is a blog about design, technology and culture written by Khoi Vinh, and has been more or less continuously published since December 2000 in New York City. Khoi is currently Principal Designer at Adobe. Previously, Khoi was co-founder and CEO of Mixel (acquired in 2013), Design Director of The New York Times Online, and co-founder of the design studio Behavior, LLC. He is the author of “How They Got There: Interviews with Digital Designers About Their Careers”and “Ordering Disorder: Grid Principles for Web Design,” and was named one of Fast Company’s “fifty most influential designers in America.” Khoi lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn with his wife and three children.
The book takes 29 internationally recognized logos and explains their development, design, usage, and purpose. Based upon interviews with the designers responsible for these totems, and encompassing the marks from a range of corporate, artistic, and cultural institutions from across the globe, TM reveals the stories behind such icons as the Coca-Cola logotype, the Penguin Books’ colophon, and the Michelin Man.
Sinclair is deputy editor of the U.K.’s Creative Review magazine, so the list of brands that he covers, below, includes some names that might not be immediately familiar to many Americans. Nevertheless, it looks terrific.
Bell Systems, Saul Bass, US, 1985
British Rail, Gerry Barney, UK, 1964
British Steel, David Gentleman, UK, 1969
CBS, William Golden, US, 1951
Canadian National, Allan Fleming, Canada, 1960
CND, Gerald Holtom, UK, 1958
Coca-Cola, Frank Mason Robinson, US, 1887
Deutsche Bank, Anton Stankowski, Germany, 1974
ENO, Mike Dempsey, UK, 1991
ERCO, Otl Aicher, Germany, 1974
España, Joan Miró, Spain, 1983
I Love New York, Milton Glaser, US, 1975
London Underground, Edward Johnston, UK, 1919
Michelin, O’Galop, France, 1898
Munich, ’72, Coordt von Mannstein, Germany, 1971
Musée d’Orsay, Bruno Monguzzi, Switzerland, 1983
NASA, Bruce Blackburn, US, 1974
National Theatre, Ian Dennis, UK, 1974
Osborne Bull, Manolo Prieto, Spain, 1956
Penguin, Edward Young, UK, 1935
Peru, FutureBrand, Argentina, 2011
Pirelli, Unknown, Italy, 1908
Pompidou Centre, Jean Widmer, Switzerland, 1977
Randstad, Ben Bos, Netherlands, 1960
Tate, Wolff Olins, UK, 1999
UPS, Paul Rand, US, 1961
V&A, Alan Fletcher, UK, 1989
Woolmark, Franco Grignani, Italy, 1964
WWF, Sir Peter Scott, UK, 1961
More information at laurenceking.com, or you can pre-order a copy at Amazon.com—if you use that link, I get a little affiliate fee and everyone’s happy.
