I missed this show featuring Josef Albers’ designs for the covers of the Command Records.
This label’s releases are described as…
“…the most unusual record you have ever put on your turntable. It is a unique mixture of entertainment, excitement, beauty and practicality.” — Persuasive Percussion (1959) liner notes
My kind of music.
More from the gallery overview:
Command Records was founded in 1959 by Enoch Light (1905-1978), a classical violinist, bandleader, and sound recording engineer. Light went to extraordinary technical lengths, and often great expense, to create recordings of the absolute highest quality possible that took full advantage of new technical capabilities of home audio equipment in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Light specifically perfected stereo effects that bounced sounds between the right and left channel speakers, which was called a “ping-pong effect”.
On each album sleeve, Light would include lengthy technical descriptions about each song, the musicians, the depth and breadth of the sounds, and how they were recorded. In order to fit his descriptions, he doubled the size of a standard album sleeve and enabled it to fold open like a book, thereby inventing the gatefold-packaging format. The gatefold sleeve became highly popular in following decades.
Luckily there’s some great images on the gallery site. Josef Albers was a graphic artist but his massive influence on the profession was through his educational programs, such as his excellent color theory book, Interaction of Color.
While wandering around a bookstore in downtown Taipei, I came across this absolute gem of a book. Flipping through the pages I was awe-struck by the amazing work put out by this low-key and hard working Dutch designer, Ben Bos. Being part Dutch and having a fondness for the clean and playful aesthetic of dutch and scandinavian designers, I immediately fell in love with this man’s work. And work he does.
He originally joined Total Design, Holland’s first multidisciplinary design studio (yes first) where he would work for nearly 30 years. Today, this amount of time spent at a single studio is virtually unheard of. His story at Total is not all happy, as his book describes challenges balancing his work as a creative visionary with the day to day realities of financial and office management. But I’ll let you read the book and avoid any spoilers here, but certainly this book is worth more of your time than a “flip for nice pictures”. This actually in a way reminded me of the fine book on Tibor Kalman’s life’s work and professional life in its honesty and frankness, as there are many contributions and reflections on Bos’ work life from co-workers.
In looking at his work, much like Wim Crouwell (his “great example”) he was a master of the simple form made expressive and unique. And his approach was very wholesome, originally a copywriter and journalist, who fell in love with design a little later in his life, his approach is extremely well rounded, and his ability to see the big picture I believe is what gifted him with the ability to create such broad identity programs, crossing brand identity, collateral, packaging, and interior design. The most amazing thing about Bos’ work though, is it’s timelessness. Looking through this book, much like Crouwell’s work, his artistry is both visionary and crosses the lines of time and trends. You’ll notice below an illustration that looks strikingly like the work of Eboy, yet, this is before the constraints of the pixel defined that style. To me this is unbelievable.
Here’s some images from my book, and following below I’ve posted some links for you to continue to enjoy both his work, the work of Total Design and the work of Bos’ Dutch contemporaries. I highly recommend this book, it’s hard to find but I came across this link for the book for sale:
Counter-Print.co.uk
More on Ben Bos and his important work:
Total Identity’s website, telling their story, you see Ben’s fro peeking out in the back.
A sampling of Graphic design books on Flickr that include samples from this book and Bos’ and Crowell’s Dutch contemporaries.
A great Dutch graphic design collection on Flickr.
”
Begin with ideas
Embrace chance
Celebrate coincidence
Ad-lib and make things up
Eliminate superfluous elements
Subvert expectation
Make something difficult look easy
Be first or last
Believe complex ideas can produce simple things
Trust the process
Allow concepts to determine form
Reduce material and production to their essence
Sustain the integrity of an idea
Propose honesty as a solution
”
- Daniel Eatock
One of his many interesting projects:
Brilliant and simple, the way it should be, I added this to the top of my “Inspiration” page I keep for myself. This came from Ram’s Wikipedia page.
Good design is innovative
Good design makes a product useful
Good design is aesthetic
Good design helps us to understand a product
Good design is unobtrusive
Good design is honest
Good design is long-lasting
Good design is consequent to the last detail
Good design is concerned with the environment
Good design is as little design as possible
