You will probably have heard of it: the legendary “Insel-Bücherei” book series. It is after all something of an incunabulum of the publishing industry. The first twelve volumes were published in 1912 featuring both well and lesser-known works by prominent authors from the international world of literature. All of the highest quality with bright, colorful covers, each individual volume has its own unique character. Selling more than a million copies in just two years, the series then went on to weather the book crisis of the 1920s and the Nazi period, during which the publishers were forced to remove over 30 books from the collection. Even the separation of the publishing house into the Frankfurt and Leipzig divisions could do nothing to harm the “Bücherei”. These slim volumes remain sought-after collector’s items. And when both divisions of the publishing house rejoined in 1991, the “Insel-Bücherei” experienced a fresh boost. Now, this successful and eclectic series, which has continued uninterrupted since 1912 and now contains more than 1,600 titles, is celebrating its 100th anniversary.

Antonia Henschel has now, on occasion of this major milestone, created an homage to the collection’s treasure trove of graphic design. “Isola” is the name of the new graphic series in which she juxtaposes the elegantly designed covers made of colorful, patterned paper with contemporary variations. Entitled “Marmoreal”, the cover of “Isola No. 1” boasts a colorful, marbled effect, where individual colors merge like streams of lava. And in “Isola No. 2” Antonia Henschel draws the beholder into a realm of optical illusions, under the title “Illusive”, using contrast and color to create continuous variations of one and the same pattern. One could hardly imagine a more sophisticated graphic homage to the famous “Insel-Bücherei” series.

After proving how effectively one can present ceramic pottery in her book “Hameler Töpferei”, Antonia Henschel has now released another volume from the “Objects” series in the form of “Alles Metalle” (“everything metal”). This time round she looks at brass, copper and bronze, ergo handcrafted metals, which were long shunned by contemporary design in favor of steel, glass and concrete but are now experiencing something of a revival. Accompanied by an instructive foreword by Markus Frenzel, the volume presents copper and brass furniture by Konstantin Grcic and Sebastian Herkner as well as luminaires in various metals by Tom Dixon, tables by Autoban, bowls by Aldo Bakker and serviette rings by Mark Holmes; making the book, which boasts a clear and diversified design, a true compendium for design with precious materials.

PICNIC is a quarterly publication, now in its seventh edition, that provides a forum for graphic designers, photographers and illustrators. The latest edition now features a selection of photographs by Dimitrios Tsatsas and David Giebel. In line with a specially conceived concept, both set about capturing images without inhibition, which were then simply placed on top of an electronic pile and posted on their blog “In the Age”.

The text body’s concise graphic design provides the lifeblood for “Lineation – Sprachkörper I”, in which Tomaso Carnetto Head of Frankfurt’s Academy of Visual Arts presents a somewhat idiosyncratic “investigation of the proportionality between thinking and designing”.

www.trademarkpublishing.de