This last week Cory and I explored the depths of our city’s oldest and largest library, the Multnomah County Library, (in fact, it’s the oldest library west of the Mississippi River) to do some research for an upcoming post. I checked out a couple of books for myself, both written by Paul Rand.

One of the books I picked up was a collection of his writings, Design, Form, and Chaos. It provides insight into the mind of the designer and the marketer, the current state of technology and education, and trends within art forms. I found this excerpt of the book quite fascinating:

The ability to intuit is not reserved to any special class of individuals, although many painters, writers, designers, dancers, or musicians believe that this ability is something special, something God-given. The intuitive faculty does, however, seem more pervasive in matters of aesthetics than in those of daily routine. Except in a most general sense, one cannot prove the validity of color, contrast, texture, or shape. Compliance with all the laws and systems of form, restraint, texture, and proportion will not provide proof of the soundness of a work of art, nor guarantee its coming to fruition. This is one of the reasons it is so difficult to understand or teach art and why countless books on art are mere inventories rather than meaningful explanations. Even the brilliant exposition of historians such as Roger Fry, André Malraux, or Rudolf Wittkauer, however inspirational, however compelling, cannot directly generate great or even good works.

Without regard to available systems (e.g., the Golden Section, DIN proportions, typographic grids), the designer works intuitively. This is something about which one is often confused. No system of proportion, color, or space articulation can possibly insure exceptional results. Very often a system is used merely as a crutch, a kind of rabbit’s foot or a good luck charm, regardless of need. A system can be applied either intuitively or intentionally, interestingly or tediously. There is always the element of choice, sometimes called good judgement, at others good taste.

Aside from practical considerations, in matters of form the typographer must rely on intuition. How else does one select a typeface, decide on its size, line width, leading, and format? The alternatives are to repeat one’s previous performances, to imitate what others have done, or simply to make arbitrary decisions.

Rand, Paul. Design, Form, and Chaos. New Haven: Yale UP, 1993. Print.

This approach requires that designers ask themselves the reasoning behind every decision within a process. What qualifies the use of this tool or property? Is it relevant to the design, or is it implemented out of lack of originality? It also allows one to relax and not depend primarily on the formal systems, but purely on one’s intuition and intellect.

Designers and typographers are in the business of delivering these stories to an audience. And, when they have something to say – knowledge to pass down – they write. Books serve as the primary design educators because designers and typographers uniquely appreciate the art and craft that goes into making a great book.

The Journal compiled several ‘Best of’ lists of design literature and found the most popular selections. What remains is a list of books that cover a range of design topics. While there are countless other volumes of merit, a comprehensive study of the field may be founded on these selected eight volumes.

Elements of Typographic Style by Robert Bringhurst

Designing for People by Henry Dreyfuss

The Elements of Color by Johannes Itten

Thinking With Type by Ellen Lupton

A History of Graphic Design by Philip B. Meggs and Alston W. Purvis

Grid Systems in Graphic Design by Josef Müller-Brockmann

Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works by Erik Spiekermann and E.M. Ginger

Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte

We are very excited to be coordinating what we feel will be an important educational exploration on design. Readers may track our progress via our Twitter account.

Jim Tierney is an illustrator and designer studying at University of the Arts in Philadelphia. His Jules Verne book covers, part of a senior thesis project, have been making the rounds on the internet.

“Being equal parts book-nerd and design-nerd, I naturally decided to re-design some classic Jules Verne novels,” Tierney told Faceout Books, a website devoted to book cover design and process.

Faceout Books features sketches with Tierney’s commentary on the entire process.

His concepts are developed with thought and clear intention. Each illustration has conceptual ties to its novel, adding depth to Tierney’s work.

Interactivity is important. Book jackets are more than protective covers: they are a collaboration with the hardback cover. The results are colorful, playful: true to Jules Verne’s classic stories.

Flaunt is design network UnderConsideration’s first self-published book. It will officially be released February 22, and is currently available for pre-order.

Authors Bryony Gomez-Palacio and Armin Vit interviewed, photographed, designed and produced the book. It’s objective is to provide a resource for inspiration in conjunction with a reference for those creating a physical design portfolio and entering job interviews. It contains over 40 case studies, almost 20 interviews and over 800 interviewers’ and applicants’ survey responses. The information gathered with these methods have been consolidated in an organized and concise manner. Gomez-Palacio and Vit created useful info-graphics and prepared exhaustive photo-documentation of each portfolio without sacrificing room for descriptions. Some of the information they include regarding individual portfolios are: the dimensions; typefaces used; type of paper; retail stores visited to collect materials; printer used; production time, and, of course; production cost.

