Studio Culture from Unit Editions
Editors Tony Brook & Adrian Shaughnessy
Design Spin
Print Granite

Studio Culture as a book/object is rich in it’s detailing from the typography and layouts, considered selection of stocks to the more obvious – brown overprinted circles wrap around the cover creating an interesting visual rhythm. Not only does this book look beautiful, it’s a real joy to hold in your hands (the fact that cover is Icada Silk only confirms the latter statement).

On further/close inspection you will notice a liberal use of Optimo Hermes in a single weight throughout. This alone has its limitations when it comes to establishing a sense of hierarchy within the book. However, by employing three colours, varying the point sizes and incorporating subtle graphic devices such as the underline, Spin have managed to effortlessly separate headings and titles from body copy and ultimately make this book clearly navigable, accessible and easy to digest.
Layout wise, everything sits firmly in a flexible grid that allows for variation but doesn’t alter the visual harmony and overall pacing of the entire publication – chapters or rather sections, are effectively divided by manner of full bleed, duotone photography.

As for the content, I can’t really complain, I found everything to be insightful and informative and the foreword by Ben Bos is a great introduction to the book. My only issue with Studio Culture (and this is a miniscule one) is the fact that some of the /images were a bit on the small side—Google Images small—though this is probably attributed in part to the limited page space. On the contrary, this doesn’t really affect this otherwise wonderful book which will undoubtedly prove a welcome addition to any graphic designers library.
Graphic Design book of the year? It very well could be.