"...There are, however, some designers and even clients who insist that the public deserve and will respond to much higher standards in graphics. They are convinced, as Charlie Chaplin was convinced, that the best way to entertain the public is to first entertain oneself."
After The World Of Logotypes book, here’s another great resource, still from the 70’s.“Top Symbols And Trademarks Of The World” was published in 1973, written by Franco Maria Ricci & Corinna Ferrari. There were actually two volumes. The books themselves are very hard to find now, maybe if you’re lucky you’ll find them in some old bookshops (like AceJet was, with a similar book – preface by Paul Rand).
Fortunately, you can view all the pages on the TypoGabor website (along with other great examples of design). I’ve made pdfs to save you the clicking: download volume 1 and volume 2 :) (8 and 17 MB).
In spite of the plethora of logo books nowadays, good ones are but a handful (there’s a paucity – smallness of number, quantity – of good design books, contrary to what Amazon would let you think). Al Cooper’s World of Logotypes is one of these, first published in 1976, then several years later, now unfortunately out of print (still available here and there, if you’re lucky). It seems that it had 2 or 3 volumes.
The logos are all in black and white, most of them have been replaced or redesigned since then, some just “passed away” together with the corresponding companies. Some of them are easily dated, but most are ageless, strong, showing that those years’ designers where thinking more about what a good logotype is. Not to mention that the majority are designed by grid, something less and less used now in the age of online photo and vector editing software. The book proves once more that good logos don’t need no “web 2.0″ effects. It seems that with the easiness of Photoshop and Illustrator comes great responsability (glows and shadows weren’t exactly easy to ink on the drawing board), or tempting the path to the web 2.0 flashy design it is, as wise Yoda would say :P
Eric Carl kindfully scanned the book (not sure which volume this is or even if it’s the whole book) and posted it on his Flickr. The guys at Logoblink helpfully made a pdf. You’ve got to download it (you can find other mirrors on Logoblink’s site).
I remember seeing The Bear That Wasn’t on Cartoon Network when I was a kid and being enchanted by its beautiful yet thought-provoking story. Chuck Jones made the animated short adapting Frank Tashlin’s book (hope amazon will be selling it again soon, i can’t buy from resellers in Romania).
(photo from Kip W’s The bear that wasn’t photo set – thank you Kim for scanning the whole book. Mind the beautiful typography in the title.)
The story beautifully touches the problems of urbanization, mass production, human alienation, workaholism and of course, the environment’s. It sounds over-ambitious for a cartoon, I know, but it’s amazing to see how easily these ideas are presented while keeping the cartoon entertaining even for small children (that will grow up and write rants like these :D). Graphic lines that entangle and move the characters, camera cuts made in an almost-comics-like manner (Samurai Jack’s got nothing on this :P), suited and colored to match every masterfully-drawn character’s personality, music that gives you that 50’s industrial feeling but still manages to describe different social statuses and sometimes even have a hint of techno sound, and last but not least, the wonderful storytelling make this cartoon a true gem.
Enjoy:
Too bad sometimes we let others convince us we’re just “a silly man who needs a shave and wears a fur coat”. Luckily some of us don’t buy that for too long.
Flickr may be annoying many times (especially since you can’t post images larger than 1024px anymore – unless you go pro), but it sure holds a lot of great stuff. Insect54 (gotta love web2.0 nicknames :P) hosts a few gems, photo sets of some great design books, most of them about the insanely talented dutch designers.
A great book about dutch typography and design, presenting Dutch Type from the dark ages to the present day. I got to browse it at the Atelier Tipografic event (in Bucharest, last month – organised by dutch and romanian design teachers). Mr. David Quay told me among other very interesting things that the book is half-sponsored by the Dutch gov (for them investing in education and thus in the future is something just as normal as getting taxes from the people).
It’s a great buy, for sure, but till then you can read it all for free here (Google Books). Take a look at its beautiful cover:
(photo from YouWorkForThem – a great store with some of the best books on design – they also have Dutch Type at almost half Amazon’s price)
Of course not, but they surely help. Even if sometimes you won’t understand what they are about until you’ve gained more experience. As it has been said in the past, you are always searching for what you already know, uncounciously or not. And one of the best education you can get is reading a 2m stash of great books from your area of expertise (usually this beats most schools, especially romanian ones). Too bad I can’t remember who said this either.
I’ve added an Amazon Wish List widget in the sidebar, you can check some great books that I think are worth buying (and will buy most of them, gradually, unless I win the lottery :)) ).
I’ve received this week a lot of design-related books from Amazon. Among them was Design Matters: Logos 01, edited by Capsule, a design firm from Minneapolis, US. I wanted to find more about the book’s writers, since the book was quite good, well-written and with a lot of good examples. No wonder, check out some of Capsule’s work:
Today I received my package from Amazon with four books, 3 design books and a story one: Where the wild things are (wiki).
I wasn’t very sure about it when I ordered, but after reading it I must say that I’m glad I did. It’s wonderfuly illustrated, it’s a great story and it manages to make you feel “the magic” of a child’s world. It’s actually a classic, and it seems Hollywood are making a movie inspired by it. Hope it turns out allright (Burton’s Big Fish is a great movie that has a similar feel to “Where the wild..”)
I also posted some weeks ago this Hulk comic cover, which as you can see is a tribute to “Where the wild things are”:
This cover browser is really a great watch. Very interesting thing to see how magazines, comics, manga and such have changed through time, reflecting their era (Superman kicking Hitler’s and Emperor Hirohito’s butts, Transformers at Iwo Jima and many more). One of my favs though is the Incredible Hulk one, drawn in children books style. Reminds me of “Obluda”, a czech children’s book that appears in Monster, a great manga and anime.
Enjoy.
By the way, if you really want a good laugh you can also check the worst album covers ever, still on the same page :)
