Originally published in 1933, this little book of witty epigrams and epitaphs by the English writer and poet Martin Armstrong (1882–1974) is illustrated with wood-engravings by Eric Ravilious (1903–1942). The subjects of the verses are 54 professionals or types, ranging from a judge to a snuff-taker and a ‘boarding-house lift man’; and each one is accompanied by its own woodcut.

British aviation posters in the early 20th century embraced contemporary art styles such as Modernism and Art Deco, employing leading graphic artists to create images of an exciting new world of air travel. Drawing on British Airways' poster collection, this volume traces advertising design for aviation, from Edwardian air shows, through Imperial Airways in the 1930s, to BEA and BOAC in the 1950s; with reproductions of over 150 examples by artists including Frank Newbould, John Piper and Ben Nicholson.

An ‘outbreak of talent’ was how Paul Nash described the group of students he taught at the Royal College of Art in 1924–5. Eric Ravilious, Edward Bawden, Barnett Freedman and Enid Marx formed the core of a network of artists, friends and lovers influenced by Nash. This group biography explores their lives and relationships from the 1920s to Ravilious’s death in 1942 and, with reproductions of over 200 examples, it examines their painting, illustration and a variety of work in commercial design.

Was it a betrayal of the modern movement to be in love, as John Piper was, with old churches? Harris finds the engagement of artists and writers with the English countryside during the interwar years ‘an expression of responsibility – towards places, people and histories too valuable and too vulnerable to go missing from art’. Among the now much-admired figures discussed are Paul Nash, Edward Bawden, Gertrude Hermes, John Betjeman and Daphne du Maurier, and the book features carefully chosen quotations and reproductions of their works.

During the 1920s and 1930s, Edward Bawden was commissioned to produce advertising illustrations for Twinings tea and coffee; drawings that were to accompany limericks by AJA Symons, the well-known author, dandy and epicure. As well as reproducing Bawden's advertisements and other drawings for tea companies, this tall, thin volume contains an essay by Peyton Skipwith and A Short History of Tea, originally issued by the Empire Tea Market Expansion Board in 1936.

Held on the centenary of the Great Exhibition of 1851, the Festival of Britain was a celebration of the end of post-war austerity and a showcase for British arts, science and trade for the future. This book examines the objects and printed ephemera produced to commemorate the Festival and includes work by major designers, including Abram Games’s Festival emblem and Lewitt-Him’s Guinness Clock in the Battersea Park Pleasure Gardens.

Published in association with the Fry Art Gallery in Saffron Walden, this book originally accompanied an exhibition of the design work of Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious. A short essay on the two artists introduces over 100 reproductions of their work in a great range of media, including wallpaper design, book jackets and illustration, posters and ceramics, for clients including Wedgwood, Kew Gardens and the Golden Cockerel Press.

One of the most highly regarded British painters of the 20th century, John Piper (1903–1992) also worked in a variety of media including book illustration, murals, textiles and stained glass. This volume provides a concise biographical essay on the artist as well as reproducing a wide selection of his work, notably the Brighton Aquatints published by the Curwen Press, wallpaper designs for Sanderson & Co, and his Festival of Britain South Bank murals.

In 1933, Stephen Tallents, who had been working on posters for the Empire Marketing Board, joined the General Post Office (GPO) to revitalize its public relations and advertising campaigns. He was to become a major patron of art and design, commissioning work by designers such as Edward McKnight Kauffer, Lewitt-Him and Frank Newbould. This volume describes the major personalities and themes of Tallents’s ambitious project.

One of the greatest graphic designers of last century, Abram Games (1914–1988) was a Londoner and a dedicated user of public transport as well as the designer of many brilliant posters for London’s Underground and bus services – all informed by his personal philosophy of 'maximum meaning, minimum means'. This book offers a unique insight into Gates's working methods, reproducing rarely seen sketches and following the development of initial ideas through to the final design.

