Steven Heller

Here is a lively and lighthearted survey that looks at the role that old and classic fonts - from letterpress to slab serifs and beyond - play in contemporary graphic design. Written and compiled by the world's leading graphic-design historian, the b ook provides hundreds of examples, as well as informed texts that will entertain, edify and inspire a new generation of students and practitioners to appreciate that the past contains typographic riches for the future.

A survey of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and journals. Steven Heller An historical survey of avant-garde cultural and political magazines and journals of the 20th century Presents rarely seen magazines from all over the globe linked to

It was just over 60 years ago that Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini, two of the world's most powerfully imposing leaders, died and their regimes crumbled. One of the most illuminating facts about this dark era of history is the way in which these tyrants, and others like them, used graphic design as an instrument of power. But how did these regimes succeed in influencing the minds of millions? It is in the visual language the imagery, the typeface, the color palette that the answers truly take shape. Phaidon Press is pleased to announce the publication of Iron Fists: Branding the 20th Century Totalitarian State by Steven Heller, the first illustrated survey of the propaganda art, graphics, and artifacts created by the totalitarian governments of Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy and the Communist regimes of the USSR and China. The book sets the disturbingly powerful graphic devices in historical context.The infamous symbols produced by these regimes are recognized universally: the swastika and gothic typography of Hitler's Germany, Mussolini's streamlined Futurist posters and Black Shirt uniforms, the stolid Social Realism of Stalin's USSR and Mao s Little Red Book. Author Steven Heller, a world-renowned design historian, who has long collected two-and-three-dimensional examples from this period, reveals how these symbols were used in a wide variety of propaganda, from posters, magazines and advertisements to uniforms, flags and figurines.In addition to using logos and symbols, all of the leaders researched in this book deliberately cultivated certain personal characteristics (Hitler's mustache, Mussolini's baldness, Lenin's goatee, Mao's smile), in an attempt to transform their corporeal selves into icons. These regime personalities were blanketed across public venues, from monuments to postage stamps. The Nazis, for example, installed an intricate graphic program that featured Hitler s face as a ''logo,'' a system remarkably similar to modern corporate identity creations. By integrating color images of artifacts with archival black and white photographs, Iron Fists offers unique insight into how these regimes were effective in using graphic design to further their causes. In the section on Fascist Italy, for example, there are numerous reproductions of stylized posters, magazines and handbooks designed to excite impressionable youth. Heller then connects this printed propaganda with historic photographs of Italian children dressed as men prepared for battle stoic and serious their small hands clutching guns instead of toys. Divided into four sections by regime, Heller also explores the color systems (each dictatorship had a distinctive palette), typefaces, and slogans used to both rally and terrorize the populace. In result, he demonstrates how these elements were used to ''sell'' the totalitarian message. The first extensively illustrated book on the subject, Iron Fists will have an obvious appeal to graphic designers but will also be an important contribution to the study of the history of the totalitarian state.

This title presents music for the eyes. The man who launched the Golden Age of album cover design. Alex Steinweiss invented the album cover as we know it, and created a new graphic art form. In 1940, as Columbia Records' young new art director, he pitched an idea: Why not replace the standard plain brown wrapper with an eye-catching illustration? The company took a chance, and within months its record sales increased by over 800 per cent. His covers for Columbia - combining bold typography with modern, elegant illustrations - took the industry by storm and revolutionized the way records were sold. Over three decades, Steinweiss made thousands of original artworks for classical, jazz, and popular record covers for Columbia, Decca, London, and Everest; as well as logos, labels, advertising material, even his own typeface, the Steinweiss Scrawl. He launched the golden age of album cover design and influenced generations of designers to follow. Less well known - but included here - are his posters for the U.S. Navy; packaging and label design for liquor companies; film title sequences; as well as his fine art. This title includes essays by three-time Grammy Award-winning art director/designer Kevin Reagan and graphic design historian Steven Heller; Steinweiss' personal recollections from an epic career; and extensive ephemera from the Steinweiss archive. Record collectors and graphic designers rejoice! Previously available in a limited edition, the book is finally available in an affordable trade version.

This is a collection of 'favourite' designs as selected by 80 prominent graphic designers, typographers, teachers, scholars, writers and design impresarios. Designs featured include the iconic CBS eye, the stark Kodak identity, the Coca-Cola bottle, and, of course, The Rolling Stones' Sticky Fingers album cover.

Arranged by designer, this collection of typographic explorations reveals how nearly 120 of the world's leading designers and typographers continually strive to find ways of communicating through letters and words, and provides insights into their wo rk.

New in the "100 Ideas that Changed..." series, this book demonstrates how ideas influenced and defined graphic design, and how those ideas have manifested themselves in objects of design. The 100 entries, arranged broadly in chronological order, range from technical (overprinting, rub-on designs, split fountain); to stylistic (swashes on caps, loud typography, and white space); to objects (dust jackets, design handbooks); and, methods (paper cut-outs, pixelation). Written by one of the world's leading authorities on graphic design and lavishly illustrated, the book is both a great source of inspiration and a provocative record of some of the best examples of graphic design from the last hundred years.

This revolutionary guide is not only the first to look at how typography in design creates a call to action, but it also explores type and image as language. "Stop, Think, Go, Do" is packed with arresting imagery from around the world that influences human behavior. Page after page, you'll find innovative messages that advocate, advise caution, educate, entertain, express, inform, play, and transform.

Classic modern design never goes out of style: it is merely retired or subtly adapted to its given place and time. "New Modernist Type" is a collection that reveals how a graphic language of simplicity and economy has impacted contemporary design. Hundreds of modern examples by international designers are grouped into four thematic chapters: Economy, Pure and Simple; Old Modern Redux; Modern Signs and Symbols; and New, Newer, Newest. With an historical introduction putting today's tendencies in context and a reference section that includes a list of designers websites, "New Modernist Type" is a rich sourcebook of ideas for the most functional of styles.

"Comics Sketchbooks" presents the private notebooks of 76 of the worlds most inventive, innovative and successful artists, alongside new talents and emerging illustrators, in a breathtaking range of creative play. From cartoons to the graphic novel, from humour to superheroes, comics are the worlds most popular form of illustration. However, we rarely see the creative thinking the doodling, the experimentation that leads to fully formed visual ideas and stories. Although there have been several comic-book compilations over the years, none has the visual excitement, creative insight and mind-blowing creativity and fun of "Comics Sketchbooks".

Selected by the world's most knowledgeable and well-connected graphic design commentator, Steven Heller, this survey gets into the minds of designers who create typefaces, word-images and logos through their private sketchbooks. Arranged by designer, it reveals how nearly 120 of the world's leading designers and typographers continually strive to find new and exciting ways of communicating through letters and words, and provides fascinating insights into their work. Aimed at all those who use type, whether by hand or on screen, this revealing compendium stresses the importance of good typography at a time when reading habits are changing, and celebrates a craft that has endured for centuries.

This is a unique survey of photography from its origins until now. From a delivery boy to one of the most important industrialists in American history, George Eastman's career developed in a particularly American way. The founder of Kodak died in 1932, and left his house to the University of Rochester. Since 1949 the site has operated as an international museum of photography and film, and today holds the largest collection of its kind in the world. The continually expanding photography collection contains over 400,000 images and negatives - among them the work of Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, Ansel Adams and others - as well as 23,000 cinema films, five million film stills, one of the most important silent film collections, technical equipment and a library with 40,000 books on photography and film. The George Eastman House is a pilgrimage site and a place of worship for researchers, photographers and collectors from all over the world. This volume shows in chronological order the most impressive images and the most important developments in the art of light that is photography. It provides in its huge collection and themes a unique survey of the medium from its origins until now.

New Ornamental Type presents a dazzling kaleidoscope of highly animated text and type samples across a broad spectrum of styles and effects. Psychedelia, Hip-Hop, Gothic, flowers, smoke, hair, electricity and monuments are just a few of the creative allusions in the hundreds of dramatic and intricate examples inspired by nature, history and just about anything that is visually expressive. The book begins with a historical outline of ornament and its evolution through the major creative periods from the beginnings of the 20th century to the present. The heart of the book contains hundreds of contemporary examples from around the world, organized into three sections, each with a brief essay introducing the background, influences and outstanding aspects of the graphic works.

In this new book from one of the great authorities on graphic design, some 100 of the worlds leading graphic designers open up their private sketchbooks, giving the reader an unparalleled insight into their creative development, design philosophies and visual influences. Samples range from typographical explorations to fully fledged illustration ideas, from scrappy scribbles and eccentric handwriting to photographic collages. Contributors include such world-recognized names as Stefan Sagmeister, Christoph Niemann, Sara Fanelli, Christoph Abbrederis, Shogo Ota, Art Spiegelman, Uwe Loesch, Milton Glaser, Michael Bierut, Bruce Mau, François Chastanet and Jordi Duró. Graphic is a treasure trove of design inspiration for professionals, students or anyone engaged in the visual industries.

Bold, monumental, atmospheric, architectural letters with relief and shadow define great periods of confidence and optimism. Shadows add intrigue and spectacle to otherwise mundane words. And they're back in style. Drawn from a particularly rich period in the history of shadow type, from the 19th to the mid-20th century, this is the first compilation of popular, rare and forgotten three-dimensional letters from Germany, France, Britain, Italy and the United States, where the best examples were produced. Presented in compact form, with examples from some 300 sources compiled by the leading historian of graphic design, this lively publication, packed full of typographic ideas for any purpose, will amuse, enchant and inspire anyone aiming to impart depth to their design.