Original Covers. The golden age of Black music

Following the success of Jazz Covers, this epic volume of groove assembles over 500 legendary covers from a golden era in Black music. Psychedelia meets Black Power, sexual liberation meets social conscience, and street portraiture meets fantastical cartoon in this dazzling anthology of visualized funk and soul.

Gathering both classic and rare covers, the collection celebrates each artwork’s ability to capture not only a buyer’s interest, but an entire musical mood. Browse through and discover the brilliant, the bold, the outlandish and the sheer beautiful designs that fans rushed to get their hands on as the likes of Marvin Gaye, James Brown, Curtis Mayfield, Michael Jackson, and Prince changed the world with their unique and unforgettable sounds.

Featuring interviews with key industry figures, Funk & Soul Covers also provides cultural context and design analysis for many of the chosen record covers.

The author:

Joaquim Paulo is a consultant for major labels and directs a number of radio stations in Portugal. He started collecting vinyl at 15, and flies to London, Paris, New York and São Paulo to enrich his collection of over 25,000 LPs. He lives and works in Lisbon and dedicates his free time to recovering old and rare recordings.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Vinyl Mania. The greatest in jazz LP art

Part design history, part trip down musical memory lane, this anthology of jazz album artwork is above all a treasure trove of creative and cultural inspiration. Spanning half a century, it assembles the most daring and dynamic jazz cover designs that helped make and shape not only a musical genre but also a particular way of experiencing life.

From the 1940s through to the decline of LP production in the early 1990s, each chosen cover design is distinct in the way it complements the energy of the album’s music with its own visual rhythms of frame, line, text, and form. To satisfy even the most demanding of music geeks, each record cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing performer and album name, art director, photographer, illustrator, year, label, and more.

The author:

Joaquim Paulo is a consultant for major labels and directs a number of radio stations in Portugal. He started collecting vinyl at 15, and flies to London, Paris, New York and São Paulo to enrich his collection of over 25,000 LPs. He lives and works in Lisbon and dedicates his free time to recovering old and rare recordings.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Fine Lines. 100 illustrators to remember

Drawn from TASCHEN’s Illustration Now! series, this go-to catalogue brings together 100 of the most successful and important illustrators around the globe. With featured artists including Istvan Banyai, Gary Baseman, Seymour Chwast, Paul Davis, Brad Holland, Mirko Ilić, Anita Kunz, and Christoph Niemann, the international overview provides an invigorating record of the dynamism and diversity of the illustration scene.

Each illustrator is featured with a self-portrait, samples from their portfolio, and a succinct description by Steven Heller, with a supplementary list of selected exhibitions and publications. In his introduction, Steven Heller describes the dynamic realm of illustration today and the challenging process of selection within this highly competitive and ever-moving genre.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

Sound Art. An unprecedented collection of artists’ record covers from the 1950s to today

Since the dawn of modernism, visual and music production have had a particularly intimate relationship. From Luigi Russolo’s 1913 Futurist manifesto L’Arte dei Rumori (The Art of Noise) to Marcel Duchamp’s 1925 double-sided discs Rotoreliefs, the 20th century saw ever more fertile exchange between sounds and shapes, marks and melodies, and different fields of composition and performance.

In Francesco Spampinato’s unique anthology of artists’ record covers, we discover the rhythm of this particular cultural history. The book presents 450 covers and records by visual artists from the 1950s through to today, exploring how modernism, Pop Art, Conceptual Art, postmodernism, and various forms of contemporary art practice have all informed this collateral field of visual production and supported the mass distribution of music with defining imagery that swiftly and suggestively evokes an aural encounter.

Along the way, we find Jean-Michel Basquiat’s urban hieroglyphs for his own Tartown record label, Banksy’s stenciled graffiti for Blur, and a skewered Salvador Dalí butterfly on Jackie Gleason’s Lonesome Echo. There are insightful analyses and fact sheets alongside the covers listing the artist, performer, album name, label, year of release, and information on the original artwork. Interviews with Tauba Auerbach, Shepard Fairey, Kim Gordon, Christian Marclay, Albert Oehlen, and Raymond Pettibon add personal accounts on the collaborative relationship between artists and musicians.

