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, 2002
Design firm
Carin Goldberg Design (Brooklyn, New York)
Collection
(2003) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2002
|
Catalog is a picture book of painstakingly chosen and juxtaposed images from a single flea market–found 1953 mail-order catalogue.
I was fascinated with who was responsible for rendering these images in this particular way. Who were these artists? Were they frustrated painters, illustrators, artists trapped in an advertising bullpen, secretly using their jobs to create these strangely beautiful images that evoke the sophistication of Man Ray? Or was it pure accident influenced by technology and circumstance? These images are sculptural, sexually suggestive, funny, weird and gorgeous.
The materials for the cover (chipboard, vinyl and metal) reflect the utilitarian, structural nature of the objects (fans, irons, furnaces). The pinking on the vinyl binding edge was a reference to the clothing and fashion images.