The standard layout for portfolio specimens throughout the book

Before continuing, Flaunt begs the question: are physical portfolios becoming obsolete with the burgeoning of the web? Many would argue they are not; I reside on this end of the spectrum as I appreciate these physical specimens. Countless hours are spent in constructing what many consider to be their personal masterpieces. Gomez-Palacio and Vit bypass the obsolescence argument with this assertion:

…[The portfolio] manages to communicate the subjective subtleties of who we are as both designers and individuals. The portfolio irrevocably becomes an object brimming with potential, yet burdened with hope; it acts as intermediary between our work, personality, and the possible, always uncertain, future.

Cover press check

The book provides a successful offering of information to young designers. It is refreshing to see skilled and respected artists creating useful tools like this, especially for students. I have grown tired of the continually circulating blog articles with magical step-by-step guides to ‘getting your foot in the door’ and offering nothing I would consider particularly useful outside of optimistic speculation. Because of Flaunt, college graduates now know what to expect of employers. On the flip-side, it reveals to the employer what applicants are bringing to the table.

Flaunt is available in print or a down-loadable PDF. The book retails for $20 and the PDF is just $15. Flaunt contains 136 pages and is printed on Endurance Velvet 100 lb. cover and 70 lb. text. A multiple-user license may be purchased for the PDF version in increments of 5 users. UC documented the print production of the cover on their Flickr account (the ink looks beautiful, check it out).

Bibliographic: 100 Graphic Design Books by Jason Godfrey

I received a copy of Jason Godfrey’s recently published book Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books, for Christmas. It’s been a fantastic read: Godfrey collected a wonderful range of visual specimens from these famous (and some not so famous) books. It has provided me hours of reading and instilled a desire for me to spend hundreds of dollars on rare books.

I found the book so enthralling that I decided to email Mr. Godfrey and ask him a few questions about it. He has been a wonderful resource and provided us with some great answers. Please take some time to read what he has to say.

What was the initial inspiration for writing this book?

Graphic design publishing has out of necessity always been particularly rich visually, which in my opinion made it the perfect subject for an illustrated book, but above all I wanted to create a useful resource for students and designers, especially in displaying those books that have become hard [to find]. It also helped to justify the huge amount of time in my life I have spent in secondhand bookshops.

Is there any book you view differently now after you have put Bibliographic together?

Even though many of the titles were in my library I hadn’t fully read most of them from cover to cover, preferring to cherry pick pages that interested me (Not an uncommon experience for most designers). The more thorough analysis undertaken in writing about the books helped me to justify their worth as classic examples of graphic design publishing but also gave me a new and enhanced outlook on all of the books in the list.

What book do you find yourself referring to the most when it comes to design?

For history Richard Hollis’s Graphic Design: A Concise History (Thames and Hudson, 1994) is the first book to turn to. For inspiration The Dictionary of Visual Language (Bergstrom and Boyle Books, 1980) by Philip Thompson and Peter Davenport has all the ideas. For book design Derek Birdsall’s Notes on Book Design (Yale University Press, 2004), has essential guides for the construction of tidy grids.

What were some of the hardest books to eliminate from the list?

Where there were prolific authors or an outstanding series of books made for some very hard choices. The excellent small-format series from Studio Books represented in the list by John Lewis’s Typography: Basic Principles (Studio Books, 1963) and Graphic Design: Visual Comparisons (Studio Books, 1963), meant that a book such as Ken Garland’s outstanding primer Graphics Handbook (Studio Vista, 1966) had to be left out of the final 100.

Were there any specific influences you had when it came to the layout of the book?

I borrowed liberally from the books in Bibliographic when it came to the design. Amongst other things the long single columns of text were a nod to those in George Lois’s The Art of Advertising (Abrams, 1977) and I had always admired the yellow cover boards on Egbert Jacobson’s Seven Designers Look at Trademark Design (Paul Theobald, 1952) and decided to have the same.

How did you make final decision on each layout?

I wanted to give the flavour of each book and tried to get a good mixture of spreads. Those that showed important detail were enlarged and an effort was made to keep the size to where copy on the page could be read. The covers were played down on the whole, I felt that often these might already be quite well known and that value was to be had in showing the internal pages.

What was the most difficult part about compiling this book?

Being a first time author the most arduous part of putting Bibliographic together was the actual writing. It took some time for me to get the tone I wanted and the writing progressed at a glacial pace. The subject for each book jumped from different designers to eras and other themes in graphic design history, which only seemed to slow the process even further.

Where do you see the future of graphic related literature heading after so much ground has already been covered in books like these?

Graphic design will continue to evolve a history which will need recording and the reappraisal of the existing history will inevitably happen. Publishing small edition books is becoming ever more affordable which should open up huge opportunities for creativity in the near future.

We would like to thank Mr. Godfrey for taking the time to answer these questions. He has been a great help to us. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book. Trust me, it will be a wonderful addition to your library.

