ALPHABET STORIES: A CHRONICLE OF TECHNICAL DEVELOPMENTS by Hermann Zapf
Hermann Zapf is one of the world’s most prolific and accomplished typographers, with a decades-long career many can only dream about. But his journey has not been an easy one, as readers of Alphabet Stories will quickly learn. This book traces his path to fame, starting with Zapf’s birth and doctors’ predictions he had little chance of survival due to his weak physical health.

Zapf proved the doctors wrong—not only surviving, but thriving as he grew up during the tumultuous political climate in pre- and wartime Germany in the ’20s and ’30s. From early inventions and technical breakthroughs to his inability to attain his dream of a career in electrical engineering because of his family’s politics, it is easy to see the spirit and ingenuity that helped Zapf go from retouching photos to working with calligraphy and then typography—skills that eventually led to his being at the forefront of computer-aided typesetting in the ’70s.

In the late 1930s, Zapf designed his first published typeface, a Fraktur type called Gilgengart. “I received only 300 reichmarks for the design of Gilgengart,” he writes. “When I appealed to management of the typefoundry about this small payment some years later, they did not increase it and coolly responded: ‘We are the better businessmen.’ The ban on Fraktur by the political rulers in January of 1941 was the end of any widespread use or popularity of the Gilgengart typeface,” he recalls.

In April 1942 Zapf was drafted and sent to a heavy artillery unit, eventually training as a cartographer. He nearly became a commissioned officer, but his talent saved him. He writes, “While the general was speaking, I took a fine brush and wrote out his rank and name in very small letters, without glasses or a magnifier. He took a close look at it, and his monocle fell off. Without a word of praise he continued on his way, and I remained the youngest cartographer in the German army. So you can see the fateful effects that letters one millimeter high can have.”

After a close call with death and brief stint as a prisoner in a French hospital after the war ended, Zapf was able to resume his art, churning out dozens of typefaces over the next several decades. Alphabet Stories—a limited-edition volume with only 300 English-language copies available—offers a unique look at how each of Zapf’s 25-plus typefaces came to be, including the popular digital fonts Palantino and Zapf Dingbats (both of which are, of course, included on most computer operating systems).

In addition to reproductions of his enormous body of work, Zapf’s detailed personal recollections and accounts of his setbacks and how he overcame them provide perspective on a level of accomplishment that can only be described as prodigious. This exciting book may even inspire readers to carve their own names in typographic history.
$50, hardcover, 150 pages, RIT Cary Graphics Arts Press

THE 1000 JOURNALS PROJECT by SOMEGUY
“What would happen if you unleashed 1000 blank journals into the world, beckoning an unsuspecting public to share their innermost thoughts and unbridled creativity? What would people put in them? Where would they travel? Would they ever return home?” Those are the questions The 1000 Journals Project sought to answer. Artist and designer Someguy came up with the idea in June of 2000 as a way to reach people across the globe. He explains, “The process was a mix of a message in a bottle and the ‘exquisite corpse’ technique used by the surrealists. The technique is based on an old parlor game and requires that each participant write or draw on a sheet of paper, fold it to conceal their work, then pass it to the next participant. The end result is a product of the group’s collective consciousness.”

Someguy began handing out blank journals to friends and strangers alike, even leaving them in public places like restrooms, cafés and buses. Each had one of 100 different covers, designed by artists worldwide—including the author. The eye-catching leather-bound journals came with a request: Add something to the book—a story, picture, poetry, random thought—then pass it on. The results are haunting, funny, poignant, celebratory, sad and just plain strange. The 1000 Journals Project contains 250 of the entries received so far, offering readers glimpses into the private lives and thoughts of strangers, some of whom may not even share such intimate details with their closest loved ones.

So what is it about these journals that cause people to fill their pages with secret confessions, raw emotions and even heartfelt apologies to those they feel they have wronged? It may be the anonymous opportunity to set the record straight, the desire to give a piece of oneself to the world or the chance to be part of a unique experiment. Regardless of the reasoning, the success of The 1000 Journals Project is undeniable—once you start leafing through the pages it is hard to put this astonishing book down. And since the project is ongoing, one of these journals may even find its way to you, if it hasn’t already.
$22.95, hardcover, 212 pages, Chronicle Books

40 POSTERS FOR THE YALE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE by Michael Bierut
Imagine working on variations of virtually the same project over and over for a decade. Could you come up with something new and exciting each time? Take away the use of color, and the task becomes even more difficult. But the fact that Michael Bierut was more than up to this challenge is demonstrated in 40 Posters for the Yale School of Architecture.

