Top Graphic Design, FHK Henrion

Top Graphic Design is a compendium of high-grade work by an elite group of 18 high-grade designers. There isn’t a piece of 80s tat to be seen. The book is by FHK Henrion – a giant of British graphic design. Born in 1914 in Germany, he emigrated to England in 1939, and adopted British nationality a few years later. His work for the Ministry of Information and the US Office of War Information in London established his reputation as a graphic designer and poster artist of verve and skill.

In 1951 Henrion established the design consultancy Henrion Design Associates. He is often cited as a pioneer of Corporate Identity in Britain. His many successful identity programmes include: KLM, Blue Circle Cement, British Leyland and Olivetti. He died in 1990.

What makes FHK Henrion such an important figure in design history is that despite his work with government departments and giant corporations, despite his OBE, and despite his eminence within post-war British design, he retained a radical sensibility. It can be seen in his choice of designers for Top Graphic Design. There are no lightweights: not one of the designers selected is bland, conformist or solely preoccupied with commercial demands. Each of the chosen group offers individuality and, in many cases, adopts an oppositional or contrarian position within commercial design.

As Henrion notes in his introduction: ‘Attempts to be provocative, experimental, sometimes going on purpose beyond the limits of good taste are to be welcomed because they help to create a new visual language which is invigorating and of today. Most of graphic design is ephemeral and it is therefore important that it represents the “Zeitgeist” and is valid and meaningful at the time it is created and shown.’

These are not the views of a grumpy old man, stuffed full of self-importance and industry accolades. His eye for radicalism and non-conformity is evidenced in his choice of the leftist French collective Grapus, the posters of Roman Cieslewicz, and in the genre bending graphics of Gert Dumbar, Shigeo Fukuda, Odermatt & Tissi, Rambow Lienemeyer van de Sand and Wolfgang Weingart.

There’s one more thing worth mentioning about Top Graphic Design: this is Henrion’s obvious high regard for illustration. Some of the artists included here – Henryk Tomaszewski, Morteza Momayez and Jacques Richez, for example – might be included in a book called Top Illustration. Yet Henrion knew that graphic design is at its most potent when it calls on the whole range of visual expression. I think more graphic designers should smoke pipes and wear bow ties.

The Architectural Review, number 1000, June 1980

The Architectural Review, number 912, February 1973

The Architectural Review, number 897, November 1971

The coming together of graphic design and architecture means we get some great posters for lectures by architects; the occasional bit of exemplary signage; a few beautifully designed architecture books; the odd identity for a hot architectural practice; and some interesting experiments into the ways in which architects are incorporating digital technology into their buildings.

Actually, the combining of architecture and graphic design is the subject of the next book from Unit Editions. More details soon. But you can’t help thinking that the two disciplines could do more to combine their skills.

Above are some beautiful covers for the Architectural Review. These three were designed by the late British designer Philip Thompson who designed Penguin covers and co-wrote one of the best books on graphic design, Art Without Boundaries: 1950-70.

Art Without Boundaries: 1950-70

This rare book is my desert island design book. It was one of the founding texts of Tomato, and when I wrote about it in Eye magazine (sorry no link) shortly before Philip Thompson died, I received a delightful handwritten letter from him. He also wrote to Eye about the article. You can read his letter here.

Max Huber

The books are small (135×190mm) and weigh in at 64 pages. They use high-grade paper and, as is usual with Japanese printing, the reproductions are superb. Each book comes with a coloured bellyband, a bookmark, and a short essay in Japanese and English. The series has an air of refinement and fastidiousness.

Ikko Tanaka

Shiego Okamoto

ggg stands for Ginza Graphic Gallery. The gallery opened in 1986 and specializes in, wait for it – graphic design. It describes itself as a ‘social contribution by Dai Nippon Printing Co Ltd.’

The most intriguing aspect of this series is the shrewd-eyed choice of subjects deserving of the ggg imprimatur. The list begs the question – how are the subjects chosen?

The full list makes fascinating reading: there’s only one Brit – Neville Brody; a handful of Europeans including Josef Muller-Brockmann, Bruno Munari, Studio Dumbar, Bruno Monguzzi, M/M (Paris) and Pierre Bernard; and a number of eminent Americans including Saul Bass, Seymour Chwast, Milton Glaser, Paul Rand, Herb Lubalin, Lou Dorfsman, Paula Scher and Stefan Sagmeister.

