Emotion as Promotion: A Book of Thirst by Rick Valicenti (Editor)

Product Details

Synopsis

From innovative fonts and commercial logos to products and artists' books, the work of graphic design collective Thirst is unmistakable: dazzling in form, intellectually challenging, incorporating Real Human Presence, just over the edge of the Discomfort Zone. The firm is known not only for fusions of text and image but for the emotion and strength that pervade the work. Thirst hallmarks include striking color photographs, creative computer manipulation, the use of new media, and challenges offered to the reader/viewer (and sometimes to the client as well).

The first monograph on the design group, Emotion as Promotion is an exuberant manifesto, a collective autobiography, and a brutally honest heart-to-heart with the next generation of design. It showcases work known (designs for Gilbert Paper, Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes, Wired magazine, and Absolut vodka), unknown (unimplemented identities for iXL and U.S. Robotics), and notorious (the "Just My Type" nude alphabet, the Want photo shoot for RayGun). Thirst principal Rick Valicenti and his colleagues tell the tales of each project, offering sometimes funny, sometimes wry assessments of the client, the end result, and all stages in between.

Library Journal

In 1981, Valicenti founded the design firm Thirst, which specializes in typography and counts Wired magazine and Absolut Vodka as clients. This first monograph on Thirst conveys its ideas through the same kind of visual communication that the firm uses in its designs. The text-including transcriptions of designers' informal discussions and previously written pieces on design theory and individual client experiences-is presented in an extreme variety of carefully and creatively arranged typefaces in combination with color photography and computer-generated illustrations. The result is a book that guides readers visually through Thirst's ideas, processes, and attitudes and that compels them to think carefully about the messages conveyed on every page. As such, this is an effective example of graphic design in itself recommended only for design school collections.-Eric Linderman, East Cleveland P.L., OH Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Biography

Rick Valicenti is the founder and principal of Thirst, an internationally recognized design consultancy founded more than twenty years ago. The firm is also known for typography and has designed a new font, Infinity, for this book.