Also look on the "Children's Books" and "Artists' Books" pages for alphabet books
The 26 Letters
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Originally published in 1948, this classic study, including a dictionary-index, traced the complete and fascinating history of the alphabet up to that time. Now, more than two decades later, an entire chapter has been added that covers new methods of printing and all of the new designs and techniques involved in modern typography: photographic and computer type as well as electronic typesetting.
ABCrossett: a Bennington College Alphabet
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An alphabet from book covers and images in Crossett Library, Bennington College
An Abecedarium: Illuminated Alphabets from the Court of Emperor Rudolf II
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Included in the magnificent pages of the Mira calligraphiae monumenta are two alphabets. Executed by an unknown hand, the first consists of Roman capital letters; the other is Gothic lower-case letters. As with the calligraphy of Bocskay described above, these alphabets were embellished by Joris Hoefnagel, a painter at the court of Rudolf II. In embellishing the alphabets, Hoefnagel employed symbols and heraldic objects--masks, animals, plants, obelisks--to convey the power and greatness of the emperor. An Abecedarium contains the thirty-eight pages from the Mira codex that display Hoefnagel's virtuosity in decorating the alphabets. Calligraphers, graphic artists, and all lovers of beautiful books will delight in Hoefnagel's artistry.
Word As Image: American Art 1960-1990
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Words from the environment / Gerry Biller -- Words as sign and structure / Russell Bowman -- Words as juxtaposition and association / Russell Bowman -- Words as narrative / Dean Sobel -- Words as socio-political commentary / Dean Sobel.
Artistype
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The use of typography in art can convey an unmistakable presence that visually communicates a desired idea or attitude. But besides being a carrier of information or visual expression, it can also serve as a decorative element. For the fourteen artists in this book, including Ed Ruscha, Fiona Banner, Shannon Ebner, Liam Gillick, Tsang Kin-Wah, and Rose Nolan, it is a fundamental tool. Intentionally or not, this leads to the emergence of an individual handwriting in their work.
Ghada Amer: Rainbow Girls
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Ghada Amer blends feminine figures and embroidered texts, attaching together what before she had treated separately. In fact it is the first time the bodies and texts images and words are literally woven together...The current work of Ghada Amer marks another particularity: the creation of metal sculptures.
Aleksandr Rodchenko
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This book is published to accompany the first major American retrospective of Rodchenko's work, at The Museum of Modern Art, New York, in the summer of 1998. The essays in Aleksandr Rodchenko explore both phases of his career, drawing out the formal ideas that he developed as well as the social and artistic context in which he moved. The book's plate section, reproducing over 300 works carefully selected from collections in Russia and throughout the West, for the first time presents a full and coherent overview of his diverse achievement. An illustrated chronology outlines the story of the artist's life.
Guide to all the Artists' Books in Crossett
Alphàbêt
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Letterpress with French sans serif extra wide wood type circa 1925 and printed on obsolete sea charts by Dikko Faust. Design by Esther K Smith. One folded continuous sheet of obsolete sea charts. Faust used extra-wide French wood type, circa 1925, to letterpress print the alphabet, printing both upper and lower case of each letter. 3" x 2 .5" closed, extends to 104.25"; 32 pages including self-wraps. Edition of 40. Signed.
Fortunato Depero; The Bolted Book (Depero Futurista)
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This is a facsimile edition of the Italian Futurist artist and designer Fortunato Depero's 1927 monograph. Called Depero Futurista, or “Depero the Futurist,” it is also known as The Bolted Book, because it is bound together by two large industrial aluminum bolts. Filled with bold typographic experimentation, daring layouts, it is a landmark avant-garde example of the “book as object.” Scholarly essays and material from the Fortunato Depero archives is included in a Reader’s Guide companion volume. 32 cm x 24.2 cm. Binding: Open on four sides, cover and all pages hole-drilled for bolt binding and fastened with aluminum bolt, nut, and cotter pin. Digitally printed. Textured, colored cardstock. 4 tissue (glassine) pages and 1 two-panel gatefold. Post binding.
Written Weed
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This book includes 111 paste-ups / collages by the artist composed of gathered dried leaves, grasses and seeds. The materials are selected and arranged in formations that appear as asemic writing reminiscent of handwriting, syllabaries, and the letterforms. In order to emphasize the graphic quality of these works, the book is published in black/white. Edition of 400 copies. Numbered and signed by the artist. 17" x 12.5" x 1.25". 232 pages.
