Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books [Hardcover]

Jason Godfrey (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 26, 2009

Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books is a unique compilation of the best design books of the last 100 years. It covers a huge range of material—historic titles from pioneering type foundries to the best of recent monographs from todays leading studios—and provides an essential insight into the evolution of graphic design in the twentieth century.

Classic graphic design manuals by László Moholy-Nagy and Josef Müller-Brockmann are included, alongside pioneering instructional titles on advertising and corporate identity. Monographs designed by andcovering the major individuals and studios of the era—from A.M. Cassandre and Alexey Brodovitch to Stefan Sagmeister and Peter Saville—are detailed, along with groundbreaking anthologies on trademark design, Polish film posters, the impact of the avant-garde, and more.

All the books, whether classic histories of Bauhaus design or rarely seen sourcebooks of symbols and type, are illustrated with a wide selection of spreads and covers, all in color.

In addition, leading international designers have provided lists of favorite titles from their own libraries.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jason Godfrey, director of Godfrey Design, London, studied at the Royal College of Art before pursuing a career in print and digital media in London, New York, and Austin, Texas. His work has been shown in the annuals of D&AD and the New York Type Directors Club.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Laurence King Publishers; First Edition edition (August 26, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1856695921
• ISBN-13: 978-1856695923
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 1.1 x 11.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #949,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Graphics get their day September 9, 2009

By Robin Benson

Format:Hardcover

At last the graphics crowd get their turn with a hundred best books. As with all 'best of' this is a visually subjective showing but I thought amazingly comprehensive and I doubt that anyone who calls themselves a design professional would not own a few of these titles. The chapters follow an interesting sequence: Typography; Sourcebooks; Instructional; Histories; Anthologies and finally Monographs. Within each chapter the books are shown in date publishing order.

Many of the standard graphic design and typo titles are obviously here but it definitely is a subjective list because a 1970s Letraset type transfer catalog is included, not strictly a book with an ISBN but back then these catalogs were eagerly awaited in the UK. A couple of quirky additions are the 'Old Advertising Cuts from A-Z', basically a 1989 paper sample book from French Paper (I always found it annoying to use because the pages were so thick) and the amazing 1989, Stockholm published 'Carouschka's Tickets'. A huge eight by thirteen inches book with 394 pages full of tickets from around the world.

The format presents each book over two pages with title and publisher details plus some quite comprehensive copy in one column with the four or five inside spreads and the cover filling up the rest of the space. Printed on good matt art with a two hundred screen this is a book worth looking at. The book spreads are big enough to keep anyone interested in the detail.

There are, though, a couple of whimsical design features: each book title and publisher details are set in a sans face with the x height sitting on fifteen deep cyan rules and likewise with the list of eighteen designers' favorite books (scattered through the pages) this text is turned sideways on the page and sits on red rules. To my mind if all rules were deleted it wouldn't make the text any less readable. It's just the book designer doing something for themselves and not the reader. Pure whimsy.

If you look through the pages and see a book worth getting I bet, now that Bibliographic is published, second-hand copies will increase in value. For instance, the copy of 'Nova: 1966-1975' (pages 193/93) costs between $375 and $449 or 'A Sign System Manual' by Crosby, Fletcher, Forbes (pages 94/95) runs between $285 and $368. I didn't know, until I saw it on pages 184/185 that Bradbury Thompson had published a book in 1988 about his Westvaco magazine work, I recently managed to find a copy just under $60.

I have a few of the Top Hundred titles, mostly from past decades but I would have included these if I was creating the Top 100. I've uploaded spreads from these titles so you can see some inside pages.
*American Modernism: Graphic Design, 1920-1960
*Typewise
*The Pentagram Papers: A collection of 36 papers
*Magazine Design
*Twen: Revision einer Legende (German Edition)
*Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style, 1920-1965
*U&lc : Influencing Design & Typography
*Typographic Communications Today

***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES OF BIBLIOGRAPHICS by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.