The author:

Francesco Spampinato is a writer and historian of contemporary art and visual culture. He holds degrees from the University of Bologna and Columbia University, and a PhD from the Sorbonne Nouvelle University. From 2011 to 2015, he was an adjunct professor at the Rhode Island School of Design, and since 2019 he is a senior assistant professor at the University of Bologna. Author of several books and regular contributor to magazines and academic journals, he focuses on how contemporary artists interact with the media and everyday life in his own academic research.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

About the series:

TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program — now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production

Rock On. The most important record covers in rock history

From legendary releases to ultra-rare records, Elvis Presley to Iron Maiden, discover the 750 album covers that made rock history. Fact sheets, insider interviews, and lists from leading collectors of their top 10 records guide us through the indelible markers of musical memory, complete with bonus info on 250 milestone records that became turning points for a band, an artist, or an entire genre.

Album art is indelibly linked to our collective musical memories; when you think of your favorite albums, you picture the covers. Many photographers, illustrators, and art directors have become celebrities from their album artworks — the best examples of which will go down in history as permanent fixtures in popular culture.

Paying tribute to this art form, Rock Covers brings you a compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists, as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth, are gathered together in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions.

This far-reaching catalogue of visualized rock is contextualized with insider interviews with professionals who shaped the history of rock and by top-10 record lists from ten leading rock collectors.

The authors

Robbie Busch aka “McBoing Boing” is an internationally recognized record collector and DJ. He has worn many artistic hats over the years: consulter and producer for numerous record labels, writer and photographer for magazines including Wax Poetics, Big Brother and XXL, comic book artist/writer and storyboard artist.

Jonathan Kirby is a record collector and music writer. He served as an editor for Brooklyn-based music magazine Wax Poetics, has contributed in-depth articles for Oxford American and The Fader and is currently an A&R at Chicago’s famed archival label the Numero Group, where he also conceived the compilation Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound.

The editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

About the series:

TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program — now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

Inside the Mind of Jamie Hewlett. The artist’s first major monograph, now in an updated edition

This special edition updates Jamie Hewlett’s first-ever monograph with around 30 brand new pieces. Through stories, characters, strips, and sketches from the Tank Girl era through Gorillaz and up to the present day, we trace Hewlett’s exceptional capacity for invention and celebrate a polymath artist who refuses to rest on his laurels.

From the legendary Tank Girl to live-action animations with Gorillaz, a Chinese contemporary opera to an exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery, artist Jamie Hewlett is one of the most energetic figures of contemporary pop culture.

With influences ranging from hip hop to zombie slasher movies, Hewlett emerged in the mid-1990s as co-creator of the zeitgeist-defining Tank Girl comic. With then-roommate Damon Albarn, he went on to create the groundbreaking cartoon band Gorillaz. The award-winning virtual pop group of animated characters is a truly global phenomenon. Gorillaz have topped charts around the world, toured the globe from San Diego to Syria, and picked up hundreds of millions of streams and record sales along the way.

Since then, Hewlett has continued to collaborate with Albarn on projects including an elaborate staging of the Chinese novel Monkey: Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en, complete with circus acrobats, Shaolin monks, and Chinese singers. In 2006, he was named Designer of the Year by the Design Museum in London, and in 2009, Hewlett and Albarn won a BAFTA for their animated Monkey sequence for the Beijing Olympic Games. In 2015 The Suggestionists, an exhibition of prints at the Saatchi Gallery in London, demonstrated an exciting new direction in Hewlett’s practice.

This special edition celebrating TASCHEN’s 40th anniversary updates Hewlett’s first major monograph with around 30 brand new pieces. The book illustrates his thrilling creative journey with more than 400 artworks from the Tank Girl era through Gorillaz and up to the present day. Through stories, characters, strips, and sketches, we trace Hewlett’s exceptional capacity for invention and celebrate a polymath artist who refuses to rest on his laurels or to be pigeonholed into a particular practice.

