By Marcroy Smith and Andy Cooke
336 pages, hardcover, $65. Published by Thames & Hudson, thamesandhudson.com
Subtitled Innovative, Independent Design and Illustration, this paean to those who embrace print’s potential is colorful and inspiring. Marcroy Smith, founder of the online “creative library” that spawned the book, provides a useful directory of print-based websites, and the essays are informative and refreshingly personal. The art pops off the page, and all elements of the book—paper stock, design and type—underscore the DIY nature of the medium. The entire People of Print philosophy flies in the face of pundits declaring the demise of print. This book introduces the digital generation to the joys of letterpress, silkscreen, etching and lithography, thrusting them into a tactile world of smells and textures and reinforcing the feeling of permanence one gets from a printed piece. The 452 illustrations offer a wealth of examples from an international who’s who of more than 50 artists and studios, including Broken Fingaz Crew, GrandArmy, Erik Kessels, Mike Perry and Sagmeister & Walsh. —Anne Telford
