An ambitious campaign to bring a lost classic of graphic design literature to a new audience: Ladislav Sutnar's 1961 masterpiece Visual Design in Action
Make a reprint of an old book — easy, right? Not so, especially when that book is Visual Design in Action, one of the most beautiful and important design books of the twentieth century, by the great and too often unknown Ladislav Sutnar. Visual Design In Action was first published in 1961 but has been out of print for decades. It is now set for a glorious comeback thanks to a fundraising campaign co-ordinated by Designers & Books, the website championing creatively significant and inspiring books.
This endeavour is impressive for its integrity to the original— every detail of the print and production of the 1961 edition is being honoured. For a new generation of design students and practitioners this will be a rare treat, and a pointedly analogue experience. When Sutnar first made the book, to accompany an exhibition of his work, he could not find a publisher willing to fork out to meet his exacting standard in print and production. In the end, he funded an edition of 3000 copies himself.
The tactile qualities of the facsimile edition will be paramount and publisher Lars Mueller brings his expertise in that area to the project. “When you guys came to me with this project I thought ‘you are totally insane’”. That’s Lars Mueller in the Kickstarter video referring to the ambition of the reprint. “But it’s just great. It’s one of the icons in the communication of graphic design. There’s a variation in papers and several solid colour prints — even today it’s a challenge for any specialist in the field… It would be great if we could achieve a perfect reprint of this iconic book.”
If you’re wondering why this book is worth such effort to recreate, consider not only its value as a piece of design literature but also Sutnar’s remarkable achievements as a designer, which it documents. The Czech born designer emigrated to the States in 1939 and made his mark there, partly by inventing the system of putting the parentheses around American telephone area-code numbers when they were first introduced. He is also credited as a forerunner in the use of double page spreads to convey meaning across pages. He was also – as graphic design authority and one of the book’s editors Steven Heller point out – “a philosopher of design, a maker of design and a great critic of design.”
Be Part of the campaign to bring this iconic book back into print. Back the Kickstarter here.
Further reading on Ladislav Sutnar and about Visual Design In Action.