The author:

British artist Jamie Hewlett is a prolific producer of ever-fresh material infused with a punk sensibility. Moving seamlessly between design, art and music, the co-creator of Tank Girl and the virtual band Gorillaz was awarded Designer of the Year by the Design Museum in 2006 and staged his first solo exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery in 2015.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

About the series:

TASCHEN is 40! Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible publishing, helping bookworms around the world curate their own library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia at an unbeatable price. Today we celebrate 40 years of incredible books by staying true to our company credo. The 40 series presents new editions of some of the stars of our program — now more compact, friendly in price, and still realized with the same commitment to impeccable production.

Planet on the page. A visual atlas of our vast, fragile world

Dazzling in scale, diversity and detail, the world never ceases to open our eyes and captivate our curiosity. Ever since the earliest cave paintings, humans have looked at this Earth that is our home and endeavored to understand it.

This expansive visual atlas presents the most exciting, creative and inspiring ways of explaining the world in information graphics. Divided into five chapters, the book covers the environment, technology, economics, society, and culture to reveal some of the Earth’s greatest intricacies in accessible visual form. Featuring more than 280 graphics, reproduced in large scale including seven fold-out spreads, the collection focuses on the 21st century, but also includes historical masterpieces to put our current situation into perspective.

Nigel Holmes introduces the book with an exclusive infographic of his own, while Sandra Rendgen provides an illustrated historical essay to explore how we have studied and interpreted our world over the centuries. With graphics drawn from such sources as Fortune, National Geographic, and The Guardian, this is not only a showcase of outstanding data design, but also a fascinating digest of where and how we live.

Seeing Is Understanding. How complex ideas are communicated via graphics

Graphs, maps, stats, and diagrams: this collection of infographics explores the development of visual communication in the big data age. More than 400 exemplary graphics — ranging from journalism to art, government to education — are accompanied by essays tracing the evolving art form that is pictorial explanation. Complete with in-depth fact sheets explaining each graphic project.

“If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.”
— Albert Einstein

Our everyday lives are filled with a massive flow of information that we must interpret in order to understand the world we live in. Considering the complex variety of data floating around us, sometimes the best — or even only — way to communicate is visually. This unique book presents a fascinating perspective on the subject, highlighting the work of the masters of the profession, creators of breakthroughs that have changed the way we communicate. Information Graphics has been conceived and designed not just for graphics professionals, but for anyone interested in the history and practice of communicating visually.

The in-depth introductory section, illustrated with over 60 images (each accompanied by an explanatory caption), features essays by Sandra Rendgen, Paolo Ciuccarelli, Richard Saul Wurman, and Simon Rogers. Looking back all the way to primitive cave paintings as a means of communication, this section gives readers an excellent overview of the subject. The second part of the book is entirely dedicated to contemporary works by today’s most renowned professionals, presenting 200 graphics projects, with over 400 examples — each with a fact sheet and an explanation of methods and objectives — divided into chapters by the topics Location, Time, Category, and Hierarchy.

Includes:

- 200 projects and over 400 examples of contemporary information graphics from all over the world — ranging from journalism to art, government, education, business and much more
- Four essays about the development of information graphics since its beginnings

The author:

Sandra Rendgen studied art history and cultural studies in Berlin and Amsterdam. Her work both as an editor and in developing concepts for media installations concentrates at the interface between image culture and technology, with a particular focus on data visualization, interactive media and the history of how information is conveyed. She is the author of TASCHEN’s Information Graphics and Understanding the World.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Rock on. From Elvis to Nirvana: the most important record covers in rock history

Rock Covers brings you more than 750 album covers that made rock history. From legendary to rare releases, from Elvis Presley to Iron Maiden, these indelible markers of musical memory are accompanied by fact sheets, featured interviews, and top-10 record lists from leading rock collectors.

Album art is indelibly linked to our collective musical memories; when you think of your favourite albums, you picture the covers. Many photographers, illustrators, and art directors have become celebrities from their album artworks—the best examples of which will go down in history as permanent fixtures in popular culture.