In the 1920s, a great diversity of styles, including Art Deco, reflected the new freedoms and optimism of the post-First World War generation of young women. With around 600 contemporary photographs and fashion illustrations, this volume is a valuable resource for fashion historians, designers and fashionistas. It begins with an essay placing the clothes of the 1920s in social and economic context, before covering everything from the iconic silk sack dress and cloche hat to bridal gowns.

Over many centuries, the tradition of Chinese decorative arts developed a way of rendering the world that is as instantly recognizable as it is consistent and harmonious. Inspired by examples on ceramics, paintings, bronzes, jade carvings, sculptures and architectural features, this book provides designs of flowers, animals, birds and fish for use in craft projects. The accompanying CD contains all 400 motifs.

Under the direction of the designer Shirley Craven (b.1934), Hull Traders was one of the most innovative and influential textile studios of the 1960s; its bold, vivid patterns perfectly captured the exuberance and iconoclasm of the era. Published in conjunction with an exhibition at Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, this stylish book celebrates a remarkable creative partnership, and reproduces more than 125 vibrant fabrics by such celebrated artists as Eduardo Paolozzi (1924–2005), Ivon Hitchens (1893–1979) and Althea McNish (b.1933).

Leonard S Marcus, a distinguished historian of children's literature, presents a short biography of Randolph Caldecott (1846–1886), illustrated with a great collection of his work, including many previously unpublished drawings. From doodling in the margins of his schoolbooks to his tragically early death, the book traces the career of the 'man who invented the modern picture book' and whose dynamic visual storytelling was to influence later illustrators, notably Beatrix Potter and Maurice Sendak. Slightly off-mint.

Decade by decade, from Punch, Private Eye and Vietnam in the 1960s, to Bush and Blair going to war in the 2000s, Gerald Scarfe lets his no-holds-barred drawings tell the story of his career as one of the great political cartoonists and cultural commentators of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Originally published in 2005, this collected volume of his work includes set designs, animation and lithographs as well as the familiar pen-and-ink cartoons. Sexually explicit.

New materials, new manufacturing techniques and a new consumer society drove rapid change in product design after the Second World War. The American dream home of the 1940s and 1950s led the way, with iconic designs in cars, furniture and everyday items emerging from Europe and Japan as prosperity grew. With over 700 illustrations, this book identifies key developments, exploring such milestones as Charles Eames' chairs, the Mini, the Sony Walkman and the iPhone. Slipcased.

In his foreword, Professor Meredith Davis writes ‘a change in how we teach typography is long overdue’: this book breaks new ground, approaching the ever-changing environment of contemporary typography through explanations of how and why typography works, or does not work, in a given context. Intended as a core text for typography courses, the book is very well illustrated and each chapter starts with a ‘primer’ by William Temple giving concise definitions of terms.

Key techniques for making paper pop-ups for books and greetings cards are explained in this instructional guide (its inside cover reveals a surprisingly complex pop-up of its own). Each spread focuses on one particular mechanism, including the V-fold, pivot, pull-tab and wheel, and folds out to provide numerous ready-cut, pop-out shapes for constructing examples. Lists of basic equipment and further techniques, plus a glossary of terms, are included.

Tony Seddon traces the development of type design and typographic style through a detailed survey of 100 important typefaces, from Nicholas Jenson’s early use of Roman letterforms in the mid 15th century to Selva, a blackletter typeface designed in 2012. For each design, Seddon describes its creator and its development, and provides examples of the typeface and a large, annotated illustration of a capital and a lower-case letter showing their distinctive typographical elements and innovations.

In 1939, at the age of 17, Jerry Robinson was taken on by cartoonist Bob Kane to work on his new creation, Batman, and over the next few years helped create the superhero's sidekick, Robin, and his chief antagonist, the Joker. This illustrated biography charts the career of the influential artist from comic books, satirical cartoons and newspaper comic strips to his later work as a curator of comic book art and campaigner for artist's rights.

Into the gap between the antique and the new, there is retro. Done well, the style works with architecture of every period. Drawing together stunning, rarely seen photographs from the exclusive Côté Maison magazines, this book explains how to achieve the perfect retro interior. It explores different interpretations of the look, from Rustic Reclamation to Structural Industrial, and how to combine the different elements – furniture, mirrors, lighting and textiles – in a striking and unusual yet sympathetic manner.

