Corporate graphics revealed

Left, The T&H reprint of the first manual

The above four spreads are from book one.

Unit Editions published two books on corporate-style manuals in 2014 and 2019. Book one has been reprinted by Thames & Hudson and it considers forty-two company guides in its 600 pages. Book two, with 432 pages, covers guides from twenty-four companies. Oddly, thirteen guides are the same in both books so I think the T&H edition is the better buy.

The editorial format is the same in both books. Each guide opens on a spread with details about the designers and client and technical details (date, size, pagination, etc). The following spreads show selected pages from the guides. In book two, the last page of each guide selection has thumbnails of all that guide's pages.

I was impressed by both book's coverage, obviously large companies, for example, Canadian National Railways 1965, British Telecom 1981 and Ciba-Geigy 1972 but also twenty pages for the HemisFair 1968 and the US Department of Labor 1975.

There are additional articles in both books by designers and the guides they produced. The books are beautifully designed and printed. I would say they are essential titles for anyone who works in the corporate graphics area.

US

BOOK ONE Manuals: Design and Identity Guidelines: Vignelli, Massimo: 9780500028827: Amazon.com: Books

UK

BOOK ONE Manuals: Design and Identity Guidelines : Brook, Tony, Shaughnessy, Adrian, Schrauwen, Sarah, Vignelli, Massimo: Amazon.co.uk: Books

INDEX 2024

 

Jazz age twenties to streamline thirties

The title says American style in the 1920s but creativity doesn't stop or start when the decades change and fortunately, the contents of this book morph in the 1930s. The two authors have done a wonderful survey of the arts in America, especially considering ceramics, jewelry, furniture, interior decor, housewares and a nod toward transport. As the book is a permanent reminder of an exhibition with hundreds of items on display, architecture only really gets a text mention.

I found it interesting to read about the huge influence that European art and design had on home-grown creative folk. The forty-six-page listing of the exhibits in the back of the book gives the artists' nationality, and probably more than half were born overseas.

The book is a handsome production, virtually all the photos are still-life studio shots rather collected from outside sources with varying quality. I thought this was a super survey of past American style that still looks intriguing today.

US

The Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s: Harrison, Stephen, Coffin, Sarah D., Orr, Emily M: 9780300248180: Amazon.com: Books

UKThe Jazz Age: American Style in the 1920s (California Studies on Global Conflict and Cooperation): Amazon.co.uk: Harrison, Stephen, Coffin, Sarah D., Orr, Emily M: 9780300224054: Books