Meet… Unit Editions, 14.12.16
Earlier this week the last magCulture Meets event of 2016 took place at our London shop.
Unit Editions have established themselves as the graphic designers’ publisher of choice, with beautifully crafted monographs on design heroes such as Ken Garland and Herb Lubalin. Their latest pair of books, ‘Impact 1.0’ and Impact ‘2.0’, are visual chronologies of the front cover designs of design magazines and journals. The first book spans 1922–1973, the second 1974–today.
The books are such a simple idea, yet so effective. We’re used to seeing magazine covers reproduced at small scale, shot in different light, and often en masse – that is, a history of one magazine as a set. These books offer a wonderful visual history of graphic eras, and all the featured publications have been sourced and photographed especially for the project. But it’s the way they’re shown in order of publication that makes the books unmissable.
This simple method reveals how different magazines appeared at the same time, just as the magazines would have been seen on the original date of publication. This is such an overlooked part of magazine history. When we make magazines we obsess on the last issue and wonder about the next one, we see our magazines as part of a unique line of effort. Whereas most readers experience all magazines as part of a more general contiuum of publications, not just a series of one magazine. It may seem a small point, but the full page colour reproduction of front covers in these books make them a very special and exciting addition to the range of books on the subject.
For magCulture Meets Unit Editions, co-founder/editor Adrian Shaughnessy talks through some of the key magazines in the book before being joined by co-founder/creative director Tony Brook for an audience Q&A moderated by Jeremy Leslie.
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