Dean Robert Stern—who hired Bierut in 1998—says, “What Michael Bierut has done for [us] is an amazing feat of reinvention, bringing new life to a long-respected graphic symbol—the Yale Y—as part of a broader campaign to draw attention to the school and its myriad programs.” In the book, Bierut shares details such as how he first proposed that the same typeface never be used twice. “Bob Stern got the idea,” he says, “and indeed the first three posters shown in this book use over two dozen different fonts, including a few I had never used before and haven’t used since. Perhaps the effect was confusing at first, but eventually the idea that diversity could represent its own form of consistency began to take hold.”

Bierut also simplifies in this work, using just black in the posters —with the exception of one: “White, Gray + Blue: A Symposium.” And the Yale Y always appears in a circle.

Stern says Bierut has turned what could have been standard posters into works of art that are able to reach target audiences in ways other media can’t. And he thinks Bierut may have done too good a job, because the posters may be more memorable than the events. “This program has raised the bar for graphic design at the Yale School of Architecture as high as it’s ever been … and that says a lot for a school that’s seen the likes of Norman Ives, Ivan Chermayeff and Paul Rand, among others, on its faculty. …”
$20, softcover, 72 pages, Winterhouse Editions

&FORK by 10 curators, including Tom Dixon and Francesca Picchi, introduction by Emilia Terragni
Five years ago, an innovative book called Spoon stirred things up in the industrial design world. It was such a success, Spoon has a follow-up collection, titled, appropriately, &Fork. Like its popular predecessor, this new book shines the spotlight on 100 of the world’s best up-and-coming product designers of the past five years. They were selected by 10 of the world’s top design critics, each of whom was asked to pick 10 innovative young designers they felt had the best handle on cutting-edge product design. Each curator was also asked to pick out an object that best exemplifies “good design” and explain why he or she thinks so.

As &Fork took shape, the environment emerged as a major theme in many of the featured works. In the preface, Emilia Terragni says, “What became most apparent during the book’s creation was that our current MySpace/iPod generation is becoming more and more concerned with social responsibility and the ethics of design. There is a widespread use of recycled materials, and many contemporary designs recycle existing objects that might otherwise have been thrown away.” Paris-based design group 5.5 is a good example, taking old, beat-up furniture and turning it into something new, using prefabricated pieces of bright green plastic. Overcrowding and lack of space are also on the minds of many of the chosen designers, who are represented by a number of objects that can be folded, taken apart and stored—like British designer Sam Buxton’s popular line of MIKRO products.

&Fork boasts 1000 color illustrations—four pages for each featured designer or group—for readers to feast their eyes on. As you leaf through page after page of unusual, eye-catching products, you may conclude that the future of industrial design looks so big you’ll need both Spoon &Fork to take it all in.
$69.95, hardcover, 444 pages, Phaidon Press

FRESH DIALOGUE SEVEN: MAKING MAGAZINES edited by AIGA New York, moderated by James Truman
“Starting their own publication is a dream that no doubt most designers, editors and readers out there have entertained. In this day and age, it might seem likely to remain just that—a fantastical, delusional, absurd, half-cocked, hallucinatory dream,” Peter Buchanan-Smith and Barbara de Wilde write in the foreword of this book, which recounts the New York chapter of AIGA’s annual roundtable discussion on June 7, 2006. There, three maverick publishers shared the ins and outs of starting a magazine from the ground up.

Moderator James Truman starts things off by discussing the challenges new publications face, from finding funding and staff to rising costs. And he also talks about critics who point out that 70 percent of magazines fail within two years … a pitfall all three panelists managed to avoid.

Lisa Farjam—founder and editor-in-chief of Bidoun—started her magazine in 2003 because she noticed there weren’t any publications that tried to connect people from the East and West. Farjam hit the streets trying to raise money for her new passion. “Most people laughed in my face,” she confides. “In Dubai I was told that no one would ever read a magazine about art based over there. Three years later, there are two Bidoun rip-offs, both claiming to be the first cultural magazine of the Arab world.”

Founder and editor of Esopus Tod Lippy started his not-forpro fit publication because, “I wanted to create something that was almost pathologically rigorous about being noncommercial, unmediated and just completely pure in every possible way.” Lippy enjoys mixing it up—using various paper stocks, specialty inks, pop-ups and the like. But one of the things that makes his magazine stand out most is what isn’t there: advertising. He solely relies on taxdeductible donations, contributions and grants for funding.

David Haskell—founder and editor-in-chief of Topic—started his magazine at Cambridge University in 2001 and later turned it into a collection of first-person narratives organized around each issue’s given theme. “I was interested in the idea of people talking about real life based on their own life stories and personal experiences. That desire formed the intellectual foundation of the magazine.”
$16.95, softcover, 128 pages, Princeton Architectural Press

MOLESKINE CITY NOTEBOOKS
For two centuries, Moleskine (mol-a-skeen’-a) notebooks have been the journal of choice for legendary artists and writers like Picasso and Hemingway. In these pages, some of the most creative minds in modern history have jotted notes, ideas, sketches and stories later turned into famous masterpieces. To the dismay of many, the pocket-sized tools were discontinued in 1986 when the last Moleskine manufacturer closed its doors. But in 1998, a small Milanese publisher brought the handy journals back, and since then they have been reinvented as everything from planners to reporter notebooks.

