Tuesday, 11:30am
4 June 2019
Books received #38
Party! Party! Party! Photographs from Weimar Germany; Graphic Design Play Book; No, No, No, No, Yes; Britain Can Make It; Design at Stanford
Here is a selection of titles that caught our attention in recent weeks.
Party! Party!! Party!!! Photographs from Weimar Germany (Bone Idle, €31.75) is an extraordinary glimpse into the fervour of Weimar Germany. The book includes three chronological sections – which collectively cover the years from 1917 to 1931 – and three sub-sections, including ‘Berlin after dark’ and ‘From the Kirschner family album’. In each, the reader will find a succession of previously unpublished photographs, most of which are rendered in full-bleed, that provide an arresting survey of this tumultuous period.
Cover and spread from Party! Party! Party! Photographs from Weimar Germany. Design: Melanie Mues.
Sophie Cure and Aurélien Farina’s Graphic Design Play Book: An Exploration of Visual Thinking (Laurence King, £14.99) features a variety of puzzles and challenges, providing a fun and interactive way for young visual thinkers to engage with the world of graphic design. The narrow, paperback book includes 32 exercises – divided into chapters on typography, posters, signs, and identity – a glossary of design terms, and a removable ‘toolbox’, which contains stencils, stickers and spare paper.
Cover and spreads from Graphic Design Play Book: An Exploration of Visual Thinking.
No, No, No, No, Yes: Book Design Uncovered (D&B Books, £19.99) is a peek behind the curtain of book cover design, in which readers are given access not only to a catalogue of 25 published book covers, but also four of their rejected alternatives that preceded the final published cover. While perhaps an upsetting reminder of the quantity of brilliant designs that never make it past the mock-up stage, No, No, No, No, Yes is nonetheless an enjoyable ride through the back-and-forth of book design.
Cover and spread from No, No, No, No, Yes: Book Design Uncovered.
Britain Can Make It (Paul Holberton Publishing with V&A Publishing and the University of Brighton Design Archives, £30.00 / €35.00 / $40.00) is a textual and visual tour through the V&A’s 1946 exhibition of modern design. This richly illustrated book – edited by Diane Bilbey and including written contributions from the likes of Paul Jobling, Margaret Timmers, and Simon Garfield – explores the exhibition’s various themes, displays, and contexts to provide a definitive resource on postwar design culture.
Cover and spread from Britain Can Make It: The 1946 Exhibition of Modern Design.
In a time in which Stanford’s identification with design has become ‘increasingly ubiquitous’, Steven McCarthy’s Design at Stanford is an engaging reminder that this hasn’t always been the case. Through ‘side stories’, chronologies, ‘lesser known’ histories, and individual profiles, McCarthy plots the rise of Stanford’s design departments from the relatively unknown, to their starring role in the narrative of Silicon Valley.
Design at Stanford is a ‘boutique edition’ of 65, acting as a kind of prototype (for publishing enquiries contact [email protected]).
See ‘Collage champions’ on the Eye blog and ‘Always in flux’ in Eye 82.
Cover and spread from Design at Stanford: A Visual History of Thinking and Doing.
Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.