A complete retrospective of the work of Takenobu Igarashi, Japan’s ingenious master of hand-drawn, three-dimensional typography. In the mid-1970s, designer Takenobu Igarashi began a prolific, decade-long exploration into the possibilities of three-dimensional typography. His first experiments with lettering—heavily influenced by the avant-garde typography of the 1920s—appeared on magazine covers, posters, and record sleeves. Timeless and technically dazzling, Igarashi’s signature style demonstrates his mastery of three-dimensional forms and perspective, refined long before the introduction of computers into the design industry. Takenobu Igarashi A–Z offers a comprehensive guide to Igarashi’s experimental typography, featuring not only his most celebrated works, but also a first look at archival plans, drawings, and production drafts for his iconic designs. From his early print works and hand-drawn experiments to self-initiated sculptural pieces and high-profile 3-D identities for international clients and institutions, this book is a long-overdue survey of one of the most ingenious graphic designers of the twentieth century.

This first comprehensive account of a mid-century master covers the multi-faceted career of a fine artist, graphic designer, teacher, and publisher. It reflects Norman Ives's timeless relevance in the visual arts. Constructions & Reconstructions is an overview of Norman Ives's multifaceted career. Ives was a gifted artist better known for his graphic design. His talents extended well beyond the field of design. Much of this seamless transi- tion came from Ives's mastery of form, common to both endeavors. Ives's paintings and collages are collected by major museums: The 1967 Whitney Annual exhibition of American painting, the Guggenheim Museum, Yale University Art Gallery and various others. Norman Ives holds a secure place in the history of American Mid-Century Modern canon as one of a band of artists using letterforms as art. Ives's design and art appeared to be outliers of the percolating type-as-art movement popularized by Robert Indiana's LOVE sculptures. Type-related art has since become ubiquitous in painting and sculpture, as well as other massive architectural "type works." Ives's work fits squarely into this genre having roots in the early 20th-century Modern movement. Ives's was part of a period representing a high point in the teachings of graphic design. This began with Josef Albers's restructuring of the Yale University Art School. Ives was both a student of Albers and his teaching colleague, then later, his publisher. Taking Albers's lead, this curriculum helped reformulate graphic design in its evolution from commercial art. Norman Ives was a member of AGI, along with fellow faculty members Herbert Matter, Armin Hofmann, Paul Rand, and Bradbury Thompson.) Ives's recognition in two major fields of the visual arts makes him worthy of being called master, in any period. In the history of art, there are many examples of works that rise to the level rightfully called timeless: Corinthian helmets, Heraldry, Greek sculpture, Kurt Schwitters's collages, and the work of Josef Albers. The book itself is a work of art, a comprehensive account of the spirit and genius of Norman Ives. It has been long in the making. After studying with Ives, the book's author John T. Hill then taught with Ives at Yale's School of Fine Arts. This book introduces unseen master works, showcasing the brilliant variety and vitality of the work. It fully delineates his stock in trade--letterforms--which became "his lyrical strokes, their construction and reconstruction defining his work."

A celebration of the world of letters found or created in unexpected places: natural, artificial, and urban alike Even non-graphic designers know that type is everywhere: fonts and typefaces fill everything we consume or inhabit. They communicate, inform, sell, explain . . . and yet finding serendipitous letterforms in the least likely locations can also excite and inspire. Once experienced, it is impossible not to see letters in anything from forests to housing projects, from leaves to brickwork. The eye becomes accustomed to seeing a world built of letters. Unlike most books on typography that present the “best” and most refined examples, the object here is to reveal the "lost" or "unseen" typographies in nature and our cities. From machine-made and sculptural forms to flora and fauna, from the fading ghost types on buildings from a pre-digital age to the subterranean forms found beneath our urban centers, from crowd-sourced creations to the popular vernacular, there is a universe of letterforms all around us.

"The world of typography is more exciting than ever. While the legacies of classical typographers will always be respected and revered, recent developments have paved the way for the new generation of digitally-savvy creatives to explore and experiment with an eye-opening range of variable possibilities. Curated, written, and designed by renowned design agency TwoPoints.Net, On the Road to Variable showcases an inspiring array of projects and interviews with those who fearlessly push the boundaries and embrace the new frontier in design: the flexible future of typography."--back cover.

2021 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FINALIST FOR POETRY Eschewing series and performative typography, Douglas Kearney’s Sho aims to hit crooked licks with straight-seeming sticks. Navigating the complex penetrability of language, these poems are sonic in their espousal of Black vernacular traditions, while examining histories, pop culture, myth, and folklore. Both dazzling and devastating, Sho is a genius work of literary precision, wordplay, farce, and critical irony. In his “stove-like imagination,” Kearney has concocted poems that destabilize the spectacle, leaving looky-loos with an important uncertainty about the intersection between violence and entertainment.

This book frames typography as a system of interrelated concerns as much as it summarizes the traditional craft that is the usual content of books on typography. Rather than reiterate an already documented set of rules that yield formulaic appropriateness, it describes the constantly shifting terrain of typography and provides ways of thinking about typographic relationships that adapt to content, contexts, and audiences.