Modernism101. All the books you've never seen.

Everyone's heard of Rare Air. Well in my estimation, Randall Ross is the Michael Jordan of the Rare Book world. Simply put, his Modernism101 store has the most, and the best jaw dropping rare publications on the business and art of design. Word has it the boys at Grain Edit have some gems too but I can't find where. Randall's breadth and depth of products are amazing. Take for instance the Alexey Brodovitch Portfolio Magazine complete set he has available at the time of this post (or not if this post is old). Don't be shocked at the price. I have seen them for more. But the point is you don't see this stuff come up to auction much.

Since I was about 20, I have been a fan of Brodovitch, Paul Rand, Lester Beal, George Nelson, John Massey, Wim Crouwel and others. Randall either has or has had books by and about these designers as well as nearly everyone and everything else imaginable.

Frankly, he has every rare book you've never seen.

He also does a remarkable job describing the books. You can get a design education reading through his descriptions. This is a big plus to his store in my estimation. He describes his store as:

... an excellent and ever-changing selection of rare and out-of-print design books and periodicals covering all aspects of 20th-century visual culture. I specialize in the areas of Graphic Design, Architecture, Interior and Industrial Design, and Photography

Go to Modernism101 now. You never know what you'll find.

Design Thinking: Herman Miller. Ralph Caplan.

I'll be posting about this in greater detail soon, but for now, I'm realizing that based on the reality of life as I currently know it, the word "soon" could more reasonably end up meaning "never," so take a sneak peek at these incredible in-house, very limited edition publications. They are from Herman Miller Incorporated, and were produced in conjunction with the great design thinker Ralph Caplan, and designed by the legendary John Massey of Container Corporation of America fame. I so admire John's legacy of work and thinking. I inherited these from a former Creative Director I served with while still in Michigan. As I stated in the comments section of an AIGA post recently...I received these in 1988 and still treasure all four of these publications. They were in-house produced articles on four subject matters. ATTENTION. CONNECTION. TENSION. And OMISSION. All four read "some incomplete thoughts with room for improvement, by Ralph Caplan." They played an important role in the fabric of my overall design thinking at a critical time in my design career, one which now spans some 20 years. I will be photographing the interiors, which of course is the important part, when I can. For now, enjoy the eye candy.