Great graphic design resource from gorgeous new Phaidon archive cards

When something like the London Design Festival rolls around, some are tempted into publicity-grabbing projects that sit strangely with the usual role of that particular individual or organisation. What makes much more sense is to produce something far simpler that shows you at your best, and that’s exactly what Phaidon have done with their LDF-inspired Archive of Graphic Design. The 500 cards feature “timeless graphic designs that have set a bench-mark for excellence and innovation around the world” across books, magazines, newspapers, posters, symbols, logos, typefaces, information design, money, film graphics, identities, packaging graphics, advertisements and record and CD covers.

This is an excellent history of graphic design from Gutenberg to Shephard Fairey’s Obama poster with enough diversity to satisfy connoisseurs and those with a more casual interest alike.

But this is more than a great excuse to peruse some stunning visuals, as the stories behind these iconic designs are included too and because they’re unbound you can have endless fun playing a geeky-graphic design lucky dip. Yes please!