Celebrates the simple veg 5/5

Originally published in 1985 this book still looks visually stunning, which is why I have a copy. I'll admit I'm not too curious about vegetables but as a publication designer I'm very interested in well-designed titles and this one has the added advantage of being designed by Kit Hinrichs (winner of dozens of design awards). The typography throughout the book is first-class.

The books starts of with brief history of vegetables in America and especially California, this is followed by an A to Z of the subject mixing folklore and fact. The book is printed on a standard paper but there are forty-six pages printed on a semi-matt gloss paper with excellent photos and some illustrations of vegetables. The last chapter has a selection of recipes, all, of course, using vegetables.

I would recommend this book to any print designer as an example of what, initially might seem a sort of dull subject but in the hands of Mr Kinrichs, it really comes alive. 

US

Vegetables: Hirasuna, Delphine, Hinrichs, Kit, Tracy, Tom, Hirasuna, Diane J.: 9780877013617: Amazon.com: Books

UK

Vegetables: Amazon.co.uk: Hirasuna, Delphine, Hinrichs, Kit, Tracy, Tom, Hirasuna, Diane J.: 9780877013617: Books

Visible decay

Amber Books, who published this title, has a whole line of photobooks covering man-made debris. The two hundred photos in this book show abandonment around the world selected from Alamy, Dreamstime, Getty Images and Shutterstock photo agencies. One advantage of this is that all the photos are taken by professionals and they all have quite comprehensive captions making the book a step up from the usual abandoned/ruins titles that just have a photo and maybe a line about where it was taken.

I think it's worth saying that the exterior and interior photos just show abandonment rather than photos of vandalisted interiors. Photobooks of Detroit a decade or so back had plenty of photos showing property strewn about interiors, a school classroom for example, or a laboratory.

The photos are a worthwhile mix of exterior (probably the majority) and interior images showing buildings and metal structures taking over the look of continuous neglect and all looking remarkably still, devoid of any human activity. I liked the interior photos of control panels, circular gauges, rusting gears and chains that once were churning some big or small products.

The book is a nice print job (with a two hundred screen) on good matt art paper and I thought very reasonably priced.

US

Abandoned Industrial Places: Factories, laboratories, mills and mines that the world left behind (Abandoned Places): Ross, David: 9781782749844: Amazon.com: Books

How to showcase a company

The title is an excellent addition to the photobook genre and who would have thought that such a rich collection of company printed matter from 1890 to 1987 was available. Thanks to author Bart Sorgedrager who wisely collected company photobooks and 175 are shown on these pages. 

These are, of course, basically company PR but because cost wasn't a primary consideration for publication there are some very extravagant productions: the French Geo Foucault & Schweitzer, a meat company, in the 1920s, published a 312-page paperback, the Swiss fabric company Heberlein took 160 pages to show off their wares, in 1959 the Dutch Plem electronic company produced 146-page hardback. These are the exceptions because most of the publications are less than fifty pages and those published before 1940 usually used black and white photos but frequently with a second color.

I was surprised to come across publications that went the extra mile, for example, five companies published 3D titles (including the glasses). Dutch chocolate company Van Nelle issued, in 1931, a shot of their factory as a hundred-piece jigsaw, as did Lips, also Dutch, with an aerial factory shot in a 120-piece jigsaw. Karl Krause, a German company celebrated the 100,000 production of bookbinding machinery with a folder containing sixteen postcards showing the interior of their factories.

These company publications are full of photos, usually by unknown photographers but famous names do show up. Margaret Bourke-White took the shots for the seventy-four-page book titled Newsprint for International Paper in 1939, Lee Friedlander worked for Cray Computers in 1987. Designer/photographer Piet Zwart was responsible for several publications shown in the book.

Overall I thought was a fascinating look at the relatively obscure company photobook, obscure because none of these titles were sold to the public. The 506 pages are nicely designed though I would have preferred less white page space and bigger spreads from the books. Manfred Heiting's photobook series published by Steidl (Soviet, Japanese, Dutch, Czech & Slovak) shows how it can be done and still look beautifully designed.

US

Factory Photo-Books: The Self-Representation of the Factory in Photographic Publications: Sorgedrager, Bart, Badger, Gerry, Bool, Flip, Boom, Mattie, Gierstberg, Frits, Parr, Martin, Schoots, Hans, Timby, Kim, Wiegand, Thomas: 9789056628703: Amazon.com: Books

UK

Factory Photobooks - The Self-Representation of the Factory in Photographic Publications : Sorgedrager, Bart, Badger, Gerry, Bool, Flip, Boom, Mattie, Gierstberg, Frits, Parr, Martin, Schoots, Hans, Timby, Kim, Wiegand, Thomas: Amazon.co.uk: Books