I can never say too much about the folks at Kind Co, Patricia Belen and Greg D’Onofrio, whose online archive and bookstore, Display, is a rich resource for the design historian and connoisseur. They recently updated their bookstore inventory to include over 80 important and hard-to-find graphic design books, posters, journals, and ephemera. Highlights include the definitive book on Pieter Brattinga, a near-fine set of U&lc designed by Herb Lubalin, Vignelli’s striking Pneumatici Pirelli poster, a large inventory of Typographische Monatsblätter (TM Journals), important books designed by Paul Rand, the very rare Publicity and Graphic Design in the Chemical Industry by Hans Neuberg, and much more.
In addition, Display offers frequent original and historical essays. The latest is a fascinating unpacking of the typeface Eurostile, revealing the influences of modern life on its form, by Aldo Novarese from Pagina, International Magazine of Graphic Design, No. 4, January 1964 (illustrations above and below): “Through its compact and square lines, Eurostile efficiently expresses modernity and synthesizes the tendency towards a functionalism that solves many aesthetic problems and gives a modern and typical appearance to a printed page”.
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For more essays on typography, check out Steven Heller’s Texts on Type, which contains more than 50 important writings about the history, aesthetics, and practice on type design. And if you don’t have one already, be sure to order a copy of Alex W. White’s Thinking in Type: The Practical Philosophy of Typography.