Swipe Books on Advertising and Design

A young advertising student dropped by the store the other day. Having selected Swipe as the subject for a mock ad campaign he wanted to ask a few questions about the shop, its philosophy and its target market. We obliged, and once again discovered that articulating the shop’s logic is always a useful exercise. The consistent theme throughout the interview was our sense of obligation to the creative community. A somewhat inappropriate counterpoint was a rather childish sense of responsibility to the objects themselves and, to a lesser degree, to their designers. Inappropriate, in that the reaction is an irrational, primarily emotional one. Good designs that are obscure, unfashionable or, for economic reasons, difficult to source seem, well, hard-done-by. Lonely and sad they wait for the day when someone notices them. It is hard to believe that in 1994, the year we started carrying Stelton, the line was otherwise virtually unavailable in Toronto. Or that in 2000 we were one of only two Marimekko dealers in the city. When, in 1995, we first started stocking Toikka birds from Iittala, we were told by a college design professor that they didn’t belong in the shop because “they aren’t design, they’re kitsch”. At this point, all of these lines are available at shops throughout the city and, consequently, we have scaled back our selection to a few under-represented items (for example the lovely ashtray that is the heart of Jacobsen’s Cylinda Line).

Twergi Pepper Mill & Salt Grinder

✍ 1989: Ettore Sottsass

In 1988 Alessi acquired a centuries old Italian firm, Piazza Battista, that specialized in making small turned-wood kitchenwares. One year later, Alessi launched its inaugural wooden product line under the Twergi brand name (logo by Milton Glaser). Most of the items were designed by the late Ettore Sottsass and feature his trademark extravagant use of colour and pattern. With a distinctly unfashionable post-modern flavour, much of the line has since been retired. This pepper mill and the matching salt grinder are among our favourite products. And, yes, lonely and sad they wait for the day when someone notices them.

Pepper Mill: $159.95
Salt Grinder: $121.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Unpacking My Library: Architects and Their Books

✍ 2009: Jo Steffens, editor; with an essay by Walter Benjamin

A great way to annoy friends or loved ones with an interest in popular culture is to consistently look past the celebrities in the glossy magazines at the books on the shelves behind them (“Look at her arms; do you think she’s anorexic?” “I don’t know, but don’t you think she’s a bit old to be reading Ayn Rand and Hermann Hesse?”). More than any other conceit, an individual’s library provides reliable insight into their their self image. This delicious little book, based on an exhibition at Urban Center Books (The Architecture Bookstore of the Municipal Art Society of New York), showcases the libraries of twelve renowned architects, simultaneously cataloguing their intellectual influences and betraying their intellectual affectations. Editor Jo Steffens, who previously edited Block by Block: Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York City, offers a series of photographs of each library with the books in place on their shelves, recording the library’s aesthetic and organizational context along with its contents.

In addition to the photographs, each participant is asked to provide a reading list of the ten books that have most influenced them and interviews allow each to assess the  importance of their libraries to their careers. One wonders if, after the initial flattery of being approached for the project, any of the twelve experienced trepidation at the thought of all those strangers looking at their books. While allowing guests to snoop our books is something that we readily tolerate, one’s library is undoubtedly more revealing than the medicine cabinet we keep locked, or the porn collection and notebook of juvenile poetry we hide so scrupulously. (2009: Yale University Press; ISBN  9780300158939)

$22.95

Oh, and the architects whose libraries and reading lists are featured are:

Stan Allen
Henry Cobb
Liz Diller & Ric Scofidio
Peter Eisenman
Michael Graves
Steven Holl
Toshiko Mori
Michael Sorkin
Bernard Tschumi
Todd Williams & Billie Tsien

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books

✍ 2009: Jason Godfrey

Let us begin by admitting that it is impossible for this book to have been sufficiently good for us not to have found reason to criticize it and, conversely, that the book would have had to have been quite terrifically bad for us not to be thrilled to see it published. We sell books. Specifically, we sell graphic design books. Write a history of live bait and Ned “Dew Worm” Johnson* is gonna love it. And yes, we love Bibliographic: 100 Classic Graphic Design Books. In his introduction Godfrey is quick to point out that this is not intended to be a history of Twentieth Century graphic design nor should it be taken as exhaustive. And, while one might take issue with some of the titles included (Chuck Anderson’s Old Advertising Cuts from A–Z) and be offended by (or feel smug about) the absence of one’s personal favourite (Otl Aicher’s Typographie), there are selections here that demonstrate an unexpected level of thoughtful sophistication. The sight of the Morgan Press wood type samples should be enough to encourage any typophile to forgive nearly any other omission (though, as Canadians, it’s hard to accept that Carl Dair’s Design with Type didn’t even make the Further Readings list!). (2009: Laurence King Publishing; ISBN  9781856695923)
* A real guy (as a teenager I tried picking worms to make pocket money) – David

$62.50

OK, so here’s the list (*asterisks mark the titles that are in print and available from Swipe). Scoff away!

