Catalog Design Progress: Advancing Standards in Visual Communication [Ladislav Sutnar]

Catalog Design Progress: Advancing Standards in Visual Communication by Knud Lonberg-Holm and Ladislav Sutnar with assistance from Clifford S. Eriksen, 1950. Sweet's Catalog Service, division of F.W. Dodge Corporation, New York. 9.25 x 12, pp. 108. Printed in New York. Design by Ladislav Sutnar.

Catalog Design Progress is the collaborative successor to their 1944 celebrated book; Catalog Design: New Patterns in Product Information. In this 1950 landmark volume, the research director (Lonberg-Holm) and art director (Sutnar) more elaborately address ideas, principles and techniques for the advancement of catalog design standards. The new study is a logical and visual approach, resulting in very practical, information design book that is still relevant, more than 70 years later.

A short preface by Chauncey L. Williams, General Manager, Sweet's Catalog Service, featuring sections devoted to: the emergence of new flow patterns, visual features (typography, pictures and charts, covers), design development: structural features (page organization, catalog organization, file organization), and function, flow, and form. Uniquely designed and lavishly illustrated in color. Culminating with a [how-to] checklist for the development of catalog design.

Near fine, sturdy silkscreen covers in a complete and very good, heavy paper dust jacket with 1-2” tears along the rectangular die-cut. The plastic comb binding is solid and all pages turn easily. Slight wear to the spine heel with a few thumbed pages but overall bright and clean. A terrific copy of an often abused book.