94 WINTERHOUSE | MICHAEL BIERUT
“The book has no purpose except to entertain and enlighten our readers,” says its coauthor William Drenttel. Together with Jessica Helfand and Michael Bierut, Drenttel created Contents for the 2007 AIGA Next conference, to promote Helfand’s erudite blog Design Observer. Looking to create an object around the subject of “Next,” they found themselves pondering what to read next and the process of navigating through the passages of a book. A collection of 30 tables of contents was their solution.

“The design of the book was driven by the variety and nature of the tables of contents we were featuring,” Drenttel says, adding that the book essentially designed itself, except for the “screaming green throughout.” Choosing books was fun, and he admits that while architecture and design titles make up the lion’s share, “There’s Philip Larkin, Dale Carnegie, Italo Calvino, Vladimir Nabokov and the Preppy Handbook!” In their introduction, the partners commemorate the table of contents as a great and complex form. “In the realm of the printed word, it heralds what comes next, a verbal proscenium with its own peculiar prose and typographic conventions.” But the truth, as the authors themselves acknowledge, is that “none of us really knows what’s coming next. Not even designers.” by Romy Ashby

Winterhouse/Michael Bierut | authors: Michael Bierut, Jessica Helfand, William Drenttel | Designers: Winterhouse, Michael Bierut font: Retina Agate by Hoefler & Frere-Jones | printing: Finlay Printing | paper: Mohawk | Client: Design Observer | Contact: www.winterhouse.com