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); 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.

A very good plus lightly handled silkscreen cover with slightly bumped corners. In a complete and very good heavy paper dust jacket with some handling and toning along the edges and spine. The plastic comb binding is solid with the last spiral cracked resulting in pages turning a bit tightly; common with this volume. Foxing to the title page and late pages with some handling and a bend to the upper corner throughout. A vintage bookshop label (Tiranti Books, London) affixed to the inside front cover corner. Overall a bright and clean copy of an often abused book. Highly recommended!