Phaidon Press chose ten curators to compile a list of 100 of the “worlds most exceptional” designers to have emerged in the last five years in Area_2, the follow-up of Area (Phaidon Press, 2005). The book expands its perimeters to include designs from all areas of culture, not just print media. Its curators, an international group of esteemed professors, designers, and critics, took turns writing a short essay on each designer. Along with the essay, each designer has four pages showcasing their work. The designers, which span over 30 ountries, are arranged alphabetically and loosely placed on a grid-less (gasp!) page.
Over 1,500 images create an inspirational and diverse array of contemporary designs. Deanne Cheuk, a New York-based Chinese-Austrailian designer, combines design work with sewing, knitting, and crochet-inspired illustration. Her work is an example of the current blurred lines between artist, designer, and illustrator – between the previously clashing aesthetics of punk-rock studio apartments and Design Within Reach loft spaces. Her work has been seen in varied outlets, ranging from self-published indie zines to Target and Urban Outfitters campaigns.
Gabriel Martinez Meave is the Mexico City-based co-founder of Kimera Type Foundry and a professor at Universidad Anahuac. His typefaces include Arcana and Organixa (distributed by Adobe Systems) as well as Aztlan, Integra, Lagarto, Darka, Mexica, Rondana, and Economista (designed for the newspaper Economista). His skillful work draws from the calligraphy of Mexican colonial illuminator Louis Lagarto, as well as Aztec and Mayan design and architecture. He’s also a powerful illustrator that recently worked on a series of imaginary landscapes of Mexico City based on Bach’s Die Kunst der Fuge.
Ghariokwu Lemi is the foremost album-cover designer in Africa. The self-taught Lagos, Nigeria- based designer has created more than 2,000 album covers, most recognizably for Afrobeat legend Fela Kuti. Lemi cites Pedro Bell as an inspiration (Bell designed covers for George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic), but the political philosophy of his work makes it unique.
The book ends with an awkward design-school-like section on “10 Design Classics,” ten single-page, short essays on works by Enzo Mari, Bradbury Thompson, Alexander Rodchenko, and others. On its own, the section doesn’t provide much, but the notion—that a designer should understand and appreciate the past—is well received.
Area_2: 100 Graphic Designers, 10 Curators
Editors of Phaidon Press
Hardcover, 448 pages, $90, Phaidon Press
– Chris Force