The emergence of the eBook has been quite elusive over the past few years. It’s one of those things that seems like it’s becoming quite popular, but neither you nor your friends actually know how popular. The only instance that I’ve ever seen someone reading one has been on a plane trip back from Hawaii. Nonetheless, companies continue to create, produce, and market these now seemingly mainstream items.

For those of you that don’t recall, the eBook was first made popular with Amazon’s Kindle that was first released just before the holiday season in 2007 for an ungodly price of $399. It offered a neat new type of screen that they referred to as E Ink. A revolutionary feature that I believe ultimately led to its success. The screen replicates the feeling of reading actual paper. E Ink allows eyes to read for extended periods of time without giving them a headache from reading on a “screen”. Another feature that was bundled with the Kindle was the connection to Amazon’s WhisperNet which allows readers to wirelessly download books they purchase over the Kindle Store in mere seconds (now operating in over 100 countries, was originally just in US).

Heavy marketing on the front page of their website, and releasing around Christmas-time garnered a decent amount of success and attention with this strange new device. Many companies decided to follow Amazon in its wake. Now there are six devices:

• Amazon – Kindle
• Barnes & Noble – nook
• Sony – Reader
• iRex – iLiad
• Jinke – Hanlin eReader
• Bookeen – Cybook
• Side note: These names are atrocious

As of Christmas 2009, I am sad to say that eBook sales on Amazon finally surpassed print sales. After having a discussion with Cory here, I can’t really see why anyone would want to give someone a Kindle, much less an eBook, for Christmas. It seems so impersonal, and who doesn’t love a fantastic hardcover book with a beautiful, well-designed book jacket. Maybe that’s because we’re of a different generation than those that are using the device. I found a fantastic poll on a blog called Kindle Culture showing the most popular age groups that are using the Kindle.

I originally thought that people older than my generation would hate the idea of “killing” books with a device that conglomerates their entire library into a thin little electronic box. It seemed as if I would see a ton of yuppies walking around armed with their eBook reader, Starbucks cup, poodle, and baby stroller. But apparently not… People over the age of 40 account for two thirds of Kindle owners.

So…why does this bother me. Am I just another person to decry the electronic age and say ‘print is dying!’ for the thousandth time? Maybe a little, but in the end; I am really left with just a simple, yet giant question. Why? Why do we need an electronic device to download books wherever we are in the world? Is a physical copy of a book that burdensome that you can’t take it with you on a trip or even around your house?

I won’t be confused by such devices if I understood why these were necessary or even that useful to the common reader. If you’re a happy eBook reader owner and would like to punch me in the face after reading my opinions, let me know why; I would love to hear you rant about the innumerable joys and oh-so-fuzzy feeling that your eBook reader has provided you.

National Park Service brochures, from Massimo Vignelli’s The Vignelli Canon.

A Brief History

The Unigrid System was designed for the United States National Park Service (NPS) in 1977 for use with print materials. Designer Massimo Vignelli was Awarded the 1985 United States Presidential Design Award for his work on the NPS.

What It Is, Exactly

The Unigrid is a modular grid system, a grid with both vertical and horizontal rulings. This provides a way to organize elements like text and images. Designer Massimo Vignelli describes the idea behind the NPS brochures in his book Design Is One:

In order to achieve better identification and financial savings through standardization of every aspect of the publications program, we designed a modular system that determined everything from the paper size to graphics to cartography and illustration.

The A2 used in Unigrid system can be folded and cut to make several size variations.

Grid modules are 7 picas wide by 80 points high with. Vertical spaces are 1 pica and horizontal spaces are 10 points. These specifications work  with ISO A2 sized paper (16.5″ × 23.4″or 420mm × 594mm). The paper can be folded into twelve 4″ × 8¼” (99mm × 210mm) sections. Smaller formats can be made by cutting and folding the paper. This makes the Unigrid system extremely economical since paper can be purchased in bulk and cut to size.

Perhaps the most striking quality of the Unigrid is the black header with contrasting white titling. This is accompanied by a black bar at the bottom of the unfolded brochure. Type selection is limited to Helvetica and standards are set for titling, body text, and captions to enforce unity in design. Body text is organized in multiple vertical columns and justified to reinforce the underlying grid structure.

What It Does and How It Works

The Unigrid system does an excellent job of establishing the National Park Service’s visual identity through consistency. Nearly every national park brochure looks similar because elements like maps and body text are placed in a regular and organized way. Hierarchy is achieved through standard sizing for headings, body text, and captions. Vertical columns of text provide strong vertical movement; the eye easily navigates through a document.

The Unigrid design has been used by the NPS since the late 1970s, giving documents a dependable appearance. Most people can recognize a park brochure from a distance.

I think this shows the power of organizational grid systems, especially in print design. Fitting facts, maps, and images into anything is a daunting task; organizing it to appear visually cohesive is an equal challenge. The underlying structure of the Unigrid makes National Park Service brochures just that: visually cohesive, elegant and effective.