Stationary Design Now! Review

It is very rare on Embody 3D that we give a book such a raving review, in fact it is our first 5 star title! But ‘Stationary Design Now!’ edited by Julius Wiedemann and published by Taschen wiped the whole team of writers at Embody 3D off their feet. ‘Stationary Design Now!’ is a beautifully crafted collection of the best logo and stationary designs from around the world and of all industries. The purpose of the book is to revitalise and re-purpose the ailing industries of design for the letterhead, the envelope and the business card that had once had such prominence in business for the past 2 centuries. Please read on to find out more as to why this very simple book is an absolute necessity for all graphic and even web designers and not to mention industrial design enthusiasts who like to dabble in graphics.

Article by Martin Gibson – @embody3d @martingibson – 26.09.2010

[rating:5]

‘Stationary Design Now!’ starts with a brief 14 page history by Jay Rutherford about the origins of graphic design reaching as far back as the invention of paper, the spread of literacy and the profession of graphic design. This history goes all the way through to the modern development of ISO standards. Despite the limited nature of the history provided at the start of the book I found it most informative as it answered those niggly questions that I had always pondered but was unable to find.

However this humble start of the book unleashes into a gigantic portfolio of logo and stationary design developed by some of the world’s most renowned graphic artists. ‘Stationary Design Now’ features mediums like logo design, letterhead design, CD case design, matches design, packaging design, bag design, business card design and the list goes on. This variety of mediums is extremely helpful as it can aid the reader to envisage how to use a particular logo or emblem in a given situation. So if you have a given logo how might you transfer this design in an elegant way on a brochure or business card? This book is just as much about business branding as it is about design.

The books greatest asset is its ability to show such a wide variety of works. Equivalent titles perhaps show a genre of graphic design, for example, it might only show modern logos or quirky logos, but these grow tiresome and don’t make your imagination wonder. ‘Stationary Design Now!’ shows designs that portray traditional values, contemporary elegance, conservative safety, left wing experimentation, as well as designs for differnent cultures and demographics.

The book itself has a mild taste of design ingenuity itself right down to its rounded cornered pages and elastic strap that can be used as a neat little bookmark or to simply hold the book together. The book does a great job of highlighting the 200+ works and making the secondary explanatory text more concealed.

I personally find designing logos the most challenging aspect of design, even more so than complex engineering projects. There is something really difficult about 2 dimensional form and often it is difficult to come up with something fresh that will ‘wow’ your client. I find product design so easy because there is so much uncharted territory, but once I step into the graphic design arena I feel myself up against at least a thousand years of illustration exploration. Unfortunately this book doesn’t design the logo for you but it will certainly give you an abundance of inspiration to take you in the right direction. The mere $25-$30 shelf price is a very small price to pay for a boost in imagination which might help you retain clients and woo in new ones as well from your new enlightened designer self. For those that are considering designing a new logo or upgrading their existing logo and stationary pack this book is essential in grasping the latest graphical trends and as an indispensable tool to attain inspiration as it is likely that your industry is featured half a dozen times in ‘Stationary Design Now!’

The below images are not designs featured in Stationary Design Now but act as indication of the quality of the works featured in the title.