Area by Editors of Phaidon Press
Creation Of Personified Bliss
Following in the footsteps of Cream and Fresh Cream, 10x10, Blink, and
Spoon, Area is an up-to-the-minute, global overview of graphic design.
This image-filled book presents the work of 100 of the world’s most
innovative emerging graphic designers, showcasing work from such wide-
ranging projects as corporate identity, poster design, book design,
packaging, typography and CD cover design. The 100 designers were
selected by a distinguished group of 10 curators from around the world– all
highly established and influential figures in the field of graphic design.
Each curator selected and wrote about 10 exciting talents whom they
consider to have made a name for themselves on the international scene
over the last five years.
Personal Review: Area by Editors of Phaidon Press
There is something amazing in the way consumerism has birthed its own
brand of art. In the 1880's, when Coca-Cola pushed their first few dollars
across the table and asked for a slogan, I wonder if anyone ever dreamed

what their industries would become and how much they would owe to this
type of expression? I wonder if the idea that Frank L. Balm had about The
Storefront Window, saying it was more than a place to keep a store's
useless stuff, went beyond the United States becoming the frontrunner in
glass consumption and into a field all its own? I ask because the field of
Marketing Psychology intrigues me and, accordingly, the things we've
birthed to sell items also intrigues me. Maybe "intrigue" isn't even the right
world - maybe I should say that they captivate me, forcing me to search
high and low for the best lightbulbs burning in the brightest
phosphorescent starlight so to influence the migratory patterns of items
that are pushed forth by a culmination of thought and a well-oiled pen.
That is what is so beautiful about Area; it breathes what we are, what we
consume, and how this meshes with the very fabric of how we conceive
pitch and pitches, ticking and timeless, making up the very definition of art
that is more than pictures generated "for art's sake." Looking here, it really
reflects how the world has become vibrant and how pictures have shaped
the world.
Locked inside this book is more than a few pictures - its a blueprint of an
overlooked history that America wears all over its geography.
When I look at the field of graphic design, I am always tantalized by the
creations that come from it, wanting to pour myself into page after page
and see the "next big idea." It is somewhat like listening to the heartbeat of
millions of people thumping in unison; if it clicks it happens to click, and
you know what started the motion. Area proves that, too, showing you how
far we've moved past the simple pixel lay-outs and into the realm of
technological highs and really ingenious methods of salesmanship, making
so many things seem desirable. In Marketing Psychology it is called
tapping into the "ideal self" and making people buy a dream that the
"actual self" doesn't seem to be able to supply.
The idea seems easy enough to understand, too, and sometimes people
laugh at the power wielded by the pen and call the "needing" lemmings.
Here, in this book, I find a lot of laughter falling short of its mark and even
the bigger birds of prey noticing things they adore and why they learned to
adore it.
When I first bought this book I thought it would simply feed my tastes and
purse my lips with the hum of more curiosity, but lately I've noticed how
much influence the book has. It has thousands of pictures, quite literally,
and sometimes I catch my friends standing with their eyes glued to an item
and that blank stare of "something remembering something" coming out as
they slow move through the pages. Its as if Ford's comments on the heart
of the new type of manufacturing, "machinery is the new messiah," have
found application in ways he never intended.
If you want to see how great that can become, how powerful advertising
can become, then you should look at this book and see what I mean.
Currently the one I own has been in my clutches for well over a year, and I
still have around one hundred pages tabbed just so I can look back over

them and marvel at the creativity that thrives in make-believe places
orbiting some very real horizons.
Even if you know nothing about art, you know what beauty is and this book
comes highly recommended in that department.
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