Thames & Hudson is seventy-five years old and to celebrate the event, they have published this sumptuous corporate history. The company's success began in 1949 with Walter and Eva Neurath and in later years, their children also contributed to making T&H one of the world's great art publishers. The history is revealed in three sections 1949-1967, 1968-1999 and 2000 to the present. Actually, these only take up forty-seven pages, with the rest devoted to exploring hundreds and hundreds of titles with cover and inside spreads (there are 1,800 images throughout the book).
It's these graphic pages that I thought made the title come alive for me. The pages have a very light tint to make the covers and spreads stand out and nicely, they all have a very slight drop shadow that makes them float on the page (and printed with a 175 screen). These pages are also divided into sections, with a brief essay, for example, books on fashion and jewelry get eighteen pages, photography thirty-four, children eight, design and innovation thirty-four, etc. Everything is captioned with the book's title, author, publication date, dimensions and (a nice touch) how many images are in each.
T&H, in the early years, could be considered a fine art publisher but as the decades moved on, their publications covered the widest interpretation of visual creativity. At least nine books on street and train graffiti, two books on sneakers and several on typography by Steven Heller. Themes are developed to provide new titles; one I'm familiar with is architectural writer Dominic Bradbury and his Iconic House series, with five books so far. To make this interesting book complete, the back pages have a section called Miscellany. A listing of all the people and companies around the world that have made T&H an art publishing giant.
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