Catalepton

Che piacere avere tra le mani questa trouvaille dalla Feltrinelli di Largo di Torre Argentina: Jonathan Raimes - Lakshmi Bhaskaran, Retro Graphics Cookbook. Recreate 100 years of graphic design, Ilex, Lewes (East Sussex), 2007 (se vuoi, ce n’è anche un assaggio non insipido in pdf).

Così lo presenta l’editore:

Retro Graphics Cookbook is a visual sourcebook of design details, motifs, ornaments, icons, logos, colour palettes, illustration styles and type and letterforms. It analyses a wide range of classic design “looks” and breaks them down into the individual components from which they are built, explaining where they originated, what gives them their defining characteristics and showing examples of how they were used at the time. The book offers a compendium of design “modules” that any contemporary graphic designer can employ to accurately and authentically simulate retro styles.
Richly illustrated and carefully researched, Retro Graphics Cookbook is a visual encyclopedia of all the ingredients, recipes and methods that lie behind a feast of distinctive graphic design styles.

E certo, è solo un “visual sourcebook”, un manuale pratico (molto pratico, molto utile); ma gli autori sono più teoretici di quanto non possa sembrare, e avvertono che la “costante ricerca dell’originalità” nasce dal costante rapporto con i modelli, che plasmano la nostra percezione dello stile (sovrainterpreto?):

A key source of inspiration in our constant search of originality is the past. Over the last one hundred years, original creative thought has been provided by free-thinking artists and designers who fundamentally shape the way we perceive the evolution of style and the representation of any snapshot of any given moment in the time.
To achieve a successful blend of old and new, an understanding of when and where the source of the inspiration is derived is essential. The design “timeline” covering the last century tells a fascinating story. The stylistic movements often inspired one another, or were founded as a rejection of what had gone before. From the Victorian era to the present day, graphic design has evolved in numerous ways. The stimuli that galvanized its development are as varied as the styles themselves; political, aesthetic, commercial and industrial, moral and philosophical foundations - all played a motivating role.

(J. Raimes - L. Bhaskaran, op. cit., p. 6; corsivo mio)

Un altro, eccezionale “visual sourcebook” di graphic design [da cui attingo l'immagine: cogli l'allusione a Iwo Jima?] lo mette a nostra disposizione Bonifacio Pontonio (è un addetto ai lavori).

Una collezione più… settoriale (ma ricca) sono i Carteles de la Guerra Civil raccolti nella Biblioteca Digital Hispánica.