Typography
American Line Type Book
Spécimen Général: Tome 1
Die Neue Typographie, Jan Tschichold*
Modern and Historical Typography, Imre Reiner
The Letter as a Work of Art, Dr Gerard Knuttel
Manuale Typographicum, Hermann Zapf
The Encyclopaedia of Type Faces, W. Turner Berry, A.F. Johnson & W.P. Jaspert*
Alphabet Thesaurus Nine Thousand
An Atlas of Typeforms, James Sutton & Alan Bartram
Wood 2
American Wood Type: 1828–1900, Rob Roy Kelly
Letraset
A Constructed Roman Alphabet, David Lance Goines
Igarashi Alphabets, Takenobu Igarashi
London’s Handwriting, Colin Banks
Helvetica: Homage to a Typeface, Lars Müller*

Sourcebooks
Handbook of Designs and Devices, Clarence P. Hornung
Printed Ephemera, John Lewis
Semiologie Graphique, Jacques Bertin
Letter and Image, Robert Massin

Trade Marks & Symbols, Yasaburo Kuwayama
Label Design, Claude Humbert
Symbol Sourcebook, Henry Dreyfuss*
Handbook of Pictorial Symbols, Rudolf Modley*
Words and Buildings, Jock Kinneir
The Dictionary of Visual Language, Philip Thompson & Peter Davenport
Old Advertising Cuts from A–Z, Charles S. Anderson
Today’s Hieroglyphs, Hans-Rudolf Lutz*
Alphabets & Other Signs, Julian Rothenstein & Mel Gooding (editors)

Instructional
Layout in Advertising, W.A. Dwiggins
Mise en Page, Alfred Tolmer
Colour in Advertising, Joseph Binder
Language of Vision, György Kepes
Vision in Motion, László Moholy-Nagy
The Graphic Artist and His Design Problems, Josef Müller-Brockmann
Typography, Aaron Burns
Typography: Basic Principles, John Lewis
Graphic Design Manual, Armin Hofmann*

Visual Presentation of Invisible Processes, Anton Stankowski
Typography, Emil Ruder*
A Sign Systems Manual, Crosby/Fletcher/Forbes
Grid Systems in Graphic Design, Josef Müller-Brockmann*
The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Edward R. Tufte*
Notes on Book Design, Derek Birdsall*

Histories
The New Graphic Art, Karl Gerstner & Markus Kutter
Functional Graphic Design in the 20’s, Eckhard Neumann

Pioneers of Modern Typography, Herbert Spencer
Images of an Era, John Garrigan, Margaret Cogswell, Milton Glaser, Dore Ashton & Alan Gowans
The Language of Graphics, Edward Booth-Clibborn & Daniele Baroni
A History of Graphic Design, Philip B. Meggs*
Bauhaus: Drucksachen, Typografie, Reklame, Gerd Fleischmann
Typography: When Who How, Friedrich Friedl, Nicolaus Ott & Bernard Stein
Graphic Styles, Steven Heller & Seymour Chwast*
Graphic Design: A Concise History, Richard Hollis*

Anthologies
Seven Designers Look at Trademark Design, Egbert Jacobson (editor)
Polski Plakat Filmowy, Tadeusz Kowalski (editor)
Graphic Design: Visual Comparisons, Alan Fletcher, Colin Forbes & Bob Gill
Publicity and Graphic Design in the Chemical Industry, Hans Neuburg
Design Coordination and Corporate Image, F.H.K. Henrion & Alan Parkin
Graphis Diagrams, Walter Herdeg (editor)
Top Graphic Design, F.H.K. Henrion
The Liberated Page, Herbert Spencer (editor)
Typography Now, Rick Poynor & Edward Booth-Clibborn (editors)
Carouschka’s Tickets, Carouschka Streijffert & Peter Kihlgard

