The look of yesterday

Book one and two.

At last, the second volume to Taschen's in-depth look at graphic design. This edition covers the years from 1960 to 2017 with 3500 images (2500 in volume one) and the format is the same as the first book. Each decade has a brief introduction then an illustrated timeline spread followed by the graphics. The range of material is wide, obviously all kinds of printed material but also paper currency, stamps, film credits, packaging, logos, signage,  and a feature I particularly liked: spreads devoted to a single subject, mostly this is designers from around the world with samples of their work but also, for example, city branding, pc icons, early web pages, 3D logos, there are seventy-eight of these single item spreads.

This book covers the introduction of computer design software and there's an obvious shift from the early nineties onwards with graphics revealing a much more fluid look as designers could do anything they liked with just a few keystrokes. The previous hundred years or so of design discipline created by the limitations of process work and printing evaporated remarkably quickly so that now, visually, anything goes.

The two volumes tip the scales at eight kilos with a big page size of thirty-seven centimetres by twenty-four, beautifully laid out and printed on a reasonable matt art. Two books with six thousand illustrations, it's a remarkably creative look.