Recommended Databases
SMFA Print Periodicals
- Eye: the international review of graphic designPrint issues available at the SMFA Library & Tisch and online issues
- Step inside designPrint issues available at the SMFA Library and online issues
- Surface design : the journal of the Surface Design AssociationPrint issues available at the SMFA Library and online issues
SMFA Online Periodicals
- Computer artsOnline issues
- Journal of graphic engineering and designOnline issues
- The international journal of visual designOnline issues
- Acta graphicaOnline issues
- The graphic arts industry news digestOnline issues
Typography books
ABCD of Typography by
Typography confronts us everywhere: in books and newspapers, on road signs, in product packaging, and on political leaflets. It is ubiquitous to the point of mundanity. But while the typeface might be secondary to the message, it remains crucial to the way we respond. Fonts spark emotions; they evoke eras and ideologies. Some, like Edward Johnson's for the London Underground, have become iconic. Others, like Comic Sans, are loathed. Each one has its own place in history.
Call Number: SMFA: Z250.A2 R38 2019
Bauhaus Typography At 100 by
"An unprecedented, definitive look at the school's typography and print design, from its early expressive tendencies to the functional modernism for which it is famed today. The Bauhaus looms large as one of the most influential legacies in 20th-century graphic design. Known for its bold sans-serif typefaces, crisp asymmetrical grids and clean use of negative space, the school emerged as the forebearer of a new look, one that seized the tools of mass production in the creation of a radical new art. Today, just over 100 years after the Bauhaus's opening in 1919, the school's visual hallmarks have come to define modernity as it appears on the printed page."--Provided by publisher.
Call Number: SMFA Library: N332.G33 B43199 2021
Dafi Kühne - True Print by
Dafi Kuhne is a Swiss designer who works with analog and digital ways to produce fresh and unique letterpress-printed posters. Using very different kinds of instruments, from a MacBook to a pantograph, for his compositions, he pushes the boundaries of design. Never afraid of getting his hands dirty in his creative workshop, Kuhne embraces the labour involved in the entire process of creating a poster from initial idea to finished product. Fusing modern means with the century-old tradition of the letterpress, he forms a new vocabulary on how to communicate through type and form in a truly un-nostalgic way. Never retro, his work is a clever response to the search for new ways of graphic expression: true print.
Call Number: SMFA: Z246 .K84 2016
Essential Type by
"Have you ever wondered which typeface is used for airport signs? Or about the history behind the Times New Roman font? We are constantly engaging with type, yet many of us struggle to use it effectively or simply to understand the basics. This beautifully illustrated, easy to use companion is the perfect guide to everything typographic. Tony Seddon provides an essential lexicon that explains the history and functionality of 140 type terms and 20 unique typeface classifications. The book also features a timeline of typeface classification from the mid-15th century to the present day, and concludes with a chapter detailing over 40 important typeface families that reflect the history of typeface development and typographic style from the earliest days of movable type. Essential Type will help to build your knowledge of type and typeface use with a clear and comprehensive "what is it" and "why use it' approach to the subject. Five chapters explore topics including the anatomy of type, glyphs, typeface classification, and typefaces ranging from serif to sans serif to script and display. The chapter on typefaces pays particular attention to highlighting key design features and, along with illuminating backstories and tips to aid identification, makes this book the perfect companion for all type enthusiasts and practitioners." -- Publisher's description.
Call Number: SMFA: Z250 .S43 2016
Graphic Design Before Graphic Designers by
Publisher description: Although the term was not coined until the 1920s, graphic design existed long before there were any graphic designers. This lavish volume is a vibrant mix of beautifully crafted printed ephemera from the past. It is a visual journey through the pre-history of graphic design, charting the printer's progress from jobbing tradesman to the heights and hallowed status of artistic printer. Showcasing work from a host of anonymous talents whose names are lost to history as well as seminal, pioneering typographers, artists and printers such as Giambattista Bodoni, William Morris and Oscar Harpel, it reveals how those working on both sides of the Atlantic responded to everyday communication issues with original solutions and breathtaking flair and skill. The extraordinarily diverse results - the precursor of what we now call graphic design - are a celebratory cultural feast of the jobbing printer's contribution to visual culture and heritage.
Call Number: SMFA: Z246 .J87 2012
Language Barrier by
"The real meaning behind emojis, the subtext of sexts, the financial cryptography of flats and pumps, and more are revealed in this witty and wonderfully drawn collection. Hannah K. Lee melds elegant typography, beautiful illustration and trenchant text to make an acerbic art book." -- Publisher's website.