The newest incarnation unlocks the secrets of big cities across the globe. Author Aldous Huxley—best known for Brave New World—once said, “For every traveler who has any taste of his own, the only useful guidebook will be the one which he himself has written.” Taking a page from that, the Moleskine City Notebooks allow users to write their own stories.

Each city book boasts a key map of the featured city, as well as subway and zone maps and a street index. The guide comes with tracing papers you can use over maps to plan routes and a tabbed organizer for writing down information like addresses, people, places you visit and activities you would still like to do. If a tab you want doesn’t exist, the notebook also has adhesive labels for adding your own categories, as well as detachable sheets for messages and blank pages to turn to whenever inspiration strikes.

So far, the 16 guides include New York City, Rome and Paris. Many more are in the works—Chicago and Los Angeles are slated to debut in August. Each city book has an accompanying blog where users can log on for cultural and travel updates and read about others’ experiences.
$14.95, softcover, 228 pages, Modo & Modo

SIGNAGE AND WAYFINDING DESIGN by Chris Calori, foreword by Ivan Chermayeff
Environmental graphic designers—referred to as EGDs in this volume—make sure we can get where we’re going, without a bunch of extra information. Signage and Wayfinding Design looks at this emerging field and highlights some of its best work. Ivan Chermayeff: “The best signage is in the right place at the right time, considers the viewer and is neither overly repetitive or demanding. In fact, the best signage seems to take on an air of invisibility. It’s there, but is taken in and taken for granted. Of course, the opportunity exists for signage to add considerably to the excellence of any built environment, adding, by careful attention to details, color, compatible materials and most importantly, good typography that is easy to read and has character, often to reinforce the style and standards of the place, institution or company which stands behind it.”

Author Chris Calori points out that most of those in the field have had to learn from experience, since there is currently no program in the U.S. where students can earn a degree. She says, “This book aims to fill this knowledge gap by putting forth what I believe is the first formal methodology for solving signage and wayfinding problems: the Signage Pyramid model. The book also discusses the design process in some detail, and it has a broad scope of other information—including the insights of distinguished EGD professionals on selected topics—that I hope will be valuable to anyone involved in EG design.”

Because Signage and Wayfinding Design is meant as a resource for those who are in the field, or those who would like to be, there is a handy alphabetized index in the back.
$60, hardcover, 224 pages, John Wiley & Sons

SUPERNATURAL: THE WORK OF ROSS LOVEGROVE by Ross Lovegrove, foreword by Paola Antonelli
“We all have different approaches and objectives as designers. Who can really say what is good or bad, relevant or irrelevant, when the beauty of life is the great diversity of possibility and the incredible momentum of creativity that is enriching all fields. I, for one, need a foundation for my design that I believe in as something relevant, questioning and progressive. This is something that I feel I can express to others with an underlying logic that does not undermine the intelligence of people who view the world through thinking eyes,” says Ross Lovegrove, whose creative combinations of the organic and technological are showcased in Supernatural.

His innovative industrial designs seem to leap off the pages of this new paperback edition, which was penned by the designer himself and comes with a foreword from Museum of Modern Art curator Paola Antonelli. In the introduction, Antonelli—who has been keeping track of Lovegrove’s work since their first meeting more than a dozen years ago—writes, “The insight that Ross Lovegrove’s oeuvre can provide into the new directions of design can carry us much further. To name just two fundamental characteristics, which are not discrete, but rather connected in the designer’s material wisdom, Lovegrove’s work exemplifies the current importance of crafts and questions the current meaning of ‘organic’ in design.”

Indeed, Lovegrove—who is perhaps best known for work on the Sony Walkman, the Apple iMac and the Go chair—is quite the chameleon. Some of his designs are sleek and elegant; others are more abstract. He explains, “I have a nonlinear mind that is stimulated by the rare and the layered. I assemble ideas from a seemingly unrelated plethora of sources that gel into being over time, when the moment is right for a concept to materialize. I have few preconceptions and respond to circumstance. Indeed, whatever environment and whatever culture I am in at the time will totally affect my perception of modernity, physicality and creativity. Awareness and accumulated experiences help me to open up new routes that may never have been taken before, based on my own personal understanding and speculation as to why something has, should or could exist for whatever reason—usefulness, aesthetic beauty or ideally the inherent coexistence of both.”

