Design

From the illusionistic architectural spaces created by Renaissance mural painters to the op art of the 20th century, this compendium of optical tricks presents a range of images including depth inversions, vibration effects, impossible perspectives, camouflage and anamorphic art. Examples are drawn from the world of psychology, popular illