up new opportunities for design. More designers are becoming producers--authors, publishers, instigators and entrepreneurs--actively employing their creative skills as makers of content and shapers of experiences. Featuring work produced since 2000, Graphic Design: Now in Production explores the worlds of design-driven magazines, newspapers, books and posters; the entrepreneurial spirit of designer-produced goods; the renaissance in digital typeface design; the storytelling potential of film and television titling sequences; and the transformation of raw data into compelling information narratives. The catalogue features important original essays by leading designers that tackle themes such as the changing roles of reading and writing within the context of new technologies and self-publishing; the nature . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Andrew Blauvelt, Ellen Lupton. Text by Ian Albinson, Rob Giampietro, Jeremy Leslie, Alexander Ulloa, Armin Vit. Contributions by Steven Heller, Peter Hall. Pbk, 9 x 12 in. / 240 pgs / illustrated throughout. Publication Date: 11/30/2011 List Price: US $40.00

  Metropolis Books Green Patriot Posters This book brings together the strongest contemporary graphic design currently promoting sustainability and the fight against climate change. Collectively, essays by Michael Bierut, Steven Heller, Edward Morris and Dmitri Siegel look back in time to posters and ideas that set the stage for the current movement (World War Two posters, images of international cooperation, posters from the environmental movement in the 1960s and 1970s) and address the state of the poster: what is the efficacy and mode of distribution for purposeful, message-oriented graphic images today? Thomas L. Friedman advocates for "a redefined, broader and more muscular green ideology that can be the basis of a new unifying political movement for the twenty-first century." The bulk of the book is given over to a compilation of the best posters on the theme of sustainability by a variety of contemporary artists (both emerging and established), among them Shepard Fairey, Michael Bierut, DJ Spooky, . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel. Text by Michael Bierut, Thomas L. Friedman, Steven Heller, Edward Morris, Dmitri Siegel, Morgan Clendaniel. Pbk, 9.5 x 12.5 in. / 128 pgs / 100 color / 50 tear-out posters. Publication Date: 11/30/2010 List Price: US $30.00

  Four Corners Books Beauty Is in the Street A Visual Record of the May '68 Paris Uprising In May 1968, thousands of workers and students took to the streets of Paris, provoking an unprecedented wave of strikes, walkouts and demonstrations. The confrontations between police and protesters led to a general strike of eleven million workers that brought the country to a virtual standstill and nearly toppled Charles de Gaulle's government. The faculty and student body of the Ecole des Beaux Arts were among the strikers, and a number of the students met spontaneously in the college's lithographic department to produce the first poster of the revolt, which bore the declaration Usines, Universités, Union” (“Factories and universities unite,” loosely translated). From this initiative was born the Atelier Populaire (or popular workshop” ), a collective of print shops that produced hundreds of posters to encourage the protestors and to report on police brutality. These posters included many of the often Situationist-inspired mottos for which May '68 is remembered today, such . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Johan Kugelberg, Philippe Vermès. Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 272 pgs / 200 color / 100 b&w. Publication Date: 8/31/2011 List Price: US $40.00

  NAi/D.A.P. Distributed Art Publishers Otto Neurath: The Language of the Global Polis The Austrian sociologist Otto Neurath was a seminal figure of twentieth-century modernist thought. Member of the Vienna Circle, founder of the Museum of Society and Economy, inventor of the famous Isotype pictorial system and champion of the Unity of Science movement, Neurath espoused a vision of a "global polis" that put him in contact with the leading intellectuals, architects and artists of his time, from Adolf Loos to Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, from Sigfried Giedion to Le Corbusier, from graphic designer Gerd Arntz to architect and urban designer Cornelis van Eesteren. From 1931onwards he collaborated with the International Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM) and its chief exponents-Cornelis van Eesteren,Sigfried Giedion, Le Corbusier and Laszlo Moholy-Nagy-to construct an international language of urban planning and design. His close relationship with bibliographer Paul Otlet and the "cité mondiale" project led to an engagement with issues of international communication. Now in paperback, The Language of the Global . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Nader Vossoughian. Pbk, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 176 pgs / 89 color. Publication Date: 5/31/2011 List Price: US $35.00

  RM/Museo Valenciano de la ilustración y la modernidad Mexico Illustrated 1920-1950 The most important study ever published on modern illustrated books in Mexico, Mexico Illustrated 1920-1950 explores the illustration and poster work of great Mexican artists from the first half of the twentieth century, offering a selection of the finest illustrations from books, magazines and posters published in this era. Reflecting the range of aesthetic, pedagogical, political and propagandistic trends that held sway in Mexico at the time, it contains works relating to the Mexican Revolution, illustrations made for socialist writings and art drawn from novels and children's books, along with a great many contributions to magazines that oscillated between the avant garde and the construction of a new vision of Mexico. Among the artists included here are some of Mexico's greatest artistic talents--Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco, Rufino Tamayo, David Alfaro Siqueiros--along with lesser-known artists such as Ramón Alva de la Canal, Jean Charlot, Miguel Covarrubias, Dr. Atl, Gabriel Fernández Ledesma . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Salvador Albiñana, Juan M. Bonet, Deborah Dorotinsky, Marina Garone. Hbk, 9.75 x 12 in. / 288 pgs / 240 color / 47 b&w. Publication Date: 2/28/2011 List Price: US $65.00

  Valiz ABC of De Designpolitie ABC of the Designpolice The Dutch firm Designpolitie (Richard van der Laken and Pepijn Zurburg) is celebrated for its fresh, deceptively simple and direct approach to graphic design, which often implements bright color and sans-serif typeface in a lively and fun style. Among other projects, Designpolitie ("Design Police") is behind the review column Gorilla in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant, in which the team reacts to current affairs with word-and-image graphics. ABC of De Designpolitie is an index of Designpolitie's reflections on design, catalogued in humorously alphabetical order (with failed projects filed under "Damn," or an account of their simplified methods under "Rocket Science"). More of a workbook, a process book or an inspirational resource than a portfolio, ABC collates Designpolitie projects (implemented and otherwise), schemes, photographs, musings and articles in a style that is both serious and replete with irony and self-mockery--a natural extension of the firm's own ethos. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Emily King, Louise Schouwenberg. Hardback, 6 x 8.5 in. / 480 pgs / 800 color / 50 b&w. Publication Date: 11/1/2008 List Price: US $45.00

  JRP|Ringier Cover Art by H5: This Is the End Since the mid-1990s, the French design team H5 has produced numerous record covers and visuals for both small and large labels, developing its ethos in tandem with the development of French electronic music, particularly bands associated with the "French Touch" such as Air and Alex Gopher. Ludovic Houplain and Antoine Bardou-Jacquet (H5's founders, later joined by Hervé de Crécy) started out by making sleeves for their friends Etienne de Crécy and Alex Gopher, gravitating towards the use of typography instead of photography and an economical two-color aesthetic. This is the End: Cover Art by H5 focuses entirely on the company's music design, and includes several essays and an interview. It comes with a vinyl EP specially produced for this publication, with contributions from Alex Gopher, Air and de Crécy & Darkel. . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Adrian Shaughnessy. Text by Yorgo Tloupas, Alexis Bernier. Pbk, 10.75 x 10.75 in. / 244 pgs / 194 color / 107 b&w / Vinyl Record. Publication Date: 8/31/2009 List Price: US $55.00

  PictureBox For the Love of Vinyl: The Album Art of Hipgnosis: Storm Thorgerson & Aubrey Powell Hipgnosis was the biggest and best graphic design firm for the biggest and best bands of the 60s and 70s. Formed by Storm Thorgerson and Aubrey Powell in London in 1968 (with the addition of Throbbing Gristle's Peter Christopherson in 1974), Hipgnosis specialized in creative photography for the music business, making classic album covers for bands and musicians like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Electric Light Orchestra, Genesis, 10cc, Yes, Peter Gabriel, The Gods, Black Sabbath, Rainbow, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett, Scorpions and Styx, among others. Over the course of its 15 year existence, Hipgnosis produced timeless rock iconography--everybody knows at least one Hipgnosis cover, thanks to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon. The firm's inventive takes on the themes or titles of any given album opened up a new visual language in album cover art, one in which theatrical tableaux, trick photography and logo design played notable roles. For the . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Nick Mason, Peter Blake, Paula Scher. Hardback, 9.25 x 12.25 in. / 224 pgs / 450 color. Publication Date: 12/1/2008 List Price: US $45.00

  Bongout Ghanavision Hand-Painted Film Posters from Ghana Against today's copyrighted-to-the-gills Hollywood movie industry, the wacky world of Ghanian movie posters comes as a joyous relief, with its absolute lack of respect for not only the directors and even stars of Hollywood, but especially the official iconography that accompanies such films. With the arrival of the video cassette in West Africa in the 1980s, a type of mobile movie house was born, typically consisting of a TV, a VCR, an electrical generator and a car, sometimes presenting blockbusters, sometimes underrated and nearly-forgotten movies, most of them Hollywood-produced. To promote these screenings, artists were commissioned to handpaint posters, often with only a few stills to guide them as to the movie's subject, and with a completely free hand as to the posters' content--they were at liberty to add or change scenes, toss in a few mutant monsters, anything to catch the prospective customer's eye. By applying this basic rule of . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Thibaut de Ruyter. Hbk, 6.75 x 9.25 in. / 68 pgs / illustrated throughout. Publication Date: 8/31/2009 List Price: US $25.00

  Edizioni Corraini How to Break the Rules of Brand Design in 10+8 Easy Exercises For many years, the concept of "branding" involved the creation of a distinct graphic element that could be produced on everything involved with a particular brand. This cheeky handbook, produced under the welcome influence of the late Italian master of cheerful aesthetic subversion, Bruno Munari, proves that it is possible to create a more natural and elastic brand identity by thinking about how an object is produced, rather than focusing single-mindedly on a single, memorable graphic form. The new brand, as proposed by authors Stefano Caprioli and Pietro Corraini, will be friendlier and less rigid. Certainly the exercises proposed in this volume exude humor and intelligence. For example, "Draw a Square with Your Eyes Closed" instructs: "Draw a square of any size with a soft pencil, making sure to take the pencil off the paper after completing each side. It is advised to remove the pencil for at least five seconds, . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Beppe Finessi. Text by Stefano Caprioli, Pietro Corraini. Pbk, 4.5 x 6.5 in. / 88 pgs / 33 b&w. Publication Date: 3/1/2009 List Price: US $15.00

  IdN IdN 15th Anniversary Edition What Do You Love? Launched in 1994 by Laurence Ng, and morphing quickly from a "how-to" magazine tutoring its readership in the intricacies of new design technologym, into a "what to" magazine aiming to inspire and reflect the booming community around it, IdN is at the forefront of contemporary design. Today it is well established as a global meeting place for designers. The IdN 15th Anniversary Edition: What Do You Love? is a massive 452-page hardcover featuring specially commissioned work from over 250 of the highly talented creators who have collaborated with the magazine over the last decade and a half, sharing their thoughts on the past; and their visions of the future. These include Aiden Kelly, Baku Maeda, Creative Time, Exopolis, Head Gear Animation, Jon Burgerman, Live Evil Empire, Lost in Space, Mark Jenkins, Musa Collective, Neubau, Nikosono, Onesize, Paris Hair, Pomme Chan, Shilo, Tomato, Slingshot London, Sweden Graphics, The Designers Republic, Via Grafik, . . . . [see book details]

  Hbk, 9.5 x 7.75 in. / 452 pgs / illustrated throughout / DVD (NTSC only). Publication Date: 7/31/2010 List Price: US $59.95

  Fuel Publishing Match Day: Official Football Programmes Post-war to Premiership This collection of covers of official UK football programs--in American, that's soccer programs--includes every league club active from the end of World War II to the start of the Premiership (1992), which comes to more than 100 teams from across the United Kingdom. It covers the golden age of British football, a time of local pride and growing success, of "Roy of the Rovers" good feeling, all of which is reflected in period designs, colorful graphics and charming illustrations, far from the glossy corporate memorabilia that fans accumulate today. These pieces are rare and highly collectible, and the majority are reproduced in this book for the first time, but more importantly for most readers, they offer an armchair anthropologist's trip through 1960s, 70s and 80s England. By Bob Stanley, who worked as a freelance music writer with NME and Melody Maker before forming the group Saint Etienne, and with an introduction . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Paul Kelly and Bob Stanley. Introduction by Brian Glanville. Paperback, 8.75 x 12.75 in. / 208 pgs / 360 color. Publication Date: 10/15/2006 List Price: US $55.00

  Damiani Mike Mills: Graphics Films Graphics Films is the first retrospective monograph on one of the hardest-working men in contemporary creative culture. For more than 15 years, Mike Mills' works in the fields of design and film have determined the visual landscape of our times. Graphics Films is a painstakingly produced document of Mills' career to date, including many never-before-seen examples of his works in graphic design, installation, publications and film projects. Past projects by Mills include music videos for Air ("Sexy Boy"), Blonde Redhead ("Top Ranking"), Yoko Ono ("Walking on Thin Ice") and Bran Van 3000 ("Afrodiziak") and album cover designs for the Beastie Boys (the Root Down EP), Sonic Youth (Washing Machine), Air (Moon Safari and Kelly Watch the Stars) and others. He has designed graphics and textiles for Marc Jacobs and created the identity for X-Girl Clothing, and has exhibited his unique graphic installations worldwide, with solo shows at Andrea Rosen Gallery in . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Aaron Rose. Hbk, 9.75 x 12.75 in. / 176 pgs / 100 color. Publication Date: 2/1/2009 List Price: US $49.95

  FUEL Publishing Own Label Sainsbury’s Design Studio 1962-1977 When designer Peter Dixon joined the Sainsbury's Design Studio in 1962, he ignited a remarkable revolution in packaging. The British supermarket was developing its distinctive range of own label” products, and Dixon's designs for the line catapulted Sainsbury's to the graphic forefront: simple, stripped down, creative, and completely different from what had gone before. The striking modernity of the new Sainsbury's look pushed the boundaries of high-street graphic design, reflecting a period full of postwar optimism. It also helped build Sainsbury's into a brand giant, the first real British super” market of the time. Produced in collaboration with the Sainsbury family and the Sainsbury Archive in London, Own Label examines and celebrates this paradigm shift that redefined packaging design. An essential book for graphic designers and those interested in cultural nostalgia from the 1960s and 1970s, Own Label offers a unique historical insight into how the foods we ate were packaged . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Damon Murray, Stephen Sorrell. Text by Jonny Trunk, Emily King. Pbk, 7.25 x 8.75 in. / 208 pgs / 300 color / 107 b&w. Publication Date: 12/31/2011 List Price: US $32.95

  Silvana Editoriale Posters: Travelling Around Italy Through Advertising 1895-1960 In the late nineteenth century up until very recently, for the middle classes, the famous and the wealthy alike, an extended tour of Italy was a necessary part of a cultural education. Italy's cuisine, its landscapes, its countless art capitals, archeological ruins and its tradition of hospitality made the country a favored destination for an exclusive class of tourist. To alert this lucrative market--as well as Italians themselves--to the many attractions of the Beautiful Country, the message was laid on with graphic radiance in the print culture of the times, through posters, flyers, brochures and picture magazines. Graphic design for tourism advertising was often commissioned from the leading illustrators of the period, from Duilio Cambellotti to Leonetto Cappiello, from Marcello Dudovich to Franz Lenhart, from Gino Boccasile to Mario Puppo. This volume draws on the collection of Achille Bertarelli to tell the story of Italian tourism's rich graphic design heritage in . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Dario Cimorelli, Anna Villari. Clth, 10 x 12 in. / 288 pgs / 250 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2011 List Price: US $75.00

  The Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture Paul Rand: Modernist Designer We know Paul Rand through the stunning advertising, editorial, publishing, institutional, identity, corporate and intellectual legacy he left behind. A major figure at the epicenter of twentieth-century design, his impact on modern communication practice and theory was unparalleled. For him, Modernism was a way of life and a form of belief, not a style. Like his European colleagues, he understood Modernism's tenets as a something that could be employed to better human experience in the modern world. Whether he was designing for the American Broadcasting Company, IBM Corporation or United Parcel Service, or teaching at Cooper Union or Pratt Institute, Rand gave life to his art, definition to graphic design and a reputation for quality to a discipline that needed it. His was an early voice in proposing the essence of Modernist theories in visual communication, and he was both ruthlessly pragmatic and startlingly visionary. His passion for his subject and . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Franc Nunoo-Quarcoo. Texts by Derek Birdsall, Ivan Chermayeff, Shigeo Fukuda, Milton Glaser, Diane Gromeala, Jessica Helfand, Steven Heller, Armin Hoffmann, Takenobu Igharashi, John Meada, Richard Sapper, Wolfgang Weingart and Massimo Vignelli. Paperback, 6 x 9 in. / 334 pgs / 200 color. Publication Date: 11/2/2003 List Price: US $45.00

  JRP|Ringier Peter Saville: Estate 1-127 The now legendary cover designs for the Joy Division album Unknown Pleasures (1979) and the New Order single "Blue Monday" (1983) brought the Manchester graphic designer Peter Saville immediate international renown, with their somber yet lush Modernist edge. Saville was the cofounder of Factory Records, and was single-handedly responsible for its unique house style, so widely imitated, and so entirely Saville's own. Outside of the Factory stable he has produced covers for, among others, Patti Smith, Roxy Music, Wham!, Suede and Pulp, and has also collaborated on many architectural, fashion and interior design ventures, including the famous Manchester nightclub the Haçienda, and collaborations with Nick Knight, David Chippenfield and Stella McCartney. His sensibility combines unerring elegance with a remarkable ability to facture imagery that epitomizes and defines a cultural moment. Based on his solo exhibition at the Migros Museum in Zurich, which also traveled to the ICA London, this book surveys . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Heike Munder. Text by Sean Snyder, Wolfgang Tilmans, Sarah Morris, Michael Bracewell. Paperback, 8 x 10.5 in. / 272 pgs./ 240 color Publication Date: 10/1/2007 List Price: US $50.00

  Adelita Reasons To Be Cheerful: The Life and Work of Barney Bubbles More than a quarter century after his death, graphic design genius Barney Bubbles remains a powerful influence on contemporary artists. Bubbles is perhaps best known for the legendary record album covers and posters he created for Hawkwind, in styles ranging from Art Deco to Constructivist to black light/acid trip. His art also graces the covers of albums by Billy Bragg, Elvis Costello (the stampeding elephants on Armed Forces are his work, as is the camera-wielding Costello of This Year's Model), The Damned, Depeche Mode, Ian Dury and Nick Lowe, and he designed as well for Sir Terence Conran and underground magazines Oz and Friends. When the first edition of Reasons to Be Cheerful was released in 2009, reviewers pronounced it "joyous, playful and rich in meaning" and Mojo named this marvelous compendium its Book of the Year. This first edition quickly sold out, making this reissue a welcome opportunity to see . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Paul Gorman. Foreword by Malcolm Garrett. Introduction by Billy Bragg. Text by Paul Gorman, Peter Saville. Interview by Art Chantry. Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 224 pgs / 550 color / 70 b&w. Publication Date: 2/28/2011 List Price: US $49.95

  FUEL Publishing Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia Volume III This volume of drawings and photographs completes the Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopaedia trilogy. Danzig Baldaev’s unparallelled ethnographic achievement, documenting more than 3,000 tattoo drawings, was made during a lifetime working as a prison guard. His recording of this esoteric world was reported to the KGB, who unexpectedly supported him, realizing the importance of being able to establish facts about convicts by reading the images on their bodies. The motifs depicted represent the uncensored lives of the criminal classes, ranging from violence and pornography to politics and alcohol. A medieval knight is surrounded by the severed heads of his enemies, a naked woman simultaneously services a man and two dwarfs, a crying President Gorbachev grips a human bone between sabre-like fangs, a group of angels drink vodka with God on a cloud--the meanings of these arresting images are explained to the uninitiated eye. Sergei Vasiliev’s graphic photographs show the grim reality of . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Alexander Sidorov. Hbk, 5 x 8 in. / 400 pgs / 350 b&w. Publication Date: 11/1/2008 List Price: US $32.95

  JRP|Ringier Slavs and Tatars Presents Molla Nasreddin Published between 1906 and 1930, and with a readership that stretched from Morocco to Iran, Molla Nasreddin is perhaps the most important Muslim magazine of the twentieth century. Throughout its beautifully printed pages, issues of social, cultural and political relevance were debated, embellished with cartoons and illustrations of marvelous graphic power. Under the editorship of Jalil Mammadguluzadeh, the magazine created anew the complex identity of the Caucasus region, attacking the Muslim clergy and the colonial policies of the U.S. and Europe, while arguing for democratic and educational reform and women's rights. This thoroughly researched volume, itself superbly designed in its presentation of this archival material, gathers a selection of iconic covers, clever illustrations and witty caricatures from Molla Nasreddin, curated by the Eurasian artist collective Slavs and Tatars. It reveals a rich world of print culture hitherto unseen in the west. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Slavs and Tatars. Pbk, 9.5 x 11 in. / 208 pgs / 218 color. Publication Date: 7/31/2011 List Price: US $37.50

  Trilce Ediciones Soy Cuba: Cuban Cinema Posters From After the Revolution Soy Cuba presents a selection of the finest film posters produced in Cuba from the 1950s until the early 1970s. Famous around the world for their brash originality and bright, clear graphic sensibility, Cuban cinema posters of the Revolutionary era are held in as high esteem as the moodier and more abstract Polish film posters of the same era. Susan Sontag devoted a good part of her noted 1970 essay, Posters: Advertisement, Art, Political Artifact, Commodity” to the particularly satisfying paradox they present. The Cubans make posters to advertise culture in a society that seeks not to treat culture as an ensemble of commodities-events and objects designed, whether consciously or not, for commercial exploitation. Then the very project of cultural advertising becomes somewhat paradoxical, if not gratuitous. And indeed, many of these posters do not really fill any practical need. A beautiful poster made for the showing in Havana of, say, . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Stephen Heller. Text by Carole Goodman, Claudio Sotolongo. Pbk, 9.5 x 13.5 in. / 320 pgs / 272 color. Publication Date: 10/31/2011 List Price: US $32.00

  Soul Jazz Books Studio One Records Original Cover Art of the Legendary Label As iconic as Motown was to soul, or Blue Note for jazz, the legendary Jamaican reggae label Studio One was the creation of one of music's greatest impresarios, Clement Sir Coxsone” Dodd. Throughout the 1950s, Dodd's Downbeat Soundsystem was the most important sound system in downtown Kingston's burgeoning dancehall scene, fighting off the competition of Duke Reid, Tom the Great Sebastian and others. Dodd began producing his own records in the late 1950s and in 1963, the year after Jamaican Independence, he launched Studio One. Once described by Chris Blackwell as the University of Reggae,” Studio One is by far the most important record label in the history of reggae music, its artists comprising an A-Z of Jamaican music: it was there that Bob Marley and the Wailers, Horace Andy, Alton Ellis, Freddie McGregor, The Skatalites, Marcia Griffiths, Burning Spear, The Heptones, Toots and the Maytals and many more artists became . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Stuart Baker. Hbk, 12.25 x 12.25 in. / 216 pgs / 200 color. Publication Date: 11/30/2011 List Price: US $49.95

  NAi Publishers Thonik: I Am Your Type Founded by Thomas Widdershoven and Nikki Gonnissen, Thonik is an award-winning Dutch design studio specializing in visual communication through graphic design. In 2008 the studio attracted international admiration with its design for the visual identity of the Architecture Biennale in Venice; that same year, the studio's first retrospective was held at the Shanghai Art Museum. Famed for its adventurous exploration of a wide array of media, from furniture to ad campaigns, Thonik has created a catchy signature style: clean, bright and bold, with vivid colors and a strong conceptual impact. Working with organizations as diverse as Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, the Venice Architecture Biennale, the Amsterdam Public Library, Triodos Bank and the Dutch Socialist Party (SP), Thonik regards every project as an opportunity for experimentation. Thonik: I Am Your Type focuses on the studio's innovative and provocative approach, highlighting and analyzing signature projects and presenting design stances that are sure . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Hugues Boekraad. Pbk, 6.75 x 9.5 in. / 256 pgs / 250 color. Publication Date: 6/30/2012 List Price: US $50.00