Atlas of Punctuation
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The Atlas of Punctuation displays the distribution of all end-of-sentence punctuation for 14 books. The punctuation for each book is consolidated to a single sheet, as if everything about the book, except the punctuation was removed, and then flattened to a single plane. The books contained in the atlas are representative literary classics that convey a quality of space and scale in the imagination. Letter press printed on Mohawk superfine 80 lb. cover paper using Adobe Garamond and Avenir typefaces for informational text. Edition of 100. 25 x 22 cm. 29 p. Case Bound.
Intranquilo = On Edge
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The text is a short story by Jorge Accame, printed on rectos of most leaves; related full-page images by Thorsten Dennerline appear on facing versos. One image is larger than full-page, extending into the facing page with the letterpress. There are 10 sections of text, marked with even numbers 2-20, and 11 illustrations, marked with odd numbers 1-21. Story and other letterpress are printed in black (Spanish) and red (English). The images are mounted archival-pigment digital prints of photographs on Kitakata paper, overprinted with drawings made on lithographic stones and printed from the stones. "The collaborative aspect of the work began in the fall of 2006 and continued until 2008 when the last texts and images were finished. The digital printing was by Derek Cracco at Ink to Paper in Birmingham, Alabama, on Kitakata paper. The drawings were printed from lithographic stones at the Frans Masereel Center in Belgium (Thorsten Dennerline), at Corridor Press in Otego, New York (Tim Sheesley), and one image was printed at Bennington College, Vermont (Thorsten Dennerline). The original Spanish texts were translated into English by Jonathan Pitcher. Daniel Keleher at Wild Carrot Letterpress in Hadley, Massachusetts, printed the letters on Arches Velin papers. Mark Tomlinson bound the edition. Edition of 40. Issued in red cloth-covered slipcase with small blind-impressed image on front.
Fragment by Fragment : Signs of the Peat Bog Disperse into the Wind
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"In the hot summer of '76, a fire removed a large area of surface vegetation from a blanket bog high up in the Black Mountains of Wales. The plants have never grown back and the exposed peat is like a huge scar on the landscape. Without its protective covering, the peat is gradually being eroded away by the wind and the weather." Edition of 50. 10.5 x 6"; 28 pages. Hand stitched, digitally printed codex interleaved with tissue paper. Printed with archival pigment inks on Gerstaecker 125 gsm paper. Cover is Arches 250 gsm rag paper.
Mourning/Warning: An Abecedarian
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From the Alfa flag (in its muted version representing Marissa Alexander, sentenced for firing a warning shot at her husband when he attacked her) to the Zulu flag (representing Ousmane Zongo, unarmed but killed by a NYC officer during a 2003 warehouse raid), this list of mostly unremembered casualties represents part of the everyday reality for people of color. "Stripping the maritime alphabet of its primary colors and replacing them with muted browns and blacks, Mourning/Warning highlights the relationship of Americans of the African diaspora to water, maritime trade, and the need for an alternate means of communication in times of emergency and duress. How do you send a warning call that hatred comes constantly in waves? M/W serves as a method of honoring, mourning, and remembering the slain and wronged as well as teaching our children and ourselves to be vigilant and wary in hostile terrain, where your skin color makes you an easy target." Tia Blassingame. 8.5 x 11"; 32 pages including wrappers. Digitally printed in Josefin Sans typeface. Saddle stitch binding. Signed and numbered. Edition of 26. Crossett owns number 6.
The Art of Hokusai in Book Illustration
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The 'Yellow-backs' -- Early poetry books -- 'The Story of the forty-seven Ronin' -- Poetic topography -- Portraits of poets -- Illustrations to novels -- Hokusai's album of pictures from nature -- The Manga -- 'Excellent Paintings at a Glance', 1818 -- The revamping of a book by Ryukosai -- Miscellaneous books, 1808-1819 -- Major drawing books of 1819 and 1820 -- Albums and books of erotic prints -- Craftsmen's books -- Miscellaneous books, 1820-1840 -- The 'One Hundred Views of Fuji' -- The 'Warrior' trilogy, the Toshisen and the final decade, 1840-1849 -- Chronological list of books with illustrations by Hokusai.