Social changes in the early 20th century increasingly encouraged young people to develop tastes that were different from those of their parents, and to spend money on indulging their interests. Usually aligning themselves with new movements in popular music, style tribes emerged with idiosyncratic attitudes and modes of dress. This survey of youth culture identifies over 30 styles from the flappers of the 1920s and the swing kids of the 1930s, to beatniks, hippies, goths and hipsters.

Textile designer Celia Birtwell (b.1941) was one of British fashion's most fêted figures in the 1960s and 1970s, as well as a muse for David Hockney whose painting Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy featured Birtwell and her then-husband Ossie Clark. Her colourful and vibrant designs for clothes and home fabrics, often featuring flowers, animals and birds, are lavishly illustrated in this scrapbook, alongside photos from her life and career, comments from friends and colleagues, and her own reminiscences and observations.

From punk rock in the 1970s to the Paris catwalks today, Vivienne Westwood’s career has spanned almost five decades and created a living legend – punk proprietor of Let it Rock, fashion designer, global brand, activist and grandmother, still wearing impossibly tall shoes in her seventies. Written in collaboration with the biographer Ian Kelly, this memoir tells the story of her extraordinary trajectory – from early memories of Second World War rationing (‘everybody was knitting’) to creating outfits for the Duchess of Cornwall.

Illustrating how men’s and women’s accessories evolved over the 20th century, this sourcebook contains over 2000 coloured artworks based on real examples. For each of seven periods, from 1900–1913 to 1986–1999, chapters begin and end with ‘the complete look’, and show the various types of accessory, including hats and footwear, jewellery, scarves, ties, gloves and bags. Detailed descriptions follow the illustrations and the book concludes with brief biographies of over 85 influential designers.

More and more people are turning away from bland flatpack furniture in favour of 20th-century design classics that combine traditional craftsmanship with strikingly modern style. Lavishly illustrated in colour throughout, this collector’s guide charts the key movements, from art deco through mid-century modern and pop art to postmodernism, and explains how to select vintage pieces and integrate them stylishly into a modern home. The book includes a directory of designers and manufacturers, and a list of suppliers.

In a richly illustrated study of the early fashion shows in France and America between the 1880s and 1929, Caroline Evans brings ‘economic and design history together in a new formation’ as she explores topics including fashion and modernism; the innovations of designers such as Worth, Lucile and Poiret; the body and the fashion mannequins (as models were known); the international garment and fashion trade; and commercial and cultural relations between America and France.

Glenn Bray began collecting comic-book illustrations in the 1960s at a time when the artists' originals were little regarded as works of art. The collection he has amassed covers over 50 years of American pop culture, reflecting his taste for underground, marginal or outsider art. This large-format book presents hundreds of challenging, amusing and sometimes bizarre cartoons, comic strips, illustrations and cover designs by artists ranging from the obscure to the world-famous.

Arthur Sanderson set up as an importer of French wallpaper in London in 1860, but changing tastes and new technologies meant that he was soon producing his own designs and establishing a name that still stands for quality and taste in interior design today. This highly illustrated volume describes the development of the company and its products from the Arts and Crafts style of its early wallpapers to mid-20th-century, modernist-influenced designs and today's interpretations of classic patterns. Slightly off-mint.

From the automotive art of ‘Kustom Kulture’ in 1950s' and 1960s' California, through drug-fuelled psychedelic graphics and the cartoons and freak art of illustrators such as Robert Crumb in the underground press, to punk graphics and the ‘lowbrow’ art of West Coast USA, this history uses LP cover art, flyers and concert posters to follow the shifting visual aesthetic and the artistic personalities of the counter-culture up to contemporary indie crafts. Sexually explicit content.

Using reproductions of 250 original artworks from the Shirley Collection in the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, this book journeys through childhood reading from first alphabet books to adventure tales, and explores various types of children's illustration, including comics, historical pictures of America, Christmas time and 20th-century classics. The illustrations date from around 1780 to 2001 and include works by WW Denslow, Maurice Sendak, Beatrix Potter, Andrew Wyeth and Maxfield Parrish.