Paying tribute to this art form, Rock Covers brings you a compilation of more than 750 remarkable album covers, from legendary to rare record releases. Artists, as varied as Elvis Presley, The Beatles, The Sex Pistols, Pink Floyd, The Cure, Iron Maiden, and Sonic Youth, are gathered together in celebration of the cover art that defined their albums and their cult status. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing the art director, photographer or illustrator, year, label, and more, while nearly 250 records that marked particular turning points for a band, an artist, or the music genre, are highlighted with short descriptions.

This far-reaching catalogue of visualized rock is contextualized with insider interviews with five professionals who shaped the history of rock, and by top-10 record lists from ten leading rock collectors.

The authors:

Robbie Busch aka “McBoing Boing” is an internationally recognized record collector and DJ. He has worn many artistic hats over the years: consulter and producer for numerous record labels, writer and photographer for magazines including Wax Poetics, Big Brother and XXL, comic book artist/writer and storyboard artist.

Jonathan Kirby is a record collector and music writer. He served as an editor for Brooklyn-based music magazine Wax Poetics, has contributed in-depth articles for Oxford American and The Fader and is currently an A&R at Chicago’s famed archival label the Numero Group, where he also conceived the compilation Purple Snow: Forecasting the Minneapolis Sound.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

A History of Knowledge. The best infographics from the National Geographic archives

Who invented skis? How do birds sing? What are the secrets of sleep? With seven thematic chapters across earth and human science, this bumper National Geographic collection gathers the magazine’s top infographics from the past 128 years into one wunderkammer of discovery for all the family.

Back in the days when the information age was a distant dream and the world a more mysterious place, National Geographic began its mission to reveal the wonders of history, popular science, and culture to eager audiences around the globe. Since that 1888 launch, the world has changed; empires have risen and crumbled and a galaxy of information is today only a click away. But National Geographic endures; its calm, authoritative voice is as respected as ever amid the surfeit of data in our daily lives.

In this new anthology, TASCHEN and National Geographic gather the magazine’s best infographics of the past 128 years. Through seven sections — History, The Planet, Being Human, Animal World, World of Plants, Science & Technology, and Space — we encounter the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, the mysterious origins of the Easter Island statues, Cleopatra’s Alexandria, and the anatomy behind a cheetah’s extraordinary speed. We discover how our genetic patterns have been pieced together over the years and how birds make music; we get to grips with global warming and explore our ever-expanding study of an ever-expanding universe.

With an essay by Nigel Holmes, charting the evolution of National Geographic over the decades and its pioneering use of graphics, as well as five fold-outs mimicking original pull-outs or inserts in the magazine, the book stands as a defining record of one of the world’s best-known publications as well as a beautifully presented repository of accessible discovery and learning. Visualizing the histories, facts, and figures that make up our planet and our species, National Geographic Infographics is as true to the magazine’s original mission as ever — an anchor of knowledge and a wunderkammer of discovery for young and old alike.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Signs of Our Times. A monumental logo compilation: round two

Welcome to the most comprehensive catalogue of logos. Turning its searchlight on internationals’ corporate identity, this encyclopedia gathers approximately 4,500 trademarks, with information about the designers, year of creation, country, and brand. In handy reference-book size, this is a sweeping survey of today’s visual culture.

Following up on the best-selling Bibliotheca Universalis logo manual, this second volume focuses on corporate identity. In a globalized world, more and more symbols convey values ​​such as trust, quality, or reliability. This catalog comprehensively breaks down how texts, images, and ideas are condensed into distinctive brands.

From airlines and groceries, sportswear and computers, museums, and magazines, to car brands, music labels, pharmaceuticals, and internet portals, this band offers around 4,500 brand logos including complete background information about designers, year of origin, and country, as well as brands and companies. A great reference book for anyone interested in the ideas and concepts that branding is based on.

The editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

About the series:

Bibliotheca Universalis — Compact cultural companions celebrating the eclectic TASCHEN universe at an unbeatable, democratic price!

Since we started our work as cultural archaeologists in 1980, TASCHEN has become synonymous with accessible, open-minded publishing. Bibliotheca Universalis brings together more than 100 of our all-time favourite titles in a neat new format so you can curate your own affordable library of art, anthropology, and aphrodisia.

