Button up

The type size on each button for the date is really tiny.

 A delicious slice of Americana served up on these pages with over a thousand buttons, all life-size and in color. The two authors know their pin-backs (as buttons are called in the trade) Christen Carter runs a button-making company and museum in Chicago and Ted Hake with his auctions has been involved with pop culture artifacts for decades.

The book's twelve chapters are loosely based on themes like advertising, organizations, people, transport, anti-war et cetera. It all started in 1896 when the New Jersey ribbon badge company Whitehead and Hoag invented the celluloid badge (a round image printed on paper and covered with a clear plastic coating that wrapped itself around a circular thin piece of metal, a continuous piece of wire was pushed into the back rim of the badge and this included the pin). The first use was for the presidential campaign between William McKinley and William Jennings Bryan. 

The ease of production and eye-catching appeal convinced anyone who wanted to push a message that buttons were the ideal medium. The book has plenty of really colorful buttons from the first decade of the last century. These are paintings or graphics taking most of the small space with circular lettering around the edge. Over the decade's flat graphics or just type became popular choices. The 'Icebreakers' chapter has several type only buttons: 'This button is just an attempt to communicate', 'Huba huba' or 'I'm hep'. A thing I really liked about the book is that so many buttons are decades-old which adds to their curiosity value

The book is nicely designed with all the buttons as cutouts with a slight drop shadow to give them a dimensional look but I think it was a bit unfortunate to use such tiny type for the year date with each button. Graphic designers and anyone interested in pop culture will really enjoy this book.