Monographs
Thoughts on Design, Paul Rand
Esposizioni e Mostre, Erberto Carboni
Visual Design in Action, Ladislav Sutnar
Love and Joy about Letters, Ben Shahn
Milton Glaser: Graphic Design, Milton Glaser
The Graphic Design of Yusaku Kamekura, Yusaku Kamekura
Jan Tschichold: Typographer, Ruari McLean

The Art of Advertising, George Lois & Bill Pitts
The Complete Tadanori Yokoo, Tadanori Yokoo
‘Walk Away René’, George Hardie & Storm Thorgerson
Living by Design, The Partners of Pentagram & Peter Gorb (editor)
Forget All the Rules You Ever Learned about Graphic Design. Including the Ones in this Book., Bob Gill
Lo Studio Boggeri: 1933–1981, Bruno Monguzzi (editor)
Paul Rand: A Designer’s Art, Paul Rand
Herb Lubalin: Art Director, Graphic Designer and Typographer, Gertrude Snyder & Alan Peckolick
Cassandre, Henri Mouron
The Left-Handed Designer, Seymour Chwast
Dorfsman & CBS, Dick Hess & Marion Muller
The Art of Graphic Design, Bradbury Thompson
The Graphic Language of Neville Brody, Neville Brody & Jon Wozencroft*
Brodovitch, Andy Grundberg
Siegfried Odermatt & Rosmarie Tissi: Graphic Design, Siegfried Odermatt, Rosmarie Tissi with Jack Waser & Werner M. Wolf (editors)
Nova: 1965–1975, David Hillman, Harri Peccinotti & David Gibbs (editor)
The End of Print, Lewis Blackwell & David Carson
Printed Matter, Robin Kinross, Jaap van Triest & Karel Martens (editors)*

Wim Crouwel: Mode en Module, Frederike Huygen & Hugues C. Boekraad
I Am Almost Always Hungry, Cahan & Associates*
Tibor Kalman: Perverse Optimist, Peter Hall & Michael Bierut (editors)*
Weingart: Typography, Wolfgang Weingart
Maeda @ Media, John Maeda*
The Art of Looking Sideways, Alan Fletcher*
Sagmeister: Made You Look, Peter Hall*
Make it Bigger, Paula Scher*
Designed by Peter Saville, Emily King (editor)
8vo: On the Outside, Mark Holt & Hamish Muir*
Robert Brownjohn: Sex and Typography, Emily King*

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

It’s a new year and time to get back to work (and by work we mean flip through the annuals, slagging the work that won the awards you should have won).

One Show 31: Advertising’s Best Print, Design, Radio and TV

Once again the North American advertising and design industries’ most prestigious annual has been divided into three separate books: Advertising, Design and Interactive. While the One Show originated as an awards program focused on advertising copywriting, it is interesting to note that this year the three annuals are roughly the same size. And, once again, the Club is offering a boxed set for those who refuse to be pigeonholed. (2010: Rockport; ISBN 9780929837406 Advertising; ISBN 9780929837383 Design; ISBN 9780929837420 Interactive; ISBN 9780929837437 Boxed Set)

One Show 31 Advertising: $87.50
One Show 31 Design (Volume 3): $62.50
One Show 31 Interactive (Volume 12): $62.50
One Show 31 – 3 Volume Boxed Set: $187.50

88th New York Art Directors Annual

Considered by many in the industry to be one of the toughest awards programs, the New York Art Directors Club presents the latest winners in both the national and international categories (includes a DVD with the multi-media award winners). (2010: RotoVision; ISBN 9782888930853)

$99.95

44th Society of Publication Design Annual (SPD)

The Society of Publication Designers annual is the only international awards program that specifically showcases the work of editorial art directors, with sections devoted to trade, corporate, institutional, newspaper, and consumer publication design. (2009: Rockport; ISBN 9781592535866)

$74.95

Typography 30: The Annual of the Type Directors Club

The Type Director’s Club annual is the most eagerly anticipated of the awards program showcases we carry. This 30th edition, designed by Werner Design Werks, includes the winning entries from both the TDC55 Typography Competition and the TDC² 2009 Type Design Competition. Also included is a reprint of the original pages from the fifth TDC Competition held in 1960. (2010: Harper Collins; ISBN 9780061726316).

