Design by Pentagram 5/5

I don't suppose there are too many international design companies that have survived over fifty-two years. Near the beginning of the book, three principles explain Pentagram's continuing existence: their work is firmly anchored to design; it's a partnership and new talent is recruited as the years go by; the partnership format is a convenient hedge against any take-over by the media hungry or hedge funds.

The two authors, in book one, have written an excellent overview of Pentagram (with 1400 illustrations) starting with a historical biography followed by a breakdown of various disciplines: Branding; Design for culture; Editorial design; Three-dimensional design. The last part of the book has Pentagram folk in their own words followed by the 'Pentagram miscellany', a potpourri of studio photos and creative work by various partners over the decades.

Book two, The Directory is a listing of past and present partners and examples of their work. The 2300 illustrations are probably only a fraction of Pentagram's output, for example, they have designed over a 1000 logos (including one for the publisher of these books).

I thought that both books, with 1388 pages, is a first-class survey of this famous international design group.

US

Pentagram: Living by Design: Shaughnessy, Adrian: 9780500027462: Amazon.com: Books

UK

Pentagram: Living by Design: Amazon.co.uk: Shaughnessy, Adrian, Brook, Tony: 9780500027462: Books

The Swiss image 5/5

The book has two sections, 176 pages of photos
and 80 pages of editorial features.

The book features the best of 2023 Swiss journalism. The photo section covers News, Daily life, Swiss stories, Portrait, Sports and the World.  The entries are of a particularly high standard but what makes the book quite fascinating, I thought, are the in-depth captions to the photos. Other press photo books I've seen use very brief captions: photographer, location and date. The war in the Ukraine gets a good showing in the World and Portrait pages. Swiss stories has some intriguing photos of a falling down hotel on the Gemmi Pass, printing the Bieler Tagblatt newspaper and a sex worker who supports people with disabilities (these photos won the first prize).

Turn the book upside down and front to back to reveal the cover for the text awards of the Swiss press, this section has eighty pages with some reproductions of newspaper pages, online, audio and video news.

The book is in German, French, Italian and English.  Worth saying here, I think, is the excellent translation into English by Thomas Rothin. The pages have a simple elegant design, printed by Steidl with a 175 screen on matt art paper. The title will certainly interest media Photo Editors.

UK

Swiss Press Yearbook 24: Amazon.co.uk: Graffenried, Michael Von, Fondation Reinhardt von Graffenried: 9783969993606: Books

TP, always colorful and quirky....5/5

Italian publishers Damiani continue to have faith in their Toilet Paper magazine with this special edition featuring the photos of Alex Prager. She photographs tableau-style work, which is very reminiscent of Ryan Schude and Gregory Crewdson.

The contents follow the same style as previous issues: single page or spread bleed photos (printed with 175 screen on a matt art) no captions or page numbers to get in the way of your interpretation of what the photos say. For example, a couple seated on separate chairs reading the New York Times with the top of each paper on fire. The room setting has a newspaper-covered floor and walls which are also on fire. What does it mean, maybe hot news.

This issue of TP delivers another colorful collection of eye-catching photos.