Beware Wet Paint: Designs by Alan Fletcher

This work is a monograph of the career of Alan Fletcher, containing details of more than 100 design solutions drawing from his 30-year career, including company logos, sign systems, typography, and the Zodiac Calenders. An essay on his life and career is also featured. Fletcher was a co-founder of design agency Pentagram and has been associated with for example, Reuters, Lloyd's of London, IBM, Olivetti, and Pirelli. Part biography and part monograph, the book presents details of Fletcher's designs for a wide range of clients both private and corporate. Its approach is didactic rather than presentational and may be used as a teaching aid for other designers as a showcase for Fletcher's work. The projects are grouped under a series of 13 headings, such as optical illusion, body language, recycling stuff, and making marks. Each section has an accompanying text by Jeremy Myerson which explains how each graphic solution was developed. An interview with Rick Poyner adds insights into Fletcher's own thinking and how he manipulates the design process.

Jeremy Myerson is professor of design studies and co-director of the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre at The Royal College of Art in London, and former Editor of Design Week and of Creative Review. Rick Poyner writes on design and the visual arts. He is founder of Eye magazine, the acclaimed international review of graphic communication, which he edited from 1990-97. His books include Typographica, Obey The Giant: Life in the Image World, Profile and, most recently, No More Rules. David Gibbs has been editorial consultant to Pentagram since the 1970s. He is editor of Pentagram: The Compendium, also published by Phaidon.