Five years in the making, an in-depth survey of Pentagram from its beginnings in 1970s London to its current status as one of the powerhouses of international design

Pentagram: Living by Design (two volumes) is the definitive statement on 50 years of Pentagram. This is an in-depth survey of the group from its beginnings in 1970s London to its current status as one of the powerhouses of international design.

Book one, The Biography, offers a comprehensive analysis of the group, its partners, its achievements, its multidisciplinary approach, and its unique business model. This is accompanied by a plethora of images (some never published), a visual essay of Pentagram’s work across four main sectors, a selection of partners writings, a Pentagram family tree, and much more.

Book two, The Directory, has profiles of 50 partners, past and present, accompanied by extensive coverage of their work. It’s a stellar roll call: from the five famous founders to some of the most celebrated names in contemporary design. It also includes a list of everyone who worked in the firm’s various offices.

Both books are designed by Tony Brook and the Spin design team and use a range of paper stocks and special colours.

About the Authors:

Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer, writer and senior tutor at the Royal College of Art, London. He has written numerous books, including a recently published compendium of his design journalism, Scratching the Surface, and monographs devoted to legendary designers Herb Lubalin and Ken Garland. He regularly contributes to design publications and blogs such as Design Observer, Eye, Creative Review and Design Week. In 1988, Shaughnessy co-founded design studio Intro; today he runs ShaughnessyWorks, a consultancy combining art direction, writing, editing and lecturing, and is a co-director of Unit Editions. He is a member of the Alliance Graphique Internationale. Tony Brook is primarily a designer, but also a publisher, collector and curator. Brook founded SPIN, his south London-based studio, in 1992, and is a co-director of Unit Editions. He is currently a visiting professor in Graphic Design at the University for the Arts, a specialist arts university in the South East of England.

A collection of 1000 symbols and logotypes designed by the Pentagram partners from 1972 to the present.

The biggest part of what Pentagram has done for the last fifty years has always been creating brand identities for clients from many different industries and continents. The humble mark is central to all of these well-honed identities – often acting as shorthand for the brand itself. Marks are everywhere – they enter our collective psyche, they’re part of the cultural landscape and they symbolise the relationships we form with brands.

The 1,000 marks featured in this book represent the diverse range of identity work created by Pentagram partners past and present. Since its inception, Pentagram has designed marks for everyone from multinational corporations to start-ups, government agencies, nonprofits and social enterprises, clubs, societies, individuals, districts and even whole countries. Regardless of your identity, an original mark that you can take ownership of is the starting point for communicating who you are and what you do.

There are many approaches to creating a distinctive logo, and all of them can be seen here, from bold typographic wordmarks to pictorial symbols and more abstract solutions. Printing them in black and white helps us see them in their purest form, highlighting the contrasts and occasional similarities between them.

The practice of design has changed radically since 1972, but its concerns remain the same. The deceptively simple exercise of designing a mark for a client, and the elusive quest for timelessness that it entails, are still central to the challenge that graphic designers face today.

About the Author:

Pentagram is an international design firm with offices in London, New York, Austin and Berlin.

The four hundred marks reproduced in this book represent the diverse array of identity work produced by Pentagram's partners, past and present, since the company was founded in 1972. Over the past four decades, Pentagram has designed marks for large corporations and small businesses, government agencies and non-profit institutions, clubs and societies and even individuals, all of whom were seeking a representative symbol to appear on letterhead and books, buildings amd websites and everywhere else imaginable.

Previously only distributed in a limited edition, this invaluable book is now available in a paperback version and will provide inspiration for all graphic designers working on identity projects.

About the Author:

Pentagram originated in London in 1972 and opened offices in New York in 1978, San Francisco in 1986, Austin in 1994 and Berlin in 2002. It provides design services across the full spectrum of graphics, identity, architecture, interiors and products to both local and international clients.