Saturday, June 19, 2021

AIGA Color book / 1974 / part one


I uploaded a few pages from this Color book in 2011 and over the years several fans have asked to see the whole book, this is the first half of the book.
      In 1974 the American Institute of Graphic Arts asked its members to interpret the word color. The idea was a project to establish a scholarship fund and to enable the AIGA to extend its activities in the graphic arts industry. The results are printed in this handsome softcover book, published and given away by Champion Papers.  
      The one hundred and seventy entries are one to a page, which is just over nine and a half inches square and printed on Champion’s excellent Kromekote gloss paper. The first eight pages, with the title page and short essays, are printed on their colored stock
      Now well over four decades old the illustrations have stood the test of time and still look fresh today. I put this down to the professionalism of these creative designers who interpreted the concept in the widest possible sense. Designer Roger Cook submitted a slim upright white box with a button on each side. Called Colorful sound, one button makes a man say “Blue”, the other button has a woman saying "Yellow", push both at the same time and they both say “Green!”  Several entries used a rainbow theme but they all looked completely different as did the designers who wrote various colors in black but used different colors for each letter of their signatures.
      The spreads below will give you an idea of the contents of this remarkable book. My copy shows signs of wear as I’ve looked through it so many times over the years.  Despite it originally being free copies can be found on the net at a reasonable price.
















































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