Jackets Required: An illustrated history of American book jacket design, 1920-1950
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This fascinating and full-color volume presents a superb collection of 270 jackets promoting a wide range of books--from high-brow novels and biographies to mass-market romances and mysteries--while showcasing the talent of some of the era's most exciting illustrators and designers. Offers a unique resource for graphic artists, illustrators and book lovers.
Jeweler's Eye Islamic Arts of the Book from the Vever Collection
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The calligraphy, illustrations, and decorations that embellish the great books of the Islamic world comprise one of the finest artistic traditions of humankind. Elegance, expressive intimacy, and technical brilliance are basic characteristics of the works. For these reasons they appealed deeply to Henri Vever, well known to the artistic world of Paris in the early twentieth century as a jeweler, collector, and painter. Vever amassed some five hundred Persian, Arabic, Turkish, and Indian manuscripts, paintings, albums, bookbindings, and examples of calligraphy as well as small groups of lithographs, printed books, textiles, nineteenth-century Burmese and Indonesian works, and Armenian paintings.
Philip Grushkin: A Designer's Archive
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A look at book jackets designed by Grushkin, also includes jackets designed by George Salter, Grushkin's teacher. Table of contents, introduction, a biography of Grushkin, book jackets and examples of graphic design by Grushkin. Glossary, biographical sketches of important figures, biographical sketch of the author.
Add-a-line Alphabet
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An Alphabet of Old Friends : and, The Absurd ABC
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The Alphabet that was Good to Eat
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Animals in the Zoo
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A For Angel: Beni Montresor's A B C Picture-Stories
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The World Is Round
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Rose wonders who she is, asking herself if she would still be Rose if her name were not Rose, and goes on a journey in search of herself.
George Herbert's Pattern Poems: In Their Tradition
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73 Poems
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Concrete Poetry: A World View Hardcover
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Speaking pictures : a gallery of pictorial poetry from the sixteenth century to the present
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Radi Os
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Poetry. First published in 1977, Ronald Johnson's RADI OS revises the first four books of Paradise Lost by excising words, discovering a modern and visionary poem within the seventeenth-century text. As the author explains, "To etch is 'to cut away,' and each page, as in Blake's concept of a book, is a single picture." With God and Satan crossed out, RADI OS reduces Milton's Baroque poem to elemental forces. In this retelling of the Fall, song precipitates from chaos, sight from fire: "in the shape / as of / above the / rose / through / rose / rising / the radiant sun."
Still Another Pelican in the Breadbox
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Graffiti Brasil
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From the startlingly distinctive achievements of the internationally renowned twin-brother painters Os Gemeos to the visual powers of the ubiquitous daredevil Pichadores, Brazil's graffiti captivates with entirely fresh ideas, techniques, and messages. Whether one's taste is for the extraordinary creative extremes generated amid urban deprivation or for crafted murals at their most elaborate, Graffiti Brasil offers both stunning photography and in-depth history and insight.
British Trademarks of the 1920s and 1930s
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The trademarks in this collection represent some of the finest graphic design to emanate from Britain between the wars. Author John Mendenhall has gathered over 280 trademarks and logos from the archives of the British Library and categorized them by subject. From the carefree exuberance of the twenties to the back-to-work ethic of the thirties, these trademarks reflect the moods and successes of industry prior to World War II and the advent of diversified, multi-national conglomerates.
The Modern Dutch Poster
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The 102 magnificently reproduced full-color posters in this book illustrate a little-known and individual body of graphic art, ranging from the richly decorative to the purely abstract, informed by art nouveau and symbolism, de Stijl and art deco, and expressing above all the vital connection between commerce and art. The book accompanies the first exhibition devoted exclusively to the modern Dutch poster, and Marcel Franciscono's text provides a detailed and fascinating history of these neglected works.
Russian Graphic Design, 1880-1917
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Russia's rapid industrial growth in the late 19th-centuryresulted in a breathtaking proliferation of commercial art and design. Now, for the first time, this book acquaints the reader with the spectacular graphic art of this period.
