The Form of the Book

Speakers

Chrissie Charlton Working with Herbert Spencer: A Pioneer of Modern Typography

Chrissie Charlton was Herbert Spencer’s last full-time assistant before he committed himself solely to his academic work at the Royal College of Art and his design partnership with daughter Mafalda. She will talk about the design process working closely with this eminent typographer, the books and catalogues she designed with Herbert, his influence on her and on modern British typography and personal anecdotes about this warm and influential man.

Chrissie Charlton studied graphic design at Hornsey College of Art. From 1971–6 she worked as Design Assistant to Herbert Spencer on a wide variety of commissions including corporate identity, book design, brochures and exhibition catalogues. From 1976 she has run her own design practice. Her clients have included the Arts Council, Hayward Gallery, V&A, The National Trust and many publishers notably Lund Humphries, Scala and The Overlook Press. She has been a Visiting Lecturer at Central St Martins, Kingston, Brighton and Northumbria Universities. She now co-runs the letterpress design company/firm Harrington & Squires with Vicky Fullick.

Jenny Eneqvist, Roland Früh & Corina Neuenschwander 1946, 1947, 1948: The Most Beautiful Swiss Books in Retrospect

In 1943 Jan Tschichold suggested awarding prizes to the ten most beautiful Swiss books. Since then, the annual competition of The Most Beautiful Swiss Books has become well known internationally. But in the meantime we have forgotten that during the years 1946, 1947 and 1948 the competition came to a stop. These missing years serve as a starting point for the project Forgotten Years. By asking experts to give their selection of books, that in retrospect make the most beautiful or outstanding publications of the years 1946–8, it will be possible to fill the gap and at the same time discuss one of the most important decades in the history of Swiss book design: the years after the hype of New Typography and before the dominance of the dogmatic Swiss style.

The idea for this study came up when Jenny Eneqvist, Corina Neuenschwander and Roland Früh met in London in 2008. Jenny Eneqvist former student at LCP, London and Beckmans, Stockholm, now lives and works in Amsterdam, while finishing her studies at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy. Corina Neuenschwander graduated as a graphic designer from Zurich University of Arts and has been living in London since 2007, working with Value & Service. Roland Früh wrote his dissertation on ‘Ideals of Swiss Book Design’ at the University of Zurich in 2007 and is now working with Robin Kinross at Hyphen Press, London.

James Goggin The Matta-Clark Complex: Materials, Interpretation and the Designer

Through his own art book projects and contemporary and historical examples by other designers, James Goggin critically explores materials available to the book designer and discusses their appropriate use. The designer’s thoughtful consideration of materials – format, paper, binding, ink and printing methods – is a crucial part of his or her role as interpreter. When judging a material’s relevance, how much emphasis should be placed on the book’s content, or the process and/or its context? At which point does subtle reference become overt parody? Can you judge a book by its (deconstructed-spine/UV-varnished/foilblock-embossed) cover?

James Goggin set up his graphic design studio, Practise, in 1999 after graduating from London’s Royal College of Art. The studio mainly works on commissioned and self-initiated typography and print-based projects such as books, magazines, posters, typefaces and identities, but also exhibition design, signage, clothing, patterns and websites. Workshops, lecturing, reading, writing and publishing form an equally important part of the studio’s activities.

Sarah Gottlieb The Future of the Book

The future of the book seems to point more and more towards digital media. This will affect the way we design content and the linearity of a bound book will be challenged by the interactivity of electronic devices. We can consider the book in two very different ways: 1. The book as a vehicle to move knowledge in time and space. 2. The book as a set of written, printed or blank pages fastened along one side, encased between protective covers. This talk will explore some of the questions we all face in dealing with emerging technologies.

Originally from Denmark, Sarah Gottlieb moved to London in 2002 to study Graphic Design, which recently culminated in an MA at the Royal College of Art. With an interest in type she launched Type Club during her studies, together with two fellow students. Its intention was to learn about and explore typography through the facilitation of workshops. She has a keen interest in self-publishing and print on demand facilities, which with the newly gained taste for organising workshops, led her to set up two round-table discussions entitled The Future of the Book in her final year. Having now graduated she has set up a studio, Household, with fellow graduate George Wu, which has a strong focus on collaboration.

Richard Hollis Lessons from the Past

How the designer understands the definition set out by Moholy-Nagy in 1923, namely that ‘Typography is (merely) communication through print’. How a meaning is transmitted. Organisation of information. Sequence. Illustration. Caption. Format and paper. Personal experience (illustrated): 50 years of getting it not quite right.

Richard Hollis is a former graphic designer, writes about design history and is now also a publisher. He trained at various London art schools including Chelsea and the Central. He began as a sikscreen printer, printer of fine-art prints, taught at the London College of Printing, Chelsea and the Central, worked in Paris. First design article appeared in Pueblo y Cultura, Havana, 1961. Art editor at New Society weekly 1966-68. Designed for Whitechapel Art Gallery in the 1970s, and since then has designed mostly books, art catalogues, and the largest terracotta lettering in Europe. Published ‘Graphic design: A Concise History’ nearly 15 years ago. His ‘Swiss Graphic Design: Towards an International Style 1920-1970’ was published in 2006.

Mevis & Van Deursen Concepts for Books

What do you start with when it comes to book design? A typeface, a page layout, a paper choice? No, design should not start like that. All choices are arbitrary when these choices are not rooted in concepts – concepts which challenge the content and the notion of the book itself. Mevis and Van Deursen have been doing this over the past 15 years. In their work they investigate different approaches towards book design, which will be the focus point for their lecture.

Linda van Deursen and Armand Mevis live and work in Amsterdam, where they began their collaboration after graduating from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in 1986. Mevis & Van Deursen have been working for cultural clients, producing the new identity of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, the identity and publications for fashion duo Viktor & Rolf, and numerous books on architecture and design. They also have worked on several Dutch cultural publications, including ‘Metropolis M’, and won the competition for the graphic identity for the City of Rotterdam in 2001 as a designated Cultural Capital of Europe. Their work has been shown in museums and educational institutions throughout the world. Van Deursen serves as head of the Graphic Design Department at the Graphic Design Department at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy, while Mevis is a design critic at the Werkplaats Typografie (Workshop Typography), Arnhem; both are critics at Yale University’s School of Art, New Haven, Connecticut. Their collaboration has been documented in the book ‘Recollected Work: Mevis & Van Deursen’, published by Artimo in 2005.

Catherine de Smet Le Corbusier as Book Designer: Semi-Modernity à la Française

In his book Modern Typography, Robin Kinross reminds us of the peripheral position of the French vis-a-vis modern typography in the 20th century. The forty or so books designed by Le Corbusier, published over the course of five decades and conceived of in constant relation with his architectural and urbanite thinking, allow for the examination of some aspects of the publishing situation particular to his adoptive country, and the formulation of an hypothesis with regards to this precise ‘marginality’.

Catherine de Smet holds a doctorate in art history. She teaches at l’École des beaux-arts in Rennes and l’École supérieure d’art et de design in Amiens. Author of numerous essays on graphic design, she has published two books with Lars Müller Publishers: Le Corbusier, Architect of Books (2005) and Vers une architecture du livre. Le Corbusier, édition et mise en pages, 1912–65 (2007).