Yusaku Kamekura

Yusaku Kamekura

Max Huber

Unsurprisingly, the majority of subjects are Japanese. Many of the names will be familiar to admirers of Japanese design and illustration: Yusaku Kamekura, Tadanori Yokoo, Keichi Tanaami, Hedeki Nakajima, Takashi Kono, Makoto Sato, Ikko Tanaka and Kenya Hara. But there are others that are new to me; I was happy to discover Masaaki Hiromura, Noriyuki Tanaka, Kashiwa Sato and Shigeo Okamoto.

In truth, there’s hardly a dud amongst all 92 titles. One or two of the Japanese designers seem a tad too enthralled with the slick, over-Photoshopped sheen of luxury goods’ advertising. But these infrequent aberrations are compensated for by astonishing array of talent that makes me hope the series continues for another 90+ editions.

Masaaki Hiromura

Shigeo Okamoto

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Here’s a full list of all 92 titles:

01. Henryk Tomaszewski
02. Paul Rand
03. Yusaku Kamekura
04. Yoshio Hayakawa
05. Ikko Tanaka
06. Kazumasa Nagai
07. Shin Matsunaga
08. Shigeo Fukuda
09. Mitsuo Katsui
10. Saul Bass
11. Kiyoshi Awazu
12. Ivan Chermayeff
13. Koichi Sato
14. Holger Matthies
15. Masayoshi Nakajo
16. Yukimasa Okumura
17. Bruno Munari
18. Katsumi Asaba
19. Makoto Nakamura
20. Milton Glaser
21. Makoto Saito
22. Masuteru Aoba
23. Josef Muller-Brockmann
24. Lou Dorfsman
25. K2
26. Akira Uno
27. Makoto Wada
28. Tadanori Yokoo
29. Tadashi Ohashi
30. Ryuichi Yamashiro
31. Seymour Chwast
32. Alan Chan
33. Seiju Toda
34. Stasys Eidrigevicius
35. Koru Kasai
36. U.G. Sato
37. Studio Dumbar
38. Yoichiro Kawaguchi
39. Gunter Rambow
40. Herbert Leupin
41. Toshifumi Kawahara
42. Tsunehisa Kimura
43. Takuya Onuki
44. Katsuhiko Hibino
45. Keizo Matsui
46. Paul Davis
47. Ryohei Kojima
48. Bruno Monguzzi
49. Sigeo Okamoto
50. Kijyuro Yahagi
51. Pierre Bernard
52. Yasuhiko Kida
53. Italo Lupi
54. Tadahito Nadamoto
55. Uwe Loesch
56. Kamijyo Takahisa
57. Paula Scher
58. Kenya Hara
59. Herb Lubalin
60. Draft
61. Takayuki Soeda
62. Per Arnoldi
63. Takashi Kono
64. Inoue Jyunya
65. Taku Satoh
66. Pierre Mendell
67. Kashiwa Sato
68. Eiko Ishioka
69. Katsunori Aoki
70. Stefan Sagmeister
71. Masahiko Sato
72. Noriyuki Tanaka
73. Nagi Noda
74. Cyan
75. Kazufumi Nagai
76. Keiichi Tanaami
77. Alexander Gelman
78. Hideki Nakajima
79. Katsu Kimura
80. Niklaus Troxler
81. Masaaki Hiromura
82. Kenjiro Sano
83. Shinja Nakajima
84. John Maeda
85. Hiroshi Sasaki
86. Keiko Hirano
87. M/M (Paris)
88. Neville Brody
89. Max Huber
90. Gan Hosoya
91. Toshio Yamagata
92. Issay Kitagawa

Armin Hofmann – His Work, Quest and Philosophy

For more than forty years, Armin Hofmann has devoted his life to teaching the unteachable – art/design. The works of his students are models of excellence, and the envy of others, both students and teachers.

His goals, though pragmatic, are never pecuniary. His influence has been as strong beyond the classroom as within it. Even those who are his critics are as eager about his ideas as those who sit at his feet.

‘As a human being, he has few equals. As a practitioner, he ranks amongst the best.’

This eulogy was written by Paul Rand for the seminal book: Armin Hofmann – His Work, Quest and Philosophy, or more economically in German – Werk Erkundung Lehre. It is a beautifully elegant and heartfelt paean of praise from one great designer to another. As was often the case with Rand’s work, it says all that needs to be said.

So if you want to develop an inferiority complex, then this is the book for you. Armin Hoffman’s work comes across as a powerful force of nature and is, to my eyes, timeless. I probably look (and wonder) at this book more than any other I own. I understand very well that I’m scrutinizing his work (unavoidably) out of its original context and at a fairly superficial level – sadly, I haven’t spent time in his company, I didn’t study under him or hear him lecture – still the effect his work has on me is always one of awe.

