Over on Noisy Decent Graphics Ben has highlighted a link on Swiss Miss to the Image Now Gallery where there's a beautifully presented exhibition of Josef Müller-Brockmann's work.
Which reminds me that on my Big List of Stuff Still to Blog is this book. I love this kind of book. Modern designer "Show and Tell" books are so often more Show than Tell. What I mean is that, yes, they're full of pictures (nice) but rarely do they provide any real insight; rarely do you come away better equiped as a designer. JMB wrote this book precisely for that reason, as the cover notes say,"This book affords the graphic designer valuable guidance on basic problems of design..."
Yes, it's packed full of stunning examples of his advertising, packaging, exhibition and signage work; but along with that is theory and working drawings. Stuff to learn. Brilliant!
When I was just starting out, with little creative experience but a leaning towards technical skills, JMB bridged the cavanous gap. His work is often a testament to the beauty of geometry and mathematics, constructed, often, more like a piece of architecture than a piece of conventional graphic design.
In his book Graphic Design as a Second Language (a very good read but a very bad bit of typesetting) Bob Gill says, "I have never seen a job of his that isn't perfect".
When I saw that cover I realized that "How to be a graphic designer without loosing your soul" was referring to it. Nice.
Posted by: Gregor | 20 April 2007 at 08:59 AM