Supernatural: The Work of Ross Lovegrove gives rare insight into the work and creative processes of a man who has been hailed as one of the 10 most successful designers in the world. And the astonishing visuals show why his concept of “organic essentialism,” which he refers to as “supernatural,” has so successfully merged design, nature and art.
$39.95, softcover, 240 pages, Phaidon Press

TYPOGRAPHIC SYSTEMS by Kimberly Elam
To be a good designer, you must be creative. But because all design is based on structural systems, it’s also important to factor systemic thinking into your work.

Oftentimes, designers find these systemic factors to be frustrating. If you’re among them, picking up a copy of Typographic Systems may help. Author Kimberly Elam—department head at the Ringling School of Art and Design—explains, “Once essential visual organizations are understood, the designer can fluidly organize words or images within a structure, combination of structures or create a variation of a structure. Typographic organization is complex because the elements are dependent on communication in order to function. Additional criteria such as hierarchy, order of reading, legibility and contrast come into play.”

Elam describes a structural system that can be broken down into eight main categories: Axial, Radial, Dilatational, Random, Grid, Transitional, Modular and Bilateral. Each chapter of Typographic Systems tackles one of these topics, providing an in-depth explanation of the system as well as visual examples—complete with transparent diagrams you can place over images—to aid comprehension. While many are loathe to admit it, virtually all designers will benefit from a better understanding of typographic organization.

“Many designers focus primarily on the traditional grid system for design and are unaware of the potential that other systems hold for the graphic designer,” Elam explains. “The visual examples illustrate a broad range of design solutions and give designers, educators and students insight into expanding their knowledge of organizational approaches to typographic design well beyond the grid.”
$19.95, 160 pages, softcover, Princeton Architectural Press

ARABIC FOR DESIGNERS by Mourad Boutros
Extensively illustrated with more than 200 examples of the best in contemporary Arabic typography and graphic design, Arabic for Designers is an authoritative guide for designers unfamiliar with Arabic script.

Using visual examples and case studies, author Mourad Boutros (see his article on page 50) takes the reader through the entire range of graphic design applications—newspaper and television news typefaces, book jacket designs, corporate and brand identity, logotype conversions, advertising, design for print and fine art.

The author shows how non-Arabic speaking designers can work with the language and understand and respect its cultural nuances, while avoiding the pitfalls and mistakes to which many others have fallen victim.

Arabic for Designers demonstrates how designing with Arabic can yield strikingly beautiful, innovative and successful results. Based on over 40 years of experience in working with an array of corporate and creative clients, Boutros addresses the rise in global awareness about Arab culture in ways that inform and inspire. This book is an invaluable reference for design students, design professionals, marketers and anyone interested in Arabic culture and language.
$34.95, 224 pages, hardcover, Mark Batty Publisher

HAND BOOK by Jean-Benoît Lévy
When you go to a foreign country and don’t speak the language well (or at all), hand signals can often fill in the language gaps. Point at something, attempt to mimic the action or thought you are trying to convey, even demonstrate how to do something—it often works.

This form of elemental human communication first struck Hand Book author Jean-Benoît Lévy when, as a young boy, he was introduced to Asian food and those illustrated instructions that are on chopstick wrappers throughout the world. From then on, Lévy says he began to wonder who came up with this enduring design, and why. In the introduction, he explains how his lifelong fascination led to this book, “One fact is certain: The little sequence reproduced on the paper packaging, containing the couple of timeless chopsticks, explaining in three steps how to hold and handle them to eat, is now used all over the world. It has been redesigned many times in various sizes and colors, and it is used on countless packaging for an infinite number of restaurants. One could even say that this mini-sequence has become today the perfect example of the representation of a global gesture.”

For Hand Book, Lévy scoured the globe, examining the many ways hand signals are used to communicate—from offering instructions, services and safety warnings to conveying messages of peace or friendship … even serving as calls to fight or stop perceived injustices or wrongs. Lévy’s work in Hand Book probably represents the first time so many hand signs have been collected and displayed in one graphically unified compendium. He has also developed an amazing font made up of hand signals, keyboard diagrams for which can be found inside the foldout flaps of both the front and back covers (the font is available at www.myfonts.com/refby).

Lévy’s myriad examples show us how important a role hand signals really play in the daily lives of humans everywhere. He eloquently sums up, “ … as multiple as our cultures, traditions, languages and ways of expression are, no matter where we are coming from, the process of the message functions relatively simply. Hand signals can express complexity as they can improve simplicity in our daily life. Crossing over the multiple barriers formed by countless national languages, the use of those modern hieroglyphs remains as effective for communicating now as it was prior to the development of speech.”
€14.90, softcover, 256 pages, Lars Müller Publishers