A History of Graphic Design
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Critical acclaim for previous editions of A History of Graphic Design "I expect it to become a foundation and keystone of serious study . . . it is a fortress work." -Communication Arts "[It] traces the role of the designer as a messenger of culture." -STA Journal "Now . . . a hefty, yet concise, documentation of the entire field exists." -Print "It is a noble and formidable undertaking." -he Artist's Magazine "An excellent and invaluable work." -Library Journal "This is a reference work that reads like a novel. It's comprehensive, authoritative, graphic, and exciting." -U&lc: The Journal of Typographics "[This book] establishes graphic design as a profession. Bravo!" -Design Issues "A significant attempt at a comprehensive history of graphic design . . . it will be an eye-opener not only for general readers, but for designers who have been unaware of their legacy." -The New York Times "Mr. Meggs enthusiastically conveys these excitements to us, from the invention of photography and 'popular graphics of the Victorian era' through the Arts and Crafts movement, Art Nouveau, the Secession, the isms . . . to the Modern Movement. . . . More importantly, he shows us the joins as well as the parts."-rinting World After a decade of research by the author, the first edition of A History of Graphic Design was heralded as a publishing landmark by the Association of American Publishers, who awarded it a coveted award for publishing excellence. Now, after fifteen years of development in graphic design, this expanded and updated Third Edition includes hundreds of full-color images and new material in many areas, including alphabets, Japanese and Dutch graphics, and the computer revolution which has impacted all aspects of contemporary design and communications. With its approximately 1,200 illustrations, lucid text, and interpretive captions, the book reveals a saga of creative innovators, breakthrough technologies, and important design innovations. Graphic design is a vital component of each culture and period in human history, and in this account, an extraordinary panorama of people and events unfolds, including: * The Invention of Writing and Alphabets * Medieval Manuscript Books * The Origins of Printing and Typography * Renaissance Graphic Design * The Arts and Crafts Movement * Victorian and Art Nouveau Graphics * Modern Art and Its Impact on Design * Visual Identity and Conceptual Images * Postmodern Design * The Computer Graphics Revolution A History of Graphic Design is recognized as a seminal work; this Third Edition surpasses in detail and breadth the content, design, and color reproduction of previous editions. It is required reading for professionals, students, and everyone who works with or loves the world of graphic design. This comprehensive reference tool is an invaluable visual survey that you will turn to again and again.
Arts et Métiers Graphiques
French graphic arts magazine published from 1927 to 1939.
Push Pin Graphic no. 64-86
The Geometry of Seeing : the Art of Elaine Lustig Cohen, 1996-2007
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Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of the Origin and Method of Text Illustration
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The Description for this book, Illustrations in Roll and Codex: A Study of the Origin and Method of Text Illustration,
The Book of Kells: Reproductions from the manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin
The Decorated Letter
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Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute: The Story of Lady Wen-Chi, A Fourth Century Handscroll in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
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The Göttingen Model Book: A Facsimile Edition and Translations of a Fifteenth-Century Illuminators Manual
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A History of Illuminated Manuscripts
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King's Book of Kings: The Shah-nameh of Shah Tahmasp
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Composed in the tenth century by the poet Firdowsi, the Shah nameh or Book of Kings is Iran central literary work, a historical epic peopled with monarchs, some of inspiring goodness, others of unmatched wickedness, handsome paladins, beautiful maidens, malevolent witches, and treacherous demons. The particular manuscript of the Shah nameh introduced here by Stuart Cary Welch, Curator of Indian and Islamic Painting at the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University, is the most sumptuous one ever produced.
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
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This book deals with the theory and practice in the design of data graphics and makes the point that the most effective way to describe, explore, and summarize a set of numbers is to look at pictures of those numbers, through the use of statistical graphics, charts, and tables. It includes 250 illustrations of the best (and a few of the worst) statistical graphics, with detailed analysis of how to display data for precise, effective, quick analysis.
Reinventing the Wheel
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Now available in paperback, this delightful book spins the history of the information wheel, as inventive and instructive as intriguing, that has been used since the fourteenth century to measure, record, predict, and calculate everything from time and space to military history to recipes. In this fascinating book, designer and critic Jessica Helfand offers and in-depth look at these unique artifacts, which are not only clever and amusing but, Helfand argues, relevant as a model for modern interactive design. From circular mathematical slide rules to Captain Marvel phonetic decoders,Reinventing the Wheel demonstrates the astonishing range and remarkable utility of these ingenious "interactive" tools.
