Feature: Book design
Two cheers for publishing
A two-volume book packed with graphic design history is a visual blockbuster, but does little for scholarship. By Rick Poynor
Looking at magazines looking at themselves
Five enormous, lavish books celebrate the achievements of five legendary titles: Harper’s Bazaar, Rolling Stone, New York, The Face and Octavo
Firm grasp on a shaky line
R.O. Blechman’s career has spanned illustration, graphic design and film-making. His deceptively simple style masks a fierce intellect
Modernist cottage industry
For more than a decade, Ruth Artmonsky has been publishing modest, readable books about design and illustration from her London flat
The case of Romek Marber
The Polish-born graphic designer behind Penguin’s ‘Marber grid’ helped to define British postwar graphic design with work of great power and originality. His work can be seen in a touring exhibition, now in Krakow. Interview by John L. Walters. Portrait by Philip Sayer
Stamped in the memory
The Gentle Author’s book about East London print and envelope specialists the Baddeley Brothers demonstrates the very crafts it celebrates
Four seasons
Micha Weidmann’s art direction for a cookbook by London chef Ollie Dabbous, with photographs by Joakim Blockstrom
Reputations: Mucho
‘We were interested in working internationally, to learn from different cultures and to know how design behaves globally. We had international clients. But you really need people in those places to stay active. So the answer is sharing.’
Reputations: Irma Boom
‘I compare my work to architecture. I don’t build villas, I build social housing. The books are industrially made and they need to be made very well. I am all for industrial production. I hate one-offs. On one book you can do anything, but if you do a print run, that is a challenge. It’s never art. Never, never, never.’
To have and to hold
The challenges of digital publishing have galvanised a new spirit in book design and production. Is it just the decadent flourish of a disappearing format?