Design & Designer 038 book

Paperback with flaps
Colour throughout
Bilingual (English and French)
120 pages
150 x 160mm
ISBN: 2-35017-006-3
Published in 2005
Pyramyd Editions

Design & Designer 038 – Massin, official blurb: “We’ve all got a Massin at home”, announced the exhibition in Strasbourg dedicated to him in 1995, and the event’s title certainly wasn’t stretching the truth when you consider the career of this French graphic designer, who started out in the 1950s and whose influence on French publishing is still very tangible today. He is a master of many trades: typographer, graphic designer, photographer and writer.

For 20 years Massin was the art director at Gallimard, at a time when the job hadn’t really arrived in French publishing. He redrew the 'nrf' logo of the Nouvelle revue française in 1958 – it’s still in use today – and developed the visual identity of book series such as Folio (1972) and L’Imaginaire (1976). Massin has also worked with emblematic figures in French literature such as Raymond Queneau and Eugène Ionesco. In devising what became the cult layout for La Cantatrice Chauve (The Bald Prima Donna) Massin created a truly graphic mise en scène which further enhanced the power and originality of Ionesco’s play text. He has also designed books that have made a lasting mark on the world of publishing, such as Les Mariés de la Tour Eiffel (The Eiffel Tower Wedding Party) and Typoésie (Typoetry). Playing with typography as others play with words, his layouts give a fresh dimension to the text, notably in seeking to reproduce the modulations of the human voice through typography. Though often experimental, Massin’s designs are arrestingly simple and obvious. His work has been shown at many exhibitions, notably in Seoul.

Created by: Massin / Robert Massin

Paris-based Pyramyd Editions has regularly been publishing monographs since 2002 featuring work by selected artists, graphic and product designers. These bilingual monographs form part of a series called Design & Designer. The books contain introductions and descriptions in French and English for the many featured project visuals. Each publication title has a serial number (such as Designer & Designer 033 – FL@33).

In some cases – especially within the first 25 of the series – a second and even third edition was published with fresh new content and a 'v.2' or 'v.3' added to the book title. Other titles go out of print and do not seem to be reprinted in the foreseeable future (such as Antoine+Manuel's book for example). At time of writing this text the Designer & Designer series already reached serial number 086.

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