Open Here: the Art of Instructional Design
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Open Here: The Art of Instructional Design displays an entertaining array of the most ingenious, stupid, beautiful, and horrible visual solutions that instruction designers and illustrators have invented to help us handle modern technology and everyday products.
British Trademarks of the 1920s and 1930s
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The trademarks in this collection represent some of the finest graphic design to emanate from Britain between the wars. Author John Mendenhall has gathered over 280 trademarks and logos from the archives of the British Library and categorized them by subject. From the carefree exuberance of the twenties to the back-to-work ethic of the thirties, these trademarks reflect the moods and successes of industry prior to World War II and the advent of diversified, multi-national conglomerates.
Shelf Life: Modern Package Design 1920-1945
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An unprecendented survey of period packaging heralding the modern consumer era, this dramatic and colorful presentation takes a fun-loving approach to its subject matter with ten lively chapters examining the invention, development, and design of tins, boxes, bottles, bags, and labels used during the heyday of packaging design.
The Poster Art of A. M. Cassandre
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A. M. Cassandre, a French artist generally considered to be the greatest in his field during the 1920s and 1930s. This handsome book for the first time publishes 60 of his posters in color together with an essay on Cassandre's life, career, and style and a virtually definitive listing of 117 posters.
The Twentieth-Century Poster
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Visual Strategies Against AIDS: Prevention Posters
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Political Graphics: Art As a Weapon
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From the early anticlerical leaflets and broadsides of the Renaissance and Reformation to the anti-nuclear and ecology wall posters of today, the production of political graphics has increased like a tidal wave. The printed image-by virtue of its innate power to convince-has replaced the word in mass communication and virtually become the language of the modern world.
Kanban, Shop Signs of Japan
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The Japanese kanban, literally "signboard," is a folk art all its own. Its function-as a symbol and a service-maximizes the traditional arts of carpentry, calligraphy, and often of wood-carving and painting as well. The appeal of these signs is not only as bold and ingenious graphic design, but also as record of the commerce and tastes of the merchant classes in the Edo and Meiji Periods. This is the first collection of kanban assembled for exhibition in this country. It is a chance to study and delight in a singular-yet characteristic-art form of Japan.
More Street Jewellery
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Expanded volume from the experts on enamel street signs Christopher Baglee and Andrew Morley.
The Futurist Movement: Avant-garde, Avant Guerre and the Language of Rupture
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Marjorie Perloff's stunning book was one of the first to offer a serious and far-reaching examination of the momentous flourishing of Futurist aesthetics in the European art and literature of the early twentieth century.
Figuring the Word: Essays on Books, Writing and Visual Poetics
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Johanna Drucker is among the foremost authorities on the history of alphabets, writing, artists' books and visual poetry. This book is a compendium of Drucker's thought. Yet rather than anthologize from her numerous published books, "Figuring the Word" collects writings only previously found in academic and literary journals, as well as transcriptions of her lectures and interviews. The book is divided into sections, each with several chapters, which include "Writing as Artifact," "Visual Poetics," "Artists' Books Past and Future" and "The Future of Writing." None of the work in "Figuring the Word" has ever been published in book form before, and yet it extends and reveals the already broad range of Drucker's voracious and penetrating intellect.
Luggage Labels: Mementos from the Golden Age of Travel
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David Craig has collected the most striking and exotic luggage labels from around the world. These miniature works of art were used for decades by first-class hotels to identify their guests' suitcases and trunks and then by the guests themselves to display their itineraries to the world. Here, reproduced in full color and actual size, are over 100 beautiful labels representing a wide variety of graphic styles dating back to the last century
En Route: Label Art from the Golden Age of Air Travel
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En Route offers an entertaining, glamorous, and evocative look at the early, international airline companies and the distinctive designs of their luggage labels, so coveted by intrepid travelers of the period. Complete with over 150 examples, from bold images of the Art Deco period to modern icons of the 40s and 50s.
Art for the London Underground
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Brilliant color reproductions of over 200 posters by major British and American artists for the London subway. They promote "tube" travel and respectable cultural activities. Includes notes on the artists, among whom are Kauffer, Whistler, and Dupas.
Language and Typography
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