Armin Hofmann cannot be dismissed as ‘one of those Swiss guys.’ He is a true visionary and possesses more than a touch of genius.

By the way, the great man is 90 this year, happy birthday Mr. Hofmann.

Typomundus 20. A Project of The International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA). Reinhold Publishing (1966)

As a book devoted to 20th century typography, Typomundus 20 is hard to beat. As a compendium of the best graphic design from the past 70-odd years, I can’t think of many books that are its equal. And as a shining example of how to run an awards scheme, it is unsurpassed. There’s also a personal reason why I like this book so much – but we’ll get to that later.

Let’s begin by saying what this book is, and why its content is so dazzling. Typomundus 20 is the response to a call for entries made in 1963 by the International Center for the Typographic Arts (ICTA) – a body founded in New York in 1962 by Emil Ruder and Aaron Burns. The purpose of the invitation was to submit work to a jury of eminent designers who then selected the best work.

So far so conventional.

But this was no run of the mill jury. It included Hans Neuburg (Switzerland), Anton Stankowski (Germany), Lou Dorfsman (USA), Piet Zwart (Netherlands), Hiromu Hara (Japan) and Hermann Zapf (Germany).

The purpose of the exercise was to ‘gather, preserve and document as complete a collection as possible of the most significant typography of the twentieth century.’ This puts most design awards schemes to shame for their lack of ambition. But this was the 1960s and utopian dreams were in the air.

200,000 invitations were sent out to an international list of designers. Almost 10,000 entries were received. The jury of 12 chose 612 examples of work for an exhibition and inclusion in this book.

The result is an absorbing collection of top-notch graphic design. What makes it special, however, is that it provides evidence of the last flowerings of graphic expression before the marketing departments took control of visual communication. This is graphic design in its purest form devoid of the control freakery that is the inevitable consequence of marketing and branding.

But there’s one other factor that lifts this collection above the norm: the organisers didn’t insist on a time frame for the work. Submissions could be from any period. The result is that we see a smattering of work from the 1930s and 40s sitting next to the sharp modernism of the early 1960s.

Significantly, the organisers avoid using the word competition. There’s a sense in which it really is a quest to find the best of the best. And at a time when design awards seem to proliferate like pizza flyers on your doormat, and when the whole notion of awards schemes with their high entry fees seems to be contributing to a sort of awards inertia, it is invigorating to see that it needn’t be like this. It can be, as Typomundus 20 shows, a genuine celebration of excellence.

And while we’re talking about bravery, I like the way all the work is reproduced in black and white. It’s a simple, bold gesture that plays a large part in making this book so compelling.

I mentioned I had a personal reason for liking Typomundus 20. This reason is financial. If you check out the prices of this long-out-of-print volume you will see that it sells online for up to $100. Well, I paid 20p in my local charity shop. If that’s not a reason for loving this book, please tell me what is.

Images of an Era: The American Poster 1945-75

Bo Diddley’s You Can’t Judge A Book By Its Cover chuggs along at pace with trademark trembling guitar going like the clappers. Written by the great Willie Dixon, the opening verse reads:

You can’t judge an apple by looking at a tree

You can’t judge honey by looking at the bee

You can’t judge a daughter by looking at the mother

You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover


I can see the logic, but there’s always an exception to every maxim. Images of an Era: The American Poster 1945–75 is just such an exception. The cover is a detail from a poster by Andy Warhol. It is punchy and pretty radical for nowadays. Not many books published today leave the name of the book off the cover.

Published by the Smithsonian Institute in 1975 to support a major travelling exhibition of American posters, the book was designed by the master – Derek Birdsall. It is a thoughtful, well-curated and beautifully conceived book. You can get an idea of the layout from the images uploaded here, but sadly, not of the stock choices which work perfectly.

The content – from the essay by Milton Glaser to the powerful anti-war and anti-pollution statements (both hot topics now, but where are the posters?) – is consistently strong. Many of the posters, particularly from the 60s and 70s, look as fresh and impactful today as they ever did. Admittedly a few of the early posters and a number of the later ‘trippy hippy’ efforts have dated but even they have their own interest.



We’ve uploaded more (and larger) images on Flickr that are worth checking out. Be great to hear what you think. By the way – the last lines of the song…

I look like a farmer, but I’m a lover

You can’t judge a book by looking at the cover



Now that I can relate to.