Hasta La Ideas

The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design is a boxed edition of 500 A4 cards detailing some of the world’s most important examples of the medium. At 13kg it’s an object with some presence, but how will it weigh up with readers?

A selection of the 500 cards that make up the Phaidon Archive

While its considerable size and loose leaf format initially makes you wonder ‘isn’t this what the iPad is really good at?’, handling each of the individual cards – the cover of Eric Gill’s Typography (1931), or of an issue of David Carson’s Beach Culture (1990), for example – reminds you that when print works well, it can work like nothing else.

Front and reverse of card detailing Eric Gill’s book, Typography, 1931

In a sense the packaging (the large box comes harnessed in a sturdy carrying handle) is a bit of a distraction: the content is the main event here. It’s a pleasure just to sit and look through the range of magazines and newspapers, posters and advertisements, typefaces, logos, symbols, books, album covers and motion graphics, which have been selected by a panel of designers, writers, critics and historians. (In the name of full disclosure both myself and CR’s Eliza contributed research to the project but weren’t involved in the selection process.)

This is Phaidon’s stab at a graphic design canon and judging by the editorial process outlined in the foreword – thousands of entries were whittled down to 500 – it’s been a considerable undertaking. The Archive’s introductory text also explains the reasoning behind displaying the work across 500 large-format double-sided cards, instead of making a 1,000-plus page book, or an app. Primarily, Phaidon claim, this enables the reader to easily organise the work however they like; to siphon off just the posters, symbols, or book covers, or even to display the images as prints.

Card showing Catherine Zask’s Rain poster for L’Hippodrome de Douai, 2001

And despite the pull of the digital potential for something like this, it doesn’t feel like the publisher’s explanation is post-rationalising the design approach. It strikes me that being able to simply pull out individual entries will appeal (and be of practical use) to creative professionals, and something the general reader will equally enjoy. Each card boasts a single, well produced image of the particular work on the front, the reverse features a selection of additional related images and a few hundred words of text.

Poster for M/MINK, designed by M/M (Paris), on left; and Werk No.17 for Eley Kishimoto by Theseus Chan

The 500 picture cards also put more emphasis on the reader to act – to compare and contrast, to make connections between works that are perhaps centuries apart. Readers can arrange the cards to any theme they desire, too, and dividers are supplied with the set in order to categorise by format – ‘Book Cover’, ‘Identity’, ‘Film Graphics’ and so on.

Ver Sacrum magazine designed by Alfred Roller, 1898

The cards are initially arranged in chronological order, with work dating from 1377 to 2012, and it’s a treat to dip into the various styles, schools, tastes and production methods bookended on one side by the Gutenberg Bible and the Nuremberg Chronicles, and dot dot dot magazine and Leftloft’s Documenta art festival designs on the other. Phaidon plan to issue further batches of cards in the future, so that the Archive can be updated both with historical additions and recent projects.

David Carson’s Beach Culture magazine, 1990

One point to note, however, is how well the cards will stand up to repeated viewings. Entries of course have to be put back in the correct place in order to be found again later (not a tricky concept, but one likely to go awry when the cards are routinely referenced) and this could make for a less than enjoyable user experience. The emphasis is firmly on interacting with the work, but the down side to this is that once cards are removed from their slot in the system, the system starts to fall apart. And that’s something that conventional books, with their fixed pages and indexes housed reliably at the back, don’t really have to worry about.

Another issue is the standing Phaidon places on its own printed products within the the centuries of graphic design collected here. As a “client”, Phaidon actually has the largest number of projects represented in the Archive – five are listed in the index. Of course, with names like Alan Fletcher and Irma Boom directly associated with the creation of some of the company’s most famous books (Fletcher designed both The Art Book and his own The Art of Looking Sideways; Boom the Hella Jongerius monograph) some crossover is perhaps to be expected. But out of 500 pieces, to devote five entries to one’s own publications – the Bauhaus is cited twice; Monotype, three times – seems a little surprising.