  NAi Publishers Web Aesthetics How Digital Media Affect Culture and Society The rise of social media and digital networks has been so dizzyingly swift that any cogent appraisal of the aesthetics of the web has, until now, been almost impossible to propose. A much-anticipated book, Web Aesthetics sets aside current debate about digital culture by directly addressing this neglected facet of the discipline. Here, the Italian media theorist and freelance curator Vito Campanelli examines social networks, peer-to-peer networks and our contemporary "remix culture," tracing their cultural precedents and explicating an aesthetics based on digital social exchange, cut-and-paste, the viral dissemination of concepts, the proliferation of digital platforms and other properties of the web. Campanelli's thesis is not primarily concerned with web design, but with the idea of aesthetics as a non-utilitarian element negating the commercial drive of the web. Web Aesthetics therefore proposes a uniting of communication and a rarely espoused ideal of beauty. . . . . [see book details]

  By Vito Campanelli. Pbk, 5.5 x 8.25 in. / 276 pgs. Publication Date: 1/31/2011 List Price: US $30.00

  Idpure Editions Graphis Annual: The Essential 1952-1986 From 1952 to 1986, the Swiss design powerhouse Graphis published a yearly volume under the title Graphis Annual, presenting a survey of graphic design work from the past year. Taken together, these 35 volumes highlight some of the most impressive and innovative design work that was being done in advertising globally during that period. Graphis Annual: The Essential 1952-1986, edited by idPure magazine editor in chief Thierry D. Hausermann, culls the strongest and most surprising examples of graphic-design prowess from the series' three-decade-plus run. The 400 images--half black and white, half color and all bold and lively--are presented in fantastic double-page spreads that have been reproduced directly from the original publications. These selections were made with an eye toward illuminating themes that have already experienced revivals in recent years, and as a result the visual language of this volume feels especially current and fresh. Graphis Annual is beautifully bound, an exquisite . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Thierry D. Hausermann. Clth, 9.5 x 12 in. / 240 pgs / 200 color / 200 b&w. Publication Date: 3/31/2011 List Price: US $65.00

  Kant Czech Cubism and the Book The Modern Czech Book 1 Many avant-garde movements of the early twentieth century found an entirely unique expression in Czechoslovakia. Cubism was perhaps the supreme instance of this; as Czech art historian Miroslav Lamac famously commented, around 1912, "Prague became the city of Cubism with Cubist apartment blocks full of Cubist flats furnished with Cubist furniture. The inhabitants could drink coffee from Cubist cups, put flowers in Cubist vases, keep the time on Cubist clocks, light their rooms with Cubist lamps and read books in Cubist type." Today a rich literature has arisen on Czech Cubist painting and architecture, but the role of book design in Czech Cubism has not been the subject of a study. This wonderful volume collects book designs by Frantisek Kysela, V. H. Brunner, Jaroslav Benda and Method Kaláb, tracing its impact on typography in early 1920s Czechoslovakia. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Jindrich Toman. Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 208 pgs / 211 color. Publication Date: 8/31/2011 List Price: US $50.00

  Kant The Book Design of Josef Capek: Seeing The Book The Modern Czech Book 3 Josef Capek (1887-1945) was one of Czech modernism's most formative protagonists. The artist first studied weaving before finding his métier as both a painter and designer. During a short stint in Paris, he befriended the poet Guillaume Apollinaire, who was then the leading theorist of and driving force behind Cubism. Capek adopted the Cubist style, fusing it with moodier elements of Expressionism and Symbolism to create a uniquely Czech take on the style. Alongside his work as a painter, Capek designed several hundred book covers from 1918 until his death in 1945 for Czech publications of early twentieth-century authors such as Apollinaire, Karel Capek, Jan Bartos, Josef Hora, Josef Kopta, Pierre Mac Orlan, Giovanni Papini, Pirandello, Miroslav Rutte and Georg Trakl and nineteenth-century authors such as Flaubert, Goethe, Kropotkin, Sheridan Le Fanu and Arthur Machen. Capek's designs were much celebrated in Czechoslavakia for their simplicity and their virtuoso use of linocut. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Alena Pomajzlová. Hbk, 9 x 11 in. / 328 pgs / 790 color. Publication Date: 8/31/2011 List Price: US $80.00

  MFA Publications Art of the Japanese Postcard Masterpieces fom the Leonard A. Lauder Collection From the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century, Japan was a vital world center for postcard art. More than just casual mail pieces, these postcards were often designed by prominent artists and had a visual impact that belied their modest format. Remarkably beautiful examples of graphic design in their own right, they also recorded the shifting definitions of East” and West” at a time when such European currents as Art Nouveau began to show up in Japanese visual productions. Art of the Japanese Postcard presents 300 full-color examples of these cards, culled from the vast Leonard A. Lauder Collection. They are astonishing not only for their beauty and the quality of their printing, but also for the insight they provide into contemporary Japanese artistic practices--insights not relayed in standard histories that focus on painting and sculpture--as well as for the fluid interplay of European and Japanese modes. Authoritative essays by . . . . [see book details]