$77.95

Graphis Design Annual 2010

The flagship annual from Graphis, published continuously since 1952, this year’s volume features linked essays by Robert Priest, one of the platinum winners in this Annual; Office, who branded David Eggers’ non-profit pirate store in San Francisco; and Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, creators of HP’s Vivienne Tam mini-laptop campaign. (2009: Graphis; ISBN 9781932026535)

Graphis Advertising Annual 2010

One of the more recent additions to the Graphis publishing program, since its introduction in 1993, Graphis Advertising has become an important single-volume alternative to the regional and association-based annuals. In-depth features include Adrian Pulfer and Lynn Dangel of Dangel Advertising explaining the latest Crate and Barrel campaign; DeVito/Verdi’s Jay Marsen and Alexei Beltrone on their Legal Sea Foods mock-newspaper ads; and Jim Prior of The Partners discussing the inspiration behind an exhibition for The National Gallery of London. (2009: Graphis; ISBN 9781932026566)

Each $84.95

Communication Arts 2009 Advertising Annual

Communication Arts 2009 Design Annual

Communication Arts recently announced that they will no longer be publishing general magazine issues and instead produce only the six annuals that have become the focus of the publishing program over the past several years. Though we will miss the critical articles that previously characterized the publication, we are gratified that the print version of theses annuals will continue to offer professionals and students an economical overview of the year’s best work.  (2009: Communications Arts; ISBN 007447092074801)

Each: $29.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

The product of a collaboration between LEGO and celebrated architectural artist (and LEGO Certified Professional) Adam Reed Tucker, whose educational company, BrickStructures, Inc., specializes in the design and execution of scale replicas of architectural masterpieces in the ubiquitous plastic bricks. Or rather, not replicas. Tucker makes this point on the BrickStructures web site: “I first and foremost do not view my models as literal replicas, but rather artistic interpretations that capture the essence of their sculptural form.” Furthering his educational mission, Tucker’s ‘artistic interpretations’ are currently the centerpiece of an exhibition at Chicago’s Museum of Science & Industry. “With products such as the line of souvenir sets and educational events, we wish to promote an awareness of the fascinating worlds of architecture, engineering and construction in a new and unexpected way.” Tucker states. In the newly released Frank Lloyd Wright licensed series, as in the entire LEGO Architecture program, Tucker’s artistry is equally evident in the individual designs and in the overall concept, which puts to shame anything that’s come out of Billund recently. They are simple, honest and to the heart of what has made LEGO a mainstay of Twentieth-Century childhood.

Lego Architecture Landmark Series

Sears Tower
✍ 2008: Adam Reed Tucker, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Bruce Graham & Fazlur Khan

The first in the LEGO Architecture series, this striking black-and-white replica of the famous Sears Tower in Chicago measures 9 inches (228 mm) tall.

John Hancock Center
✍ 2008: Adam Reed Tucker, Owings & Merrill Skidmore, Bruce Graham & Fazlur Khan

Another Chicago landmark, this model of the John Hancock Center measures 7.5 inches (192 mm) tall.

Empire State Building
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker & Lamb & Harmon Shreve

The Empire State Building, third in the LEGO Architecture Landmark series, proudly standing 7.4 inches (188 mm) tall.

Space Needle
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker, Edward Carlson, John Graham & Victor Steinbrueck

This futuristic tower, Seattle’s famous Space Needle created for the 1962 World’s Fair, is the fourth in the LEGO Architecture Landmark series.

Each set: $29.95

Lego Architecture Frank Lloyd Wright Series

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker & Frank Lloyd Wright

2009 marks the 50th anniversary of New York City’s best-known museum, the Solomon R. Guggenheim, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The Guggenheim set stands 4 inches (102 mm) tall and includes a booklet describing the history and construction of the classic 5th Avenue landmark.

$54.95

Fallingwater
✍ 2009: Adam Reed Tucker & Frank Lloyd Wright

Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in 1934, Fallingwater is the most famous residential architectural design in the world. The assembled model stands 10 inches (256 mm) wide and includes a booklet with facts about the building, its construction and its history.

