Great graphic design resource from gorgeous new Phaidon archive cards

Date
30 August 2012

When something like the London Design Festival rolls around, some are tempted into publicity-grabbing projects that sit strangely with the usual role of that particular individual or organisation. What makes much more sense is to produce something far simpler that shows you at your best, and that’s exactly what Phaidon have done with their LDF-inspired Archive of Graphic Design. The 500 cards feature “timeless graphic designs that have set a bench-mark for excellence and innovation around the world” across books, magazines, newspapers, posters, symbols, logos, typefaces, information design, money, film graphics, identities, packaging graphics, advertisements and record and CD covers.

This is an excellent history of graphic design from Gutenberg to Shephard Fairey’s Obama poster with enough diversity to satisfy connoisseurs and those with a more casual interest alike.

But this is more than a great excuse to peruse some stunning visuals, as the stories behind these iconic designs are included too and because they’re unbound you can have endless fun playing a geeky-graphic design lucky dip. Yes please!

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The Phaidon Archive of Graphic Design

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Unknown: The Man of Letters or Pierrot’s Alphabet (1794) (Pic courtesy Bowles & Carver, UK)

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Aleksandr Rodchencko: Luchshih Sosok ne bilo n yet (1923) (Pic courtesy Rezinotrest, Russia)

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Paul Rand: IBM (1956 to 1991)

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Gio Ponti et al: Domus (1928 to present) (Editorale Domus, April 1952, no 269)

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About the Author

Rob Alderson

Rob joined It’s Nice That as Online Editor in July 2011 before becoming Editor-in-Chief and working across all editorial projects including itsnicethat.com, Printed Pages, Here and Nicer Tuesdays. Rob left It’s Nice That in June 2015.

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