  Essays by Kendall H. Brown, Leonard A. Lauder, Anne Nishimura Morse and J. Thomas Rimer. Hbk, 8.5 x 9.5 in. / 288 pgs / 350 color / 20 b&w. Publication Date: 4/2/2004 List Price: US $45.00

  Kerber The Bauhaus at the Newsstand Die Neue Linie 1929-1943 Between 1929 and 1943, an outstanding new lifestyle magazine called Die Neue Linie (“The New Line”) was published by Beyer Press in Leipzig. No other publication in this period was so consistent in bringing avant-garde typographic ideas to a mass audience, as leading graphic designers from the Bauhaus, including László Moholy-Nagy, Umbo and Herbert Bayer, steered the look of the magazine, whose contents combined fashion, literature, graphic design and art. Unembellished fonts, dynamic diagonals and dramatic use of photomontage were key to the journal's striking appearance. Its authors included Walter Gropius, Aldous Huxley, Gottfried Benn and Thomas Mann; even the advertising pages, designed by Bauhaus veterans Herbert Bayer and Kurt Kranz, were always attractively composed. Despite widespread media conformity during the Nazi era, strangely Die Neue Linie was largely spared the regime's sanctions. The Bauhaus at the Newsstand illustrates the turbulent times in which the magazine appeared, reproducing spreads, statements, articles, . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Patrick Rössler. Pbk, 9.75 x 13.5 in. / 160 pgs / 163 color / 90 b&w. Publication Date: 1/31/2010 List Price: US $46.50

  Soundscreen Design Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One The first decade of the twenty-first century marked a highpoint at the intersection of graphic design and music. Against the backdrop of the digital music revolution, the rock poster has suddenly reemerged as an art form, and as a memento or calling card of a remarkably talented group of artists and design studios. Rock Paper Show: Flatstock Volume One presents an editorial and visual history of Flatstock--the American Poster Institute's ongoing, nomadic series of rock poster exhibitions. Since its inception in 2002, Flatstock has evolved into the definitive showcase for the most heralded and innovative poster artists working today, among them Yee-Haw studio and Jason Munn, for bands such as Modest Mouse, Wilco and Spoon. This deluxe volume chronicles the first 20 Flatstock exhibitions, which took place in some of the most exciting cities for music in America--from San Francisco and Austin to Chicago and Seattle. Featuring 566 color photographs of . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Geoff Peveto. Introduction by Clay Hayes. Hbk, 9.5 x 12.5 in. / 312 pgs / 566 color. Publication Date: 3/31/2011 List Price: US $59.99

  Edizioni Corraini Bruno Munari: Il Disegno, Il Design In 1979 the fanciful Italian artist and designer Bruno Munari donated part of his personal archive to the Center for the Study of Archives and Communication in Parma--a sort of encyclopedic collection of solutions for possible answers. From early drawings for his abstract paintings of the 1930s, to the Negative-Positive works, to graphic sketches for publishing projects, to original editions of his games, this volume collects projects from across Munari's career, many of them previously unpublished. From the Bauhaus to Piaget's psychological theories, Munari assimilated many visual and conceptual trends of the twentieth century, reproposing them in new, highly creative and playful ways. Featuring more than 500 images, this volume contains essays, an interview and a bibliography of the most important publications on Munari's works. . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Arturo Carlo Quintavalle, Giulio Carlo Argan, Gloria Bianchino, Renato Nicolini. Pbk, 9.5 x 11.75 in. / 248 pgs / 514 color. Publication Date: 3/1/2009 List Price: US $65.00

  JRP|Ringier Ezra Petronio and Suzanne Koller: Selected Works, Subjective Inventory Selected Works, Subjective Inventory Designing is the capacity to stop just in time, to express no less and no more than is necessary, to neither oversimplify nor make something more complex than it needs to be. It is stripping excessive information and recognizing the essential. The creative process relies on the instinctual, on intuition, yet paradoxically, it is also iterative, requiring thought and more rethinking. This volume is an organic gathering, collected over the past 15 years, of the work of Ezra Petronio and Suzanne Koller, partners in the Paris branch of the international design firm, Work in Progress. It features Petronio and Koller's groundbreaking work on their international style magazine, Self-Service, as well as many additional projects with clients, artists and other creative minds. Print campaigns are featured alongside uncropped original images, as they were seen through the lens of the photographers who took them. Unpublished images, design, research and prototypes are given equal . . . . [see book details]

  Clothbound, 6.75 x 9 in. / 244 pgs / 717 color. Publication Date: 8/1/2008 List Price: US $89.00