Bookworm’s delight — never bore, always excite!

A Visual History of Graphic Design. A comprehensive look at hundreds of landmark projects, industry leader profiles, and illustrated timelines for each decade

In this mighty first volume, Jens Müller traces 70 years of graphic design, designers, and developments from the late 19th century through the economic boom after World War II, spanning designs that would form the basis for further revolutions. Year-by-year spreads are combined with in-depth features on hundreds of landmark projects, industry-leader profiles, as well as visual timelines of each decade.

History is a complex business. Fortunes boom and bust, empires wax and wane, and change — whether social, political, or technological — has its winners, its losers, its advocates, and its enemies. Through all the turbulent passage of time, graphic design — with its vivid, neat synthesis of image and idea — has distilled the spirit of each age.

This book is an in-depth history of graphic design from the end of the 19th century to the ’50s. It traces the evolution of this creative field from its beginning as poster design to its further development into advertising, corporate identity, packaging, and editorial design. Organized chronologically, the volume features over 2,500 seminal designs from all over the world, 71 of which are profiled in detail besides 61 leaders in the field, including Alphonse Mucha (chocolate advertisements), Edward Johnston (London Underground logo and typeface), El Lissitzky (constructivist graphics), Herbert Matter (photomontage travel posters from Switzerland), Saul Bass (animated opening titles), and A. M. Cassandre (art deco posters).

With his sweeping knowledge of the field, author Jens Müller curates the standout designs for each year alongside a running sequence of design milestones. Meanwhile, in his introductory essay, David Jury situates graphic design from its point of origin in early printing, engraving, and lithography to striking creative developments in the 19th century. Each consecutive decade is then prefaced by a succinct overview as well as a stunning visual timeline, offering a vivid display of the variety of graphic production in each decade as well as the global landscape which it at once described and defined.

As we move on from and reflect upon the 20th century, this first volume examines the foundations of what would influence some of the fastest-changing creative fields. Combined with Volume Two — which spans from the 1960s until today — the tomes offer the most comprehensive exploration of graphic design to date and a long-overdue recognition of its enormous contribution to economics, politics, social causes, the arts, media, and the way we see the world.

The author:

Jens Müller was born in Koblenz, Germany, in 1982 and studied graphic design. Recipient of numerous national and international design awards, Müller is Creative Director of vista design studio in Düsseldorf, editor of the A5 book series on graphic design history, and author of Logo Modernism. He is a visiting lecturer at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf and at the design department of the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Data Trails. An XL-sized compendium on the history of knowledge

From cosmic charts and da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man to the New York subway map: trace the history of visual data from the Middle Ages to the digital era in this XL compendium. Featuring some 400 infographic milestones across technology, cartography, zoology, and more, this is an unprecedented reference work for designers, history buffs, and anyone thirsty for knowledge.

In the age of big data and digital distribution, when news travel ever further and faster and media outlets compete for a fleeting slice of online attention, information graphics have swept center stage. At once nuanced and neat, they distill abstract ideas, complex statistics, and cutting-edge discoveries into succinct, compelling, and masterful designs. Cartographers, programmers, statisticians, designers, scientists, and journalists have developed a new field of expertise in visualizing knowledge.

This XL-sized compendium explores the history of data graphics from the Middle Ages right through to the digital era. Curated by Sandra Rendgen, some 400 milestones span astronomy, cartography, zoology, technology, and beyond. Across medieval manuscripts and parchment rolls, elaborate maps, splendid popular atlasses, and early computer-based information design, we systematically break down each work’s historical context, including such highlights as Martin Waldseemüller’s famous world map, the meticulous nature studies of Ernst Haeckel, and many unknown treasures.

Hot on the heels of the best-selling Information Graphics and Understanding the World, this third volume fills the gap as an unprecedented reference book for data freaks, designers, historians, and anyone thirsty for knowledge. An enthralling exploration into the teachings, research, and lives of generations past.

About the Author

Sandra Rendgen studied art history and cultural studies in Berlin and Amsterdam. Her work both as an editor and in developing concepts for media installations concentrates at the interface between image culture and technology, with a particular focus on data visualization, interactive media and the history of how information is conveyed. She is the author TASCHEN’s Information Graphics and Understanding the World.

The editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

Visual Revolutionaries. Design game changers, from the 1960s until today

In this second volume, Jens Müller rounds off the most comprehensive exploration of graphic design to date. With around 3,500 seminal pieces and 78 landmark projects, year-by-year spreads, and profiles of industry leaders, discover how graphic design shaped contemporary society from the 1960s until today, from the hippie movement to new forms of visual language.

Through the turbulent passage of time, graphic design — with its vivid, neat synthesis of image and idea — has distilled the spirit of each age. Surrounding us every minute of every day, from minimalist packaging to colorful adverts, smart environmental graphics to sleek interfaces: graphic design is as much about transmitting information as it is about reflecting society’s cultural aspirations and values.

This second volume rounds off our in-depth exploration of graphic design, spanning from the 1960s until today. About 3,500 seminal designs from across the globe guide us in this visual map through contemporary history, from the establishment of the International Style to the rise of the groundbreaking digital age. Around 80 key pieces go under the microscope in detailed analyses besides 118 biographies of the era’s most important designers, including Massimo Vignelli (New York subway wayfinding system), Otl Aicher (Lufthansa identity), Paula Scher (Citibank brand identity), Neville Brody (The Face magazine), Kashiwa Sato (Uniqlo brand identity), and Stefan Sagmeister (handwriting posters).

With his sweeping knowledge of the field, author Jens Müller curates the standout designs for each year alongside a running sequence of design milestones. Organized chronologically, each decade is prefaced by a succinct overview as well as a stunning visual timeline, offering a vivid display of the variety of graphic production in each decade as well as the global landscape which it at once described and defined.

This collection of important graphic works represents a long-overdue reflection on the development of a creative field constantly changing and challenging itself. These key pieces act as coordinates through contemporary history, helping us trace the sheer influence of graphic design on our daily lives.

Combined with Volume One — which spans from the field’s very beginnings until 1959 — the tomes offer the most comprehensive exploration of graphic design to date.

About the Author:

Jens Müller was born in Koblenz, Germany, in 1982 and studied graphic design. Recipient of numerous national and international design awards, Müller is Creative Director of vista design studio in Düsseldorf, editor of the A5 book series on graphic design history, and author of Logo Modernism. He is a visiting lecturer at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf and at the design department of the Dortmund University of Applied Sciences and Arts.

The editor:

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.

The Complete Package. A fresh batch of winning designs from the 2017 and 2018 Pentawards

Each year, the Pentawards set a global benchmark for quality by scouting the cleverest and most eclectic designs in the field. Featuring more than 400 works from over 40 countries, this fifth edition of The Package Design Book presents all 2017 and 2018 winners in a celebration of packaging as a kaleidoscopic art form.

Attract, protect, inform, collect — good packaging is synonymous with multitasking. Creating these ultimate all-rounders calls for a deep understanding of the good, the market, the customer, the environment, the flow of trade — no easy task. Each year, the Pentawards spotlight the ingenious masterminds behind these complex containers and grant their coveted trophies to the cleverest and most innovative designs in the field.

This latest edition of The Package Design Book rounds up the winning designs from the 2017–2018 competitions. With introductory essays, product descriptions, and plenty of images, this book features more than 400 winners from over 40 countries across five main categories — beverages, food, body, luxury, and other markets — and no fewer than 57 subcategories. The result is an authoritative survey of the best of the best, and a rich celebration of packaging as a kaleidoscopic art form.

About the Author

Pentawards is the first and only worldwide competition dedicated to packaging design in all its forms, and is open to anyone associated with its creation or marketing. Aside from prize-giving, Pentawards’ mission is the worldwide promotion of packaging design among companies, media, economic and political authorities, and the general public.

The editor

Julius Wiedemann studied graphic design and marketing and was an art editor for newspapers and design magazines in Tokyo before joining TASCHEN in 2001. His titles include the Illustration Now! and Record Covers series, as well as the infographics collection and books about advertising and visual culture.