Mark Batty Publisher has tapped into the perceptions and resources of one of Spain's most accomplished commercial artists for its latest book on graphic design. Emilio Gil, an award-winning designer, educator, curator and marketing communications professional, has joined forces with the distinctive publishing house to produce Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design, a comprehensive visual showcase of the most intriguing work from Spain's best-known designers who worked between 1939 and 1975, a period of time often described as Spain's golden age of graphic design.
"Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design" features more than 300 pages of images of groundbreaking, thought-provoking and intriguing designs for posters, book covers, album sleeves, logos, billboards, stationery, greeting cards, stamps and more. The designs are from the portfolios of 15 of the country's most innovative graphic designers, and several of the images are accompanied by descriptions and analyses by noted writers, painters, literary critics and university professors from Spain.
"Spain has many painters and sculptors who are internationally known, such as Picasso, Dali and Goya, but the reputation of the nation's commercial graphic designers has not been fully realized. 'Pioneers of Spanish Graphic Design' changes that once and for all," said Buzz Poole, editor at Mark Batty Publisher. "The designers represented in Emilio Gil's engaging new book, all of whom are from quite a pioneering era of graphic design in Spain, elevated the daily grind of commercial work in the country to the level of true inspiration. Because of that, they forever altered the visual culture of post-war Spain."
Gil, who studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, is the founder of Tau Diseno, one of Spain's landmark design and communications firms, responsible for many of the country's most notable corporate visual identities. He also teaches at the University of Salamanca, the Carlos III University, and the European University of Madrid. In addition, Gil has curated several important exhibitions, serves as advisor to the Board of Directors of the Spanish Association of Design Professionals, and has been awarded the Golden Laus Award for Editorial Design by the New York Type Directors Club.
"One of the goals of the book is to do justice to a generation of professionals who created a body of extraordinary quality," said Gil who, along with designer Anna Calvera, provides introductory comments that are both academic and high-spirited.
"Another goal is to reveal the quality of the work and to explore the relevance that the projects created by these pioneers have to our current generation of designers.
Our third goal is to fill in a gap, since there is insufficient knowledge of what was created by the Spanish designers of the pioneering generation."