Hasta La Ideas

From the jacket flap: “Modern typography does not have its origins in the printing industry. Its roots are entwined with those of twentieth-century painting, poetry and architecture, and it flowered quite suddenly and dramatically in the twenty years following the publication of Marinetti’s Futurist manifesto in 1909. The author, Herbert Spencer, who is editor of the Penrose Annual [he edited it from 1964-1973, the link takes you to an annual from the 1950s] and a Senior Research fellow of the Royal College of Art, discusses what led up to the new concepts in graphic design and carefully disentagles the respective influences of Futurism, Dadaism, de Stijl, Suprematism, Constructivism and the Bauhaus and the individuals concerned in these movements. He deftly conveys the flavor of the international intellectual ferment in Europe during this period, the comings and goings, the ideological alliances, the conflicts of personalities, teh magazines, the meetings…”

Read more about the book at Modernism 101, a site whose logo is clearly influenced by this book cover.

Thanks, Colleen, for saving this from the library discards. It’s a shame the book didn’t have a more glorious sign-out history!