$129.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Launched in 1997, 2G International Architecture Review, from Barcelona-based Editorial Gustavo Gili, has, in the short time since its introduction, become the most respected chronicle of contemporary architecture. Each issue is divided into three sections. The first two offer a critical examination of the work of a single architect, beginning with an introductory essay by renowned critics and colleagues, and followed by an in-depth presentation of 10 to 15 representative projects documented with full-page photographs and detailed plans and elevations. The final section, called Nexus, provides the featured architect an opportunity to write about their own work and to present their ideas as they see fit. Thus, 2G offers a unique opportunity to contrast the architect’s stated intent with critical interpretations of their work.

2G #51: MGM Morales Giles Mariscal

✍ 2009: Laurent Beaudouin, Sara de Giles, Jose Morales & Carlos Muro

This issue examines the work of another iconoclastic regional practice: in this case the Sevillean studio MGM Arquitectos. In both their high-density residential projects and public buildings, MGM infuses a distinctly contemporary architecture with the traditional interplay of interior and exterior space typical of Andalusian architecture. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425223143)

$51.95

2G #50: Sou Fujimoto

✍ 2009: Toyo Ito & Julian Worrall

Sou Fujimoto is the most representative practitioner of a distinctively Japanese style in contemporary architecture which incorporates traditional Japanese attitudes toward nature and the relationship between interior and exterior space. Fujimoto is one of the youngest architects to be profiled in 2G, and his work has been restricted primarily to smaller residential projects and a variety of conceptual exercises. The issue features a critical assessment by renowned Japanese architect Toyo Ito, in many ways Fujimoto’s conceptual antecedent. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425222931)

$51.95

2G #48–49: Mies van der Rohe : Houses

✍ 2009: Beatriz Colomina, Moises Puente & Hans Christian

This double issue focuses an aspect of Mies’ body of work that, up to now, has been poorly documented. All of Mies’ single-family dwellings, in both Germany and the United States, are examined in new commissioned photos from Hans-Christian Schink, along with the original drawings and other archival material. Essays by Beatriz Colomina and Moises Puente provide critical context and a special section catalogues the known unbuilt residential projects. (2009: Editorial Gustavo Gili; ISBN 9788425221880)

$114.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

11 am to 6 pm: Thursday to Saturday, November 19th to 21st
Okay, so we don’t really have a sidewalk so, yes, technically, it’s more of a really long hallway sale, but 50% off on great design is still 50% off and you won’t get rained on, have leaves blowing around your head, or diesel exhaust to deal with just great design at great prices, at a building you love having an excuse to visit.

Bring a print of this page and, in addition to 50% off on selected merchandise, you’ll get 15% off all regularly priced gift items and 10% off all regularly priced books!

     Click on the image to browse this book’s contents.

Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volume 1 : 1628–1900

Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volume 2 : 1900–1938

✍ 2009 & 2010: Cees de Jong, Alston W. Purvis & Jan Tholenaar

Taschen has a knack, unrivaled among contemporary art and design publishers, for successfully balancing price against quality and content. By licensing existing text and photography, and through the creative use of out-of-copyright material, the publisher consistently manages to create desirable, yet affordable, books. Unfortunately, such books generally add little to the public record or to a critical understanding of their subject. Every so often, however, Taschen produces a book of grand significance. Drawn from the collection of the late Jan Tholenaar, these astoundingly beautiful surveys of the printed type specimen are probably the most consequential design books Taschen has ever published. The majority of the examples are exquisitely rare Continental specimens from the Nineteenth Century. Typical of Taschen, there is precious little explanatory text. The introductory essays, by Cees de Jong and Alston W. Purvis, are superficial and provide practically no context for the material that follows. Which would be more of a shame if the material that follows were not so extraordinary and otherwise completely unavailable. In fact, the illustrations embedded in the introduction, a Berthold Hebrew script specimen from 1924 and an Arabic and Turkish specimen from Stempel in 1922, are so lovely that it’s hard to even pay attention to the text. What these volumes also demonstrate, quite dramatically, is the continued relevance of of the private book collection as both an intellectual exercise and a cultural record. There are certainly institutional collections that rival the one amassed by Mr. Tholenaar, but such collections are typically not accessible by the public and are virtually never documented in so glorious a fashion. (2009: Taschen; ISBN 9783836511018 & 2010: Taschen; ISBN  9783836515146)

Each: $69.95

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

Twenty + Change 01: Emerging Toronto Design Practices
Twenty + Change 02: Emerging Canadian Design Practices

✍ 2009: Heather Dubbeldam & Lola Sheppard , editors

Founded in 2007, Twenty + Change is a biennial exhibition programme intended to highlight the work of young Canadian architects and urban designers who have yet to receive widespread public and media attention. The most recent exhibition, launched at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto in June of 2009, is documented in this attractive two-volume catalogue. The first volume features projects from 21 emerging Toronto architects and the second volume showcases the work of 21 additional young architects from across the country. Edited by Heather Dubbeldam of Dubbeldam Design Architects and Lola Sheppard of Lateral Architecture, and published by the Riverside Architectural Press, the catalogue captures not only the current cutting-edge but gives some sense of the future potential of the of the industry in Canada. (2009: Riverside Architectural Press; ISBNs 9781926724010 & 9781926724003)

$19.95 each volume

Among the featured practices are:

5468796 Architecture Inc, Winnipeg
AGATHOM Co., Toronto
Altius Architecture Inc., Toronto
Campos Leckie, Vancouver
D’Arcy Jones Design Inc, Vancouver
Dubbeldam Design Architects, Toronto
EVOKE International Design Inc., Vancouver
Gow Hastings Architects Inc., Toronto
Khoury Levit Fong, Toronto
Lapointe Architects, Toronto
Lateral Office, Toronto
Marko Simcic Architect, Vancouver
mcfarlane | green | biggar ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN, Vancouver
naturehumaine [architecture + design], Montreal
NIPpaysage, Montreal
North Design Office, Toronto
Paul Raff Studio, Toronto
RVTR, Toronto
spmb, Winnipeg
Susan Fitzgerald Architecture, Halifax
The Acre Collective, Saint John
Urban Republic arts society/ph5 architecture inc., Vancouver

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.

The aesthetic congruity between Japanese and Scandinavian design is self-evident. Both traditions hold a similar attitude toward nature and natural form, both tend to minimalism and share a reverence for craftsmanship. In the field of architecture there was a reciprocal influence between the cultures throughout the Twentieth Century, with Alvar Aalto, who is essentially revered by modern Japanese architects, being particularly vocal in his appreciation of traditional Japanese architecture and design. In graphic and pattern design, the Japaneque is very much a part of the design vocabulary of Marimekko, while contemporary Japanese designer Yurio Seki has collaborated with Swedish craft maven Lotta Jansdotter and is responsible for the design of the first monograph on the work of renowned graphic designer Olle Eksell to be published outside of his native Sweden.

Yurio Seki: Japanese Graphic Designer

✍ 2008: Yurio Seki

This is the first comprehensive monograph on the work of Yurio Seki and her brand Salvia. Seki is one of the most popular graphics designers in Japan with an instantly recognizable style and palette. Along with a complete presentation of the Salvia pattern and product designs, this book features an extensive selection of her book designs and other print work. Unfortunately, as this is a specially imported domestic publication from Pie Books, all text is in Japanese. (2008: PIE Books; ISBN 9784894446496)

$49.95

Olle Eksell: Swedish Graphic Designer

✍ 2007: Olle Eksell

Olle Eksell (1918-2007) was a pioneering figure in Swedish graphic design.Typical of the industry in Sweden, Eksell maintained a diverse practice, working in illustration, corporate identity and editorial design, fabric and textile design, and as a design educator and writer. However, it was his advocacy of the modern conception of graphic design and his 1964 textbook Design-Economy that were most influential in the development of the industry in Sweden. His work is uniformly subtle, beautiful and gentle. Another domestic publication from Pie Books with the majority of its text in Japanese. (2007: PIE Books; ISBN 9784894445475)

$44.95

Alvar Aalto: Through the Eyes of Shigeru Ban

✍ 2007: Shigeru Ban, Juhani Pallasmaa & Tomoko Sato

Based on a 2007 exhibition by the same name held at the Barbican Art Gallery in London, this beautifully produced catalogue examines the development of Aalto’s architectural style, reproducing models, drawings, photographs and artifacts from 14 of his key projects. Curated by renowned Japanese architect Shigeru Ban, who, despite the generational and geographical divide, is perhaps the most most legitimate heir to Aalto’s architectural vision. (2007: Black Dog Publishing; ISBN 9781904772644)

$54.00

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To purchase any of the products or titles mentioned here, please visit our downtown Toronto location, call us toll-free at 1-800-56-swipe or e-mail us at: info@swipe.com.