AIGA Design Archives

This text-only record is part of the interactive AIGA Design Archives where you can view more details, zoom into images and explore other works in the definitive online resource on American design.

Design Category
Book design, 1996
Design firm
plus design inc. (Boston, Massachusetts)
Collection
(1997) 50 Books/50 Covers of 1996

Description

In Culver City, California, visionary architect Eric Owen Moss has designed a series of commercial buildings that energize the predictable skyline of this city, where low flat-roofed buildings house light industrial activity. One of his buildings, known as The Box, combines geometry and sculptural qualities while investigating the function of its parts from both the interior and exterior. These formal and functional concepts are also expressed in the book’s design. The complexity and clarity of this project is reflected in the text, images, drawings, and interviews documented in the book.
Vellum paper was selected to articulate the dialogue conveyed through the use of typography and the geometric layout. In presenting the building photographs, the design recedes, allowing the images to be the single voice. Similarly, the architect’s sketches are directly presented and accompanying construction documents are reproduced at scale.

Credits
Art director/designer: Anita Meyer
Photographers: Paul Aroh, Todd Conversano, Frank Jackson
Authors: Mack Scogin, Peter G. Rowe, Preston Scott Cohen, Herbert Muschamp, Brooke Hodge
Typeface: Corporate Font Family
Printer: Mercantile Printing Company
Papers: Monadnock Dulcet Smooth, Domtar Natural
Publisher/client: Harvard University Graduate School of Design