| William H Bradley. Book poster. Lithography, 1890, Chicago, 35.5. x 43.5 cm |
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Josef Müller-Brockmann. Concert poster. Offset printing, gray/black, 1955, Zürich, 90.5 x 128 cm |
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War gets a pretty bad rap in Graphic Agitations 2, so if you're one of those people with a shelf full of WWII videos, you might want to skip this one. |
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As computers have put the power to publish into everyone's hands, more and more schooled graphic designers are finding themselves surrounded by artists who switched to the dark side of commercial design. I won't pretend that's not me. Since most of us are self-taught, we're forced to look outside of the classroom for graphic guidance, and since the internet is soooooooo '98, these recently released books are the way to go.
If you're like most of us and you just want the shortest route to the coolest T-shirt,
IDEA Archive 2: Milton Glaser (
idea-mag.com) is a good place to start. Milton Glaser is a living design legend, and this book is a great find if you work with type and illustration or, ninja powers permitting, both. For those people who have a hard time finding two colors that work together, seeing Glaser make a vibrant collage of figures and numbers look as easy to create as his simple monochrome ink pieces is a humbling experience. People have always been biting him, and last week I saw an embarrassing transformation of his I
NY design into "I
T.O." Sorry, but Toronto is about as loveable as a nice big zit inside your nose.
For those more interested in slick poster design, Phaidon has reprinted
History of the Poster, originally published in 1971. Co-authored by Swiss designer Josef Müller-Brockmann, this is a really solid reference for anyone looking to produce stark layouts that are heavy on precision and dynamic contrasts. Plus, it's written in German, French, and English, so placing this on your mirrored coffee table says, "I party
and you won't wake up ashamed to be with me." The only problem is that it's written as a history book. Müller-Brockmann made no secret of having very rigid theories of what a good poster was, and that often meant reductive grids and "objective" minimalism. So, in place of equally legendary names like Ben Shahn (American social realist), Tadanori Yokoo (hippie miracle man), and Saul Bass (the
Vertigo poster guy) who don't quite fit the grid, we get 23 pieces by the author. Remind me to write a book called
The History of Incredibly Large Penises and feature myself that much. Still, for anyone who deals with layout, animated titling or type as design, this is a gem—cockiness of a dead man aside.
For budding anarchists looking for graphic strategies to stick it to the man (or Bush, a goofy caricature of the man),
Graphic Agitations 2, also from Phaidon, is a 240-page compendium of creative political revolts, brand-subversion, and alternative media projects. This couldn't have come at a better time, since public culture-jamming for the past couple years has been turning into empty branding exercises as kids shoot it out to be the next KAWS.
Sure, a coffee-table book on revolt reeks of irony, but who cares. Let's get the man on his own turf. Now, if only Bush could read…
Which leads us to Yale University Press'
Notes on Book Design. If you are faking it as a book designer, you better have some serious resources, and this, in combination with a good typography book like
The Elements of Typographic Style, will give a comprehensive outline for approaching various types of books. The author, Derek Birdsall, shows the incredible structure and planning that goes into details like conveying the scale of paintings or making information appealing without having to resort to ornate layouts.
If you're too cheap to buy new books and still want the T-shirt, go on eBay and get yourself some copies of 60s art and culture magazine
Avant Garde. One quick twist and you've got yourself a flea market hot seller:
