NAVA Character Sample Book for Photocomposition [Design Vignelli Associates, NYC]

NAVA, Campionario caratteri di fotocomposizione [character sample book for photocomposition], 1st ed., c. 1990. Nava Milano spa/azienda grafica, Milan and Rome, Italy. 8.25 x 8.25, 130 pages with black free endpapers and thick glossy board covers. Printed in Italy in black and red (cover) only with a 1/4” twin-loop, metal wire binding. Design by Vignelli Associates, New York; founded in 1971 in New York City by Lella and Massimo Vignelli. 

Rare. Featuring (127) examples in alphabetical order from Akzidenz Grotesk to Helvetica to Univers and many in between including various styles for each. Samples typefaces show sizes 5 to 24. Also included are mathematical, Greek and special symbols as well as rounded corners and rules. The excellent front cover shows Akzidenz Grotesk Nero and the updated NAVA logo designed by Walter Ballmer in 1975.

From the excellent Designculture interview with Massimo Vignelli from 2013 ... Can you tell me the story of how Helvetica was brought to Italy? It was 1960 and no one in Italy had Helvetica. So I went to Felice Nava, whose printhouse was then located under Max Huber’s apartment, and asked him to go to Switzerland and buy it. A man of few words, he only answered: “I’ll go!” and left. On the way back, once at the customs, the border officers became suspicious seeing that his car was running really slow and all squashed to the ground. “Why is your car walking so low and slow?” they asked him. “Well… It could be the carburetor!” Of course it was full of lead blocks! They searched the car and confiscated all the typecases. When he came back to Milan I asked him what we should do and he said: “Huh, now I’ve wised up! I'll come back to Switzerland and pass the border through a different way!” This is what he did and this is how Helvetica was brought to Italy. From then on Nava’s fortune began: all the graphic designers went to him because he was the only one with the right typeface.

Very good with some wear to the corner covers and edges. Light handling throughout with a few marks to some pages. A hard-to-find Vignelli-designed catalog.