Graphic Design Visionaries Paperback – 3 Aug. 2015

Will pick it up time and time again!

Okay

Great

“Visionaries" are described as people with original ideas about what the future will or could be like. That was unlikely the plan of those graphic design thinkers featured in “Graphic Design Visionaries” by Caroline Roberts. This book covers a broad scope of international designers who had the talent and fortune of working with corporations that enabled their creative freedom beyond the usual for its time. Paul Rand, FHK Henrion, Saul Bass to more obscure names like Ladislav Sutnar, Giovanni PIntori (Olivetti) & Cipe Pineles (Seventeen Magazine) are represented. And yet there’s a void left by the lack of female representation (Margo Chase, Marian Bantjes) or extraordinary designers like Alvin Lustig & Stefan Kanchev. (Perhaps an opportunity for a followup?)In all fairness, the intention here is not to be an exhaustive encyclopedia-style collection, but rather an easy resource covering distinctive accomplishments by worthy design thinkers. It functions to give each designer four feature pages of key projects, career highlights, and a timeline of biographical hallmarks in their life journey. Each feature skims the surface of each visionary—more as an introductory of what makes them worthy to be included—without going much deeper into their personal motivations, thought processes or career goals. Many are well-known and expected for their inclusion, while others are more obscure but just as worthy for their contributions and courage, as much as for their curiosity. What does unite them were their own personal passions to be explore graphic design beyond what was considered safe, easy or already done.Pushing boundaries, challenging status quo, or simply following the beat of their own drum, it is refreshing to see works from the past appear just as fresh as if they were created today. In the same vein, it clearly demonstrates how incredible the technical skill of past design craftsmen and abstract thinkers had led the charge prior to the computer age utilizing basic, primitive resources. Where they were given autonomy and trust by their employers and design patronage, today’s brand design for those same corporations (Olivetti, Conde Nast publishing, Westinghouse) seem led by the mass market consumer appeal of today over innovation and vision for tomorrow. And yet these once small emerging corporations that were trying to find their brand voice, is where the forward-thinking design innovators of today are focussing their energies...

The person for whom this was a present is enjoying it. A beautiful-looking book - before I began to wrap it.