Between the 1950s and 1970s the British comic digests War, Battle, Air Ace and War at Sea ran for a combined total of more than 4,500 issues, their humble black-and-white artwork on cheap newsprint concealed beneath painted covers bursting with colour and conflict, depicting soldiers, sailors and pilots fighting for their lives in the Second World War. This title reproduces over 500 of the digests' finest covers in the quality they deserve, and features commentary by veteran comic artist David Roach. Foreword by James May.

In this classic work, Belgian comics writer and scholar Thierry Smolderen digs deep into the origins of the 20th-century comic strip. He establishes how the picture stories and illustrations of artists like William Hogarth, Rodolphe Töpffer and Gustave Doré laid the foundation of the form, which flourished with the evolution of visual culture caused by developments in printing technology, photography, audio recording and cinema. First published in 2000, the book is translated here by Bart Beaty and Nick Nguyen.

Straight or curly, long or short, blonde or dark, hair is one way that women can change their appearance and express their personality. This history charts the changing styles from ancient Egypt to the present. Lavishly illustrated with more than 1,000 illustrations and photographs, it celebrates the elaborate arrangements of the Romans, the bejewelled coiffures of the Renaissance, the stylish bobs of the 1920s and the sophisticated cuts of today's leading stylists such as Anthony Mascolo, who provides the foreword.

Part of the Basics Design series, this is a guide to the printing and finishing techniques, such as die cutting, embossing, foil blocking and folding, that can add creative value to a design.

The 1960s ushered in an explosion of colour and style in the home. Lavishly illustrated with photographs from the archives of House & Garden magazine, this follow-up to the same author's Fifties House celebrates the design trends of the period, from mid-century Modernism to paisley prints and Indian bric-a-brac, and charts the influence of such designers as David Bailey, Terence Conran, Mary Quant and Biba's Barbara Hulanicki, who provides a foreword.

After a timeline summarizing a century of design, Tony Seddon's richly illustrated survey examines the movements in art, graphic design and typography, the major designers and 'the look' of each decade of the 20th century, from the Arts and Crafts Movement and Art Nouveau of the 1900s to the impact of digital media in the 1990s. Covering Europe and America, the book profiles 30 graphic designers or design studios and analyses one piece of representative artwork for each decade.

'Don't ask a man to drink and drive', 'Coughs and sneezes spread diseases', 'Take your litter home'... Combining snappy slogans with eye-catching graphics, post-war British governments sought to influence the way we lived – all for our own good, of course. Accompanied by informative captions, more than 40 of these posters, produced between 1945 and 1975, are reproduced in this book in handy detachable format ready to pin up as nostalgic decoration. But remember – take care how you do it.

With its strong engineering focus, highly skilled craft workshops, specialized and technologically sophisticated factories, and an intellectually engaged design press, Italy has provided the ideal conditions for the creation of functional, innovative and elegant designs. This volume presents 100 of the finest products, from Carlo Bugatti's Cobra chair in 1902 to the Ducati 1199 Panigale, at the cutting edge of motorbike design in 2011. Each design is described in detail alongside a full-page colour photograph.

Launched in the weekly children's magazine Ranger in 1965 and concluding in the final issue of Look and Learn in 1982, the fondly remembered British adventure strip The Trigan Empire combined genuine history with fantasy, myth and science fiction, and featured lushly painted illustrations. This sale catalogue beautifully reproduces 110 pieces of art from the Look and Learn archive, concentrating on the pages created by Don Lawrence (1928–2003), the strip's first and longest-running artist, and Ron Embleton (1930–1988).

The 'king of kitsch' Mitch O'Connell and the illustrator of children's books Brooke Boynton Hughes are interviewed in issue 13, and painter and illustrator Sep E Scott (1879–1965) is celebrated.

The extraordinary art of Dave McKean, who often collaborates with Neil Gaiman, is the lead article in issue 15, while painter Andy Thomas is interviewed and Sam Peffer's vintage covers for Pan Books are examined.