Call Number: SMFA: N7433.4.L429 L36 2017
One Hundred Great Books on Typography by
This book presents the reader with one hundred valuable and influential books on the subject. Thematic sections allow the reader to navigate easily, and thorough reviews explain the importance of each book. This versatile collection is the ideal library for anyone who wants to know how type works and, more importantly, how to use it. The book also contains three interviews with typography experts and authors of influential books on the subject.
Call Number: SMFA: Z250 .T67 2016
Strikethrough: Typographic Messages of Protest by
Strikethrough explores protest materials through the urgency of their typographic form. With a rich selection of broadsheets, signs, banners, posters, and ephemera spanning the 19th century to today, this exhibition catalog celebrates the use of letters to amplify and empower.
Call Number: SMFA: NK1520 .S86 2022
Tauba Auerbach -- S V Z by
"Part artist's book, part exhibition catalog, this book chronicles Tauba Auerbach's multimedia syntheses of abstraction, science, graphic design and typography Tauba Auerbach studies the boundaries of perception through an art and design practice grounded in math, science and craft. Published in conjunction with the first major survey of the artist's work, this volume, designed by Auerbach in collaboration with David Reinfurt, spans 16 years of her career, highlighting her interest in concepts such as duality and its alternatives, interconnectedness, rhythm and four-dimensional geometry. Encapsulating Auerbach's longstanding consideration of symmetry, texture and logic, the title S v Z offers a framework for this volume's typeface, design and structure. Images of more than 130 paintings, drawings, sculptures and artist's books created between 2004 and 2020 are mirrored by a comprehensive selection of related reference images, illuminating her multifaceted practice as never before. Essays by Joseph Becker, Jenny Gheith and Linda Dalrymple Henderson provide further context for the work. The book contains original marble patterns created specially for the book by the artist on both the endpapers and the edges of the book block. The cover is lettered in Auerbach's calligraphy, applied in black foil on a silver paper. The typeface was designed by David Reinfurt with Auerbach expressly for this publication, and is based on her handwriting. New York-based artist Tauba Auerbach (born 1981) grew up in San Francisco and graduated from Stanford University in 2003. She apprenticed and worked as a sign painter at New Bohemia Signs in San Francisco. In 2013 she founded Diagonal Press. She is represented by Paula Cooper Gallery, New York, and Standard Oslo"--artbook.com.
Call Number: SMFA: N6537.A88 A4 2020
Type by
This text offers a novel overview of typeface design, exploring the most beautiful and remarkable examples of font catalogs from the history of publishing, with a special emphasis on the period from the mid-19th century to the mid-20th century.
Call Number: SMFA: Z250.A2 T96 2009
Typography 31 by
The Type Directors Club presents its annual showcase of the year's best typographic work in this visually provocative, far-reaching compendium of innovative, successful design strategies. Following in the footsteps of previous Typography editors such as Shanon Werner and Emily Oberman, design guru Paul Sahre uses his background in off-Broadway poster art and book jacket design (for authors such as Rick Moody, Chuck Klosterman, Ben Marcus, and Victor Pelevin) to uncover, collate, and illuminate the year's most unique and effective uses of typography in books, magazines, stationery, web graphics, and more. Typography 31 is a must-have for every professional graphic designer, and a peerless asset to anyone looking for insight into what makes design work.
Call Number: SMFA: Z243.A2 T9
Typography Sketchbooks by
Aimed at all those who use type, whether by hand or on screen, this survey gets into the minds of designers who create typefaces, word-images and logos through their private sketchbooks. Arranged by designer, this collection reveals how the world's top typographers and designers strive to find new and exciting ways of communicating through letters and words.
Call Number: SMFA: Z246 .H445 2011
Visual Coexistence by
"Today, designers in all cultures are concerned with the question of how to promote global understanding while maintaining the diversity of languages and writing systems. Ruedi Baur and his research team investigate and analyze visual graphics from different cultures and identify their specific principles of representation. The research was preceded by a comprehensive case study on the coexistence of Chinese and Latin, and Arabic and Latin script. Starting from the question of the conditions for the coexistence of different writing systems, this study extends intercultural visual communication to include knowledge graphics. The publication provides the knowledge and skills necessary to develop an appropriate, differentiated design for the global context."--Page 4 of cover
Call Number: P93.5 .V57 2020
SMFA Research & Instruction Librarian
Want to browse the stacks? Look at these call numbers
| ND1290 | Color in painting |
| ND1480 – 1490 | Color theory |
| QC495 | Color (scientific aspects) |
| TR510 – 545 | Color photography |