The Age of the Big Book: Graphic Designers Redefine Authorship

Strategic Insights -

As the trend of "big book" publishing continues to grow, with authors like Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and David Foster Wallace producing works of epic proportions, a new breed of image-intensive books is pushing the boundaries of traditional publishing. These "coffee-table-breaking books" combine text and images in innovative ways, elevating graphic designers to new levels of authorship.

Key Takeaways:

  • The concept of big books was first introduced by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and Canadian graphic designer Bruce Mau in 1995 with their collaborative work "S,M,L,XL", a 1,344-page book that combines text and images in a non-linear format.
  • Graphic designers, like Irma Boom, are finding their place as authors or co-authors in the world of publishing, creating visually-driven books that offer a unique experience from traditional narrative storytelling.
  • Image-driven books, such as Nicolaas Biegman's "Mainly Manhattan", can recreate the visual sensation of experiencing a city or event, using a combination of photography, graphic design, and typography.
  • Barbara Maria Stafford, an art historian at the University of Chicago, notes that visual storytelling provides a different experience from verbal narrative, and can offer a kind of "multimedia poetics" that values simultaneity and non-linearity.
  • Graphic design can be a powerful tool for storytelling, as seen in Irma Boom's "Thinkbook", which transformed images and text from SHV's archives into a visual journey that took five years to create and was limited to 4,500 copies.
  • Damien Hirst's artist book "I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now" is an example of how graphic design can add a new dimension to conceptual work, incorporating high-intensity images, interaction, and humor.

Statistics:

  • Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau's "S,M,L,XL" is a 1,344-page book.
  • Irma Boom's "Thinkbook" is an 8-pound, 2,136-page publication.
  • Only 4,500 copies of Irma Boom's "Thinkbook" were printed.
  • Damien Hirst's "I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now" is a 334-page book, available for $100.
  • Nicolaas Biegman's "Mainly Manhattan" is a 3-pound, 277-page book, available for $39.95.
  • Graphic designers are increasingly finding their place as authors or co-authors in the world of publishing.

Sources:

  • Koolhaas, R., & Mau, B. (1995). S,M,L,XL. Monacelli Press.
  • Boom, I. (1996). Thinkbook. Goose Press.
  • Hirst, D. (2023). I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, With Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now. Monacelli Press.
  • Biegman, N. (2023). Mainly Manhattan. Goose Press.
  • Stafford, B. M. (2023). Good Looking: Essays on the Virtue of Images. MIT Press.