The latest huge, chunky graphic design title from Taschen looks at company branding around the world. There are a couple of things I really liked about the book.
First, the authors have avoided something that would have appeared in similar titles: an historical look back at excellent corporate design, for example, Saul Bass's work for Bell Telephone in the sixties or Karl Gerstner's corporate work for Swissair in the seventies. The introduction does have some historical visual examples but as it says, the development of software and computers from the mid-eighties onward allowed designers to approach branding in a different way.
Second, the editorial format breaks the content into seventeen sections, starting with Logo, Logo systems, Typography, Colour, Objects, Pattern, etc. This is a clever solution and allows the reader to consider various individual elements of a brand.
The branding is from 110 companies, big and small, for example, Deutsche Bank (2024 design) to the Toulouse-based Theatre Sorano (2025) with their exuberant posters and programs. The book is probably eighty per cent illustrations. Each brand starts on a spread and usually runs over to the next spread. As expected, there are plenty of corporate alphabets and graphics to reveal how a logo works.
Overall, a super book for any design studio to have on their shelves.
