Wednesday, 11 March 2026

The big book of visual culture (5/5)























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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Thursday, 26 February 2026

Just your type. sort of 4/5














The back cover of this book suggests it's packed with everyday tips for those keen to improve the look of their type. Very true I thought but it turns out that some of these tips are open-cast typography with others buried deep in a typographic mine. The author got inspiration from the  Printing design and layout by Vincent Steer, published in 1945. A book, obviously based on lead set type with no ragged right setting, Type matters is entirely ragged right text.

The three chapters: Background; Setting headlines and display type; Text setting, cover lots of type basics for a beginner but also some incredibly detailed items which would take a lot of work experience to master. 
A few examples:
When using parentheses, in most types their tops are level with the height of capitals, the correct suggestion, with display type, is to raise them slightly so they are centered visually on a line depth.
When using display sizes of i and j (the book uses 450 point for this example) consider lowering the dots to look more visually appealing.
With a quote, say, four lines of large display type, center the words with the quote marks hanging either side (my own inclination, if using maybe 120 point, is to reduce the size of the quote marks to 100 point). 

There things missing in these pages that any typographer should be aware of. 
You are working with copy, from a client, the marketing or editorial folk and its been written by someone else. You need to understand what the words mean and work with the writer. 
There is no reference to how to handle tabular matter, an airline timetable or plenty of ingredients that go on a food container. All this involves tiny type and it has to be readable. 
It's possible to use weights of type and delete most punctuation in non-narrative copy. Imagine a stationary range of a letterhead, business cards, compliment slips, invoices, purchase orders. Bold, medium, light and italic type faces can easily indicate meaning where plenty of punctuation would have been used in past decades.

Type matters is a quick read and worthwhile to keep for reference (a nice design job, too). Worth getting if you can find a cheap copy on the net.

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Tuesday, 24 February 2026

Simple and elegant, the Nordic way 5/5


























As one would expect from Nordic countries these forty architect designed homes reflect the owner's search for simplicity and the extensive use of natural materials, wood is used in virtually every house for floors, walls or ceilings.  Six countries contribute to the book's contents, Norway with twelve has the most. Historically the houses start at the beginning of the last century with Lilla Hyttna, in Sundborn, Sweden (and open to the public) with the latest, Villa Bergslia, Oslo, Norway from 2023. 

An interesting common element is the use of large windows because several are located 
overlooking water or dramatic mountains and countryside. Two do their best to blend into the landscape, the Kamban House in the Faroe Islands and the Hof House in Iceland have grass on their roofs. Villa Birkedal and Villa Gug in Denmark with Villa Bergslia, Norway all have round sections which creates some interesting interior rooms. There are two houses that consider design styles outside of the Nordic area, Arne Jacobson's 1931 Rothenborg House in Klampenborg, Denmark is clearly in the modernist style and Matti Suuronen's 1968 rather novel flying saucer home in Espoo, Finland. Perhaps another could be the 1975 Nurmesniemi House with its exterior and interior which I thought was very reminiscent of the 1945-1949 Eames Case Study House in LA.

The author has carefully selected properties where architects have really stretched their creativity. The PAN cabins in Asnes, Norway are raised A-frame structures with a self contained spiral staircases and bridges to their entrances. Konsberg, Norway has the Greenhouse Home, with the family's rooms inside the huge glass structure.

I found one of the joys of this book is the almost square shape which allows Richard Powers beautiful photos to be big on a page or spread. Therese Vandling's excellent book design helps too. Any architect will find much to inspire them after looking at Nordic house creativity.

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