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Design Category
Book design, 2003
Design firm
Harry N. Abrams, Inc. (New York, New York)
Collection
(2004) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2003
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Artifacts of Flight is a catalog of flight-related memorabilia from the collection of the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. The impressive and quirky range of material selected adds depth to the viewers’ experience of seeing these historic high- and low-tech apparatus in a stark yet pleasing display. The design builds on the consistency of the author’s crisp black-and-white photographs of the objects, which were silhouetted and reproduced in duotone, and her anecdotal texts about them. Objects float, drift, or fly across the white, gravity-free space of the page; the typography lends a simple rhythm and implied structure. Small design details enhance the presentation: a tick mark at the folio alludes to the precision of flight instruments, star charts on the endpapers summon up the night sky, metallic ink shimmers like the side of an aircraft.
“Antigravity graphics and the pleasure of design fill these pages.” Jack Woody “It’s got a lot of persona. Every page is composed.