  Fuel Publishing Notes From Russia: Hand-Made Street Notices The world of Russian public notices is fascinating, bizarre and saturated in tragic-comedy: "An old woman. Left home and has not returned. Small, hunchbacked. Wears: a blue dress, red wool cardigan, a white handkerchief with red flowers on her head, grey slippers on her feet. Does not have memory." The authors and readers of these usually handwritten notices are members of Russia's underclass, made visible by these acts of public address which so often go unread. In this secret economy of exchange and communication, you can swap a voucher for an airplane or help to find a missing earring lost "during the fireworks on the Day of Cosmonauts." All over Russia, all sorts of surfaces, stationary or mobile, have been papered over with such notices. The folklorist, lexicographer and contributor to the related publications Russian Criminal Tattoo Encyclopedia Volumes I and II, Alexei Plutser-Sarno, has been collecting these public notices from . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Damon Murray, Stephen Sorrell. Text by Alexei Plutser-Samo. Hardcover, 5 x 8 in. / 192 pgs / 64 color / 125 b&w. Publication Date: 10/1/2007 List Price: US $32.95

  Eight Books Mute Magazine Graphic Design In the early 1990s, long before the Internet became an integral part of life, a handful of pioneering magazines took it upon themselves to imagine it into existence. Using fiction, interviews, speculative theory and experimental graphic design, these periodicals helped create a lexicon and iconography every bit as powerful as the architecture of the World Wide Web. London-based Mute occupied a central position among these pioneering publications, offering a platform to authors and artists ranging from Bruce Sterling to Geert Lovink, Keith Tyson and VNS Matrix. As new technologies forced a collapse of disciplinary boundaries and the intermingling of communities, Mute featured many of the artists, writers and photographers that came to epitomize London's status as a creative capital in the 1990s. This book presents a full overview of the magazine over that decade, showing its entire output from logos to covers to spreads. . . . . [see book details]

  Introduction by Adrian Shaughnessy. Text by Simon Worthington, Damian Jaques, Pauline van Mourik Broekman. Paperback, 8.75 x 8.75 in. / 144 pgs / 250 color. Publication Date: 8/1/2008 List Price: US $35.00

  La Marca Editora Left Wing Political Graphics This outstanding collection of vivid political graphics from Argentina's Left Wing spans decades of political struggle--from woodcuts to desktop publishing. Flags are raised, workers are lionized, headlines blare from La Favilla, L'Agigatore, L'Amico del Popolo, La Questione Sociale, L'Allarme, Umanita Nova, Mundo Nuevo, El Burro, and Einstein, and a lion roars from the logo of La Protesta. The yellowed sheet music for a "Himno al 10 de Mayo" is preserved, as are a flier for Sacco and Vanzetti, a pileup of anarchy logos, many moving examples of homespun graffiti, and a collection of political cartoons, including one in which Labor pushes the pedals while Capital rides on the handlebars--with a champagne bucket. This chunky and cheeky volume is a must-have for anyone interested in graphic design, as well as left-wing politics. . . . . [see book details]

  Edited by Guido Indij. Text by Guido Indij, Horacio Tarcus, Norberto Chávez. Paperback, 6 x 6 in. / 240 pgs / 500 color. Publication Date: 3/1/2007 List Price: US $25.00

  Acadia Summer Arts Program Takaaki Matsumoto: Design Over the course of a 30-year career, graphic designer Takaaki Matsumoto has created award-winning publications for clients that include artists, museums, educational institutions and retailers. In and Out of Design showcases projects-ranging from simple logotypes to museum publications to complex visual communications systems-that presented particular design challenges, and records how a solution was finally arrived at. . . . . [see book details]

  Clth, 7 x 9.25 in. / 184 pgs / 100 color. Publication Date: 6/30/2010 List Price: US $30.00

  Hatje Cantz Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection Founded in 1903 by architect Josef Hoffmann and designer Koloman Moser, the Wiener Werkstätte, or Vienna Workshops, gathered architects, artists and designers committed to making design excellence available to all. As a form, the postcard presented a perfect medium for the transmission of these ideals, and so it was that in 1907 the Werkstätte began publishing a series of numbered postcards commemorating holidays, depicting new fashions and documenting the sights of Vienna. All of the major designers who worked for the Wiener Werkstätte--including Josef Hoffmann, Oskar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, Dagobert Peche, Moriz Jung, Rudolf Kalvach, Mela Koehler and Maria Likarz--contributed to this project, and consequently these postcards constitute an important genre within Wiener Werkstätte production. This fully illustrated volume, published for the Neue Galerie's Fall 2010 exhibition of Wiener Werkstätte postcards (drawn from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection), is the first catalogue raisonné in English devoted to this fascinating, hitherto little-known . . . . [see book details]

  Text by Detlef Hilmer, Elisabeth Schmuttermeier, Christian Witt-Doerring, Leonard A. Lauder. Hbk, 9.25 x 11.25 in. / 336 pgs / 1,115 color. Publication Date: 1/31/2011 List Price: US $75.00