French art director and designer Sébastien Hayez, who publishes the website Designers Books, says that two years ago a number of young graphic designers he knows became interested in the output of Zurich-based ABC Verlag books. “It could be a trendy passion that passed after reading some volumes. But for people who have the opportunity to read these books, they know that it’s a real treasure.”
Hayez says that while looking for an old Graphis Annual on eBay, he stumbled upon Form + Communication and Signet Signal Symbol, both published by ABC Verlag and written by Walter Diethelm.
Page from The Shelf #4.
“Content is king in these books,” he writes on his site. “When most design books today only display design samples by studios … ABC books are pushing the boundaries to give a body to the philosophy. Samples are so strictly chosen that it appears to be a philosophy by itself.”
He has recently written a brief history of ABC books that will appear in The Shelf Journal #4.
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