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Thoughts on a book
The Most Beautiful Swiss Books competition was established to promote and reward top-quality book design in Switzerland. It was established at the behest of the famous typographer and designer Jan Tschichold in 1943. The competition is open to graphic designers, publishers and printers. An internationally staffed jury, currently chaired by Cornel Windlin, selects the most beautiful Swiss books each year.
The awarded books become part of an exhibition which travels to various cities around the world. When the books stop off in London this December, they will be the subject of discussion at ‘Thoughts on a Book’, an evening of talks at the St Bride Foundation.
Each speaker has chosen a book to present. They will hold a 10 minute presentation about their experience of reading that particular book. We will finish the event with a Q&A chaired by David Crowley.
Exhibition talk: 7pm
December 14, 2011
St Bride Library
Bride Lane, Fleet Street
London EC4Y 8EE
Pharma
The Herb Lubalin Study Center at The Cooper Union examines the influence and impact of graphic design on the pharmaceutical industry in PHARMA, a new exhibit featuring original and rarely seen works by luminaries including Andy Warhol, Lester Beall, Will Burtin and Herb Lubalin. PHARMA’s exploration begins with the avant garde promotionals of the 1940’s, when a market need emerged to promote “miracle” drugs, such as Penicillin, to the medical industry. In a compelling and thought provoking way, PHARMA presents the relationship graphic design has had with the pharmaceutical industry ranging from the federal government’s increased regulations to new marketing tactics where the everyday consumer, not the doctor, is considered the target audience. While the exhibition provides examples of past and present, the public is encouraged to reflect and question how graphic design is used to market drugs and design has transformed these commodities into objects of desire.
Herb Lubalin Gallery, 41 Cooper Square, New York NY
Exhibition Dates: November 01 - through December 03, 2011
Oooga Booga at The Swiss Institute
Ooga Booga is an independent book/art store in LA’s Chinatown, which has been championing artists and small pulishers since its opening in 2004. For two and a half months they will be taking up residence in The Reading Room at The Swiss Institute in Soho NYC with a selection of 300 + titles from self to professionally published.
Until Feb 13, 2010
Friends With You
Art collective Friends With You unveiled their new flagship boutique to coincide with Art Basel Miami, located at 3930 NE 2nd Avenue Suite 202, Miami. There you’ll find a host of brand new limited edition products, including clothes, toys, prints, and fine art in their whimsical and inimitable style.
Lubalin Now
The pioneering designer Herb Lubalin (1918-1981) is famed for wildly expressive typography and groundbreaking work for the magazines Avant Garde, Eros and Fact.
On view in Cooper Union’s new gallery, this installation includes recent posters, publications, and motion graphics by internationally recognized graphic designers that illuminate Lubalin’s continuing influence in contemporary design.
The exhibition will also mark the debut of newly relocated The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design & Typography, situated in the college’s new state-of-the-art academic building at 41 Cooper Square.
Exhibition dates: November 5- December 8, 2009
41 Cooper Gallery
Emory Douglas: Black Panther
Emory Douglas, minister of culture and activist for the Black Panthers in the 1960s and 1970s, invented a bold graphic style to transmit his party’s militant agenda. Over two decades Douglas created countless artworks, illustrations, and cartoons, of which over 165 are displayed here, and 40 years on they remain just as powerful and arresting as when he first created them.
Until 18th October 2009
New Museum, 235 Bowery, New York, NY 10002
Corporate Diversity
Swiss Graphic Design and Advertising by Geigy, 1940–1970
This book is the first comprehensive presentation of Geigy design, whose studio was the launching pad for one of the great periods of Swiss graphic design in the 1950s and 1960s, and demonstrates the importance of the country’s contribution to the international history of design. The studio was lead by Max Schmid and employed Karl Gerstner, Armin Hofmann and Herbert Leupin among others.
19.8 x 26.4 cm, 208 pages, 385 illustrations, hardcover
100+ Nieves Zines at Printed Matter
From April 4th – May 23rd 2009 Printed Matter will be showing an exhibition with the legendary Swiss publisher Nieves. The exhibition will feature a full retrospective of Nieveʼs ʻzine program since 2004 as well as a selection of the books published by the press since its founding in 2001. The publications have taken on a variety of forms, from limited edition, photocopied zines, to more-formally recognized hardcover, perfect-bound and offset books.
Printed Matter, Inc. is an independent 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 1976 by artists and art workers with the mission to foster the appreciation, dissemination, and understanding of artists’ books and other artists’ publications.
Printed Matter, 195 Tenth Avenue at 22nd Street, New York, NY 10011 Tel. 212 925 0325