Exquisite graphic design artifacts comprise this unusual collection culled from the pages of type and typography books dating from 1896 to 1936. Design professionals, students and teachers of graphic design, and anyone with an interest in vintage design will be delighted to ?nd rare, never-before-reprinted type specimens, vintage layouts, logos, and decorations that will serve as an inspiration and resource for practicing and aspiring graphic designers.
A Revival and Celebration of the Golden Age of Typography Any type user and enthusiast will doubtless derive joy from the letters and ornaments in Vintage Graphic Design, gathered from the rare and forgotten sources that authors Steven Heller and Louise Fili have collected over the years. As type gourmets, Heller and Fili savor type in many forms—especially the aesthetically idiosyncratic and the printed artifacts of which historical or retro typefaces are samples. A period of rapid innovation and growth in printing and type technology, the late 1800s and early 1900s saw type foundries in Europe and America burst into wellsprings for bold compositions and arresting typefaces However, this is not a history book; rather, it is a sampler of tasty typographic confections or so-called eye candy. The curated selection here reflects this era’s printing material, including stock pictorial cuts, filigree borders, and cartouches galore. These aesthetic gems are the fruit of Heller’s and Fili’s labors after spending decades scouring the antiquarian book and flea markets of Paris, Berlin, Rome, Florence, Barcelona, eastern Europe, and elsewhere online and in auction catalogs to find examples of graphic design worth preserving and reviving. These beautiful—yet often absurd—rarities represent historic typeface catalogs and specimen sheets from an age when craftsmanship was at its zenith and attention to manufacture was rigorous. Paired best with the authors’ 2011 book, Vintage Type & Graphics, this full color volume is not just about delectation for its own sake, but to prove beyond a drop-shadow of a doubt that just because a typeface or decorative device is “old” does not mean it is “old-fashioned.”
A graphic compendium of vintage American design and typography. Junk Type is a project driven by the passion of one man to document a disappearing aspect of American culture. Bill Rose—aka Recapturist—is a photographer and designer who has spent the last decade traveling across America looking for junkyards, yard sales, antique stores, and other unlikely sources of inspiration to capture examples of postwar American typography and design before they’re lost forever. Bringing together more than 400 images, this invaluable book is a visual history of postwar America, told through the distinct typography, icons, badges, and branding of the country’s industrial heritage. From Art Deco–inspired fonts and unique handmade cursive lettering to illustrated insignia and clean graphic logos bearing the influence of European design of the 1960s, these pictures together represent an encyclopedic reference of creative typefaces and graphics. With each photograph representing just a detail—an embossed logo, a specially created icon, or an advertising slogan—this book captures the optimism and pragmatism of a golden age of American industrial creativity and distills it into a charming resource for anyone with an eye (or nostalgia) for vintage design.
Organized by historical era and country of origin, each section of this dynamic compendium introduces the culture and aesthetics of the period, discusses how individual styles developed, and offers insights into the artistry of key typographers and foundries. 300 full-color illustrations.
Retro Graphics makes it easy for DIY designers to mimic the most prominent styles of the past hundred years. A plethora of authentic design modelsfrom Art Deco and Gothic Revival to Pop Art and Post Modernismare presented and broken down into their component parts in this handy sourcebook. These entries include step-by-step techniques, color palettes, typefaces, illustration styles, and ornamentation to help anyone create the look of such diverse materials as Victorian advertisements and pulp fiction book jackets. History can't be revived, but it can be simulated with this richly illustrated and meticulously researched visual encyclopedia.
Before there was Vegas, and long before there was "reality television," there was Times Square. For a century, it has stood as the blazing Crossroads of the World; the sometimes magical, sometimes tawdry, but always spectacular epicenter of American commercial culture. Times Square Style is a visual compendium of the energy and dazzle and glamour that made the Great White Way the most famous -- and notorious -- place in America's most famous -- and notorious -- city. From Ziegfeld's Follies and George White's Scandals to titanic signs with screaming type -- Drink Pepsi! Smoke Camels! Good to the Last Drop! -- to burlesques with dancing girls in short, short skirts, this book brings to colorful life a trove of arcane, lost, and otherwise forgotten promotions, signs, flyers, programs, posters, records, napkins, advertisements, billboards, and other works of ephemera large and small. Times Square Style is published on the centennial anniversary of this defining American place, with more than 200 color images and 25 vintage black-and-white prints.
The legendary graphic designer shares a retrospective of his most influential and unforgettable work in this career-spanning memoir. Brand by Hand documents the work, career, and artistic inspiration of graphic designer extraordinaire Jon Contino. A born-and-bred New Yorker, Jon’s upbringing comes through in the way he talks—and, most importantly, in the way he designs. He is the founder and creative director of Jon Contino Studio, and for more than two decades, he has built a massive collection of award-winning graphic-design work for high-profile clients such as Nike, 20th Century Fox, and Sports Illustrated. Over the course of his career, Jon has gone to design hell and back, facing obstacles like fear, self-doubt, and bad luck. Brand by Hand documents the evolution of his work, exploring his lifelong devotion to the guts and grime of New York and cementing his biggest artistic inspirations, from hardcore music to America’s favorite pastime. Brand by Hand showcases Jon’s minimalist illustrations and unmistakable hand-lettering. It also shares how he took a passion for pen and ink and turned it into an expanding empire of clients, merchandise, and artwork.
Touring the commercial graphic culture of pre-Castro Cuba, photography curator Levi and senior art director for The New York Times Heller present color reproductions of postcards, tourism advertisements, cigar boxes, music poster, hotel advertisements, and other items that combined graphic styles from the United States with a distinctive Cuban style. A brief introductory essay extols the virtue of this "golden age" of graphic design, noting that Cuba was portrayed as a "paradise" (for wealthy Americans and Europeans). Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
Drawn from a pair of early 20th-century sign-painting manuals, this reference abounds in color and black-and-white borders, frames, typography, and other images, all ideal for re-creating styles from the 1890s–1920s.