The Great Ideas series from Penguin, art directed by David Pearson

That said, the sweep of the selection is exciting and impressive and it does feel like the biggest decision – to print each of the entries as a single page, instead of binding them in book form or formatting them for screen – went the right way. The temptation to digitise all the content must have been considerable (and will no doubt happen soon), but it’s impressive to see print fighting back like this.

At £144 the Archive is perhaps not quite as accessible as it thinks it is, but it goes some way to suggesting what the most significant and visually arresting moments in the history of graphic design might be.

The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design, Phaidon; £144 (shipping end of September). More details at phaidon.com. At this year’s designjunction event, which takes place at The Sorting Office on New Oxford Street in London, Phaidon will be running a daily exhibition of The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design alongside a pop-up bookstore. There will also be a programme of daily author signings, competitions, and free drop-in talks.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

CR in Print
Students, grads, young professionals: if you buy one issue of CR this year, make sure it’s this one. The September print issue of CR is our annual graduates special. In it, we have teamed four recent graduates with professional practitioners in their chosen field who offer invaluable advice on how to get started in their profession. APFEL meet graphics graduate Arthur Carey, BETC London ECD Neil Dawson meets Sophia Ray, illustrator Matthew ‘The Horse’ Hodson offers sage advice to Sam Tomlins and photographer Jenny van Sommers meets Megan Helyer. In addition, our September issue also features Google Creative Lab, Unit Editions’ new book on Herb Lubalin, Michael Evamy on place branding, Jeremy Leslie on new bilingual magzine Figure and Gordon Comstock on the importance of failure.

Please note, CR now has a limited presence on the newsstand at WH Smith high street stores (although it can still be found in WH Smith travel branches at train stations and airports). If you cannot find a copy of CR in your town, your WH Smith store or a local independent newsagent can order it for you. You can search for your nearest stockist here. Alternatively, call us on 020 7970 4878 to buy a copy direct from us. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 970 4878 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

The September edition of our iPad app is now available to download, with an exclusive preview of the new Bureau of Common Goods film, The Cigar Shop. There’s also some dreamy photography from Joss McKinley, a peek inside the world of master hand-letterer Job Wouters, and a beautiful photographic series featuring members of the Paralympian Team GB.

Included in this month’s iPad edition is our series of graduate advice features, which sees recent grads paired up with professionals for an advice Q and A, and a portfolio crit.

Check back in the Hi Res section later this month, when we’ll be adding portfolios of the featured graduates’ work. Also included in this month’s Features section is Eliza Williams’ piece on Google Creative Lab, including video case studies of their Web Lab, Exquisite Forest, Arcade Fire and Johnny Cash projects.

David Crowley reviews Adrian Shaughnessy’s new book on the US designer, Herb Lubalin, and there are over twenty hi res images of Lubalin’s work included in our feature gallery.

There’s also Jeremy Leslie’s piece examining the rise of the specialist magazine.

Over in Hi Res this month we’ve got previews of some great new publications, including Thames and Hudson’s Comics Sketchbooks, which reveals the initial sketches, scribbles and experiments of rmore than 70 different image makers.

There’s Gestalten’s new book about the hand-lettering work of Job Wouters, and we’ve included 15 double spreads (all of which can be zoomed into) from the publication.

Also included this month is a preview of Oliver Jeffers’ new book, exploring his thought-provoking style.

To accompany the promo that 4Creative shot for Channel 4’s cover of this year’s Paralympics, photographic duo The Wade Brothers have created a series of beautiful stills, featuring members of the Paralympian Team GB.

And whilst we’re on the theme of photography, we also have a preview of Joss McKinley’s new Gathering Wool exhibition in Amsterdam.

There’s also a gallery of great vintage punk graphics, taken from the new exhibition ‘Someday All The Adults Will Die’ at the Hayward Project Space.

On CRTV we are hosting an exclusive preview of the new film from The Bureau of Common Goods, which looks at the community surrounding a small New York cigar shop, and its hand-rolled cigars.

You can also view Build’s quirky new idents for Ukrainian children’s TV channel PlusPlus, featuring a host of cheerful geometric characters.

The Creative Review app can be downloaded from here. The iPad edition will be updated throughout September, so remember to check back later in the month for a preview of MTV’s new idents, an exhibition of unseen photography, and a new photo book exploring the transformative effects of the sea.

CR for the iPad
Read in-depth features and analysis plus exclusive iPad-only content in the Creative Review iPad App. Longer, more in-depth features than we run on the blog, portfolios of great, full-screen images and hi-res video. If the blog is about news, comment and debate, the iPad is about inspiration, viewing and reading. As well as providing exclusive, iPad-only content, the app will also update with new content throughout each month. Try a free sample issue here

At a time of year when our inbox runneth over with word of imminent fall happenings, it’s refreshing to receive a package by post, particularly when it contains a design classic in the making. Such was the case when a beautifully wrapped copy of Marion Bataille’s ABC3D (Roaring Brook Press) arrived at UnBeige HQ. The Paris-based graphic designer’s first U.S. publication has been rapidly embraced (and widely lauded) by the kiddie lit set, but design lovers of all ages will be entranced by this pop-up tour through the alphabet, which begins with a lenticular cover and moves through shape-shifting letterforms that involve spinning discs, collapsing lattices, mirrors, scrim-like pages, and other feats of paper engineering. Photos don’t begin to convey the typographical magic Bataille has wrought. Digital media to the rescue! Experience ABC3D in 2D with this video:

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Campbell’s Soup has released a series of limited-edition, Andy Warhol-inspired soup cans, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first time the artist used one of the cans in his art.

Warhol famously featured Campbell’s’ red and white soup cans in a number of his paintings and screenprints from 1962 onwards, and he apparently was a regular consumer of the condensed soup inside the cans too, once commenting that he had eaten it for lunch every day for 20 years.

The cans also represented his interest in the imagery that he saw every day, which also led him to reproduce Coca-Cola bottles and Brillo boxes in his work. The special edition Campbell’s cans aren’t exact replicas of Warhol’s work, though reference the bright colours he introduced in his 1965 series featuring the cans.

The series will be on sale at Target in the US, with 1.2 million cans released, at 75 cents each (unsurprisingly though, cans have already begun springing up on eBay for considerably more).

“T” for taxi. Photo by Mark Susina, Flickr. Reproduced with permission

In a bit of identity streamlining, the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission has done away with the letters “axi” on the sides of its vehicles, leaving a single “T” to work as a standalone symbol. But as visual identifiers go, the “T” is redundant: the big yellow cab-shaped thing still does a pretty good job of signifying what it is already…

In fact the “T” now only makes sense as a single initial because it’s on the side of a yellow taxi. The “T” doesn’t identify the vehicle as a taxi, it merely reasserts that the vehicle is one of New York’s cabs – no doubt after the realisation that it’s also a huge yellow car has occurred to any potential customers.

The previous “TAXI” design. Photo by noneck, Flickr

The new “T” (in yellow out of a black circle) is a larger version of the one used in the “TAXI” logotype (above), first introduced to the new NYC fleet five years ago, as part of the city’s Taxi of Tomorrow project developed with Nissan and Smart Design.

The phrase “NYC TAXI” was introduced to the fleet in 2007 by Smart, leading some designers to comment on the nonsensical approach of branding something that was already, in effect, its own logo.

At the time, designer Sam Potts was invited to crit the “TAXI” logo by The New York Times. “My first reaction to this was, ‘There’s a logo for the taxis?’,” said Potts. “In fact, the logo is a secondary element in the branding of the taxis – I imagine very few notice the logo but everyone knows what the yellow signifies.”

Quoted on PSFK this week, the chairman of the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, David S Yassky, asserted that “we have no doubt that a yellow car with a roof light with a big ‘T’ will be understood as a New York City taxicab. Even the greenest of greenhorns will know that it’s a taxicab.” But Yassky misses the point. People know what the yellow colour means – it’s the huge “T” that they’re now required to decipher.

Wouldn’t a bolder “NYC” have sufficed on the side, or roof, of something so recognisable, if there’s even a need to differentiate the cabs from other yellow cars? The use of “TAXI” was superfluous five years ago and the single “T” now just looks a bit lost. Greenhorn or not, that’s not really what you want from one of New York’s legendary cabs.