Ace Jet 170

The Penrose Annual 1958, Volume 52

Now on Flickr, Volume 52 is exeptional. As well as being the edition that comes with that amazing Swissair leaflet, inside you'll find work by Ken Garland, Carlo Vivarelli, a certain Max Miedinger and articles on Ordnance Survey map production and "Advertising in the Atomic Age".

There's a brilliant article called "Management training: the new concept" by Major-General C. Lloyd, specifically about the state of printing education at the time, lavishly illustrated with examples of beautiful typography, illustration and layout, including work from the Central School of Arts and Crafts (when Colin Forbes was Head of Department).

The Penrose Annual 1960, Volume 54

A seriously dodgy cover I know but inside Volume 54 there's some special stuff, like that astounding Karl Gerstner designed ad. More on Flickr.

The Penrose Annual 1967, Volume 60

Just bought this on ebay, reasonable price. Penrose Annuals are brilliant, rich in content: from the mundane technicalities of press technology to the cutting-edge of typographic development. I've been collecting them (very, very slowly) since I started working. I've got eight, there's lots more to get but I thought it would be good to get some highlights online.

They're actually not that difficult to get hold of, although I expect there's rarities.

For a better insight, read Steve Hare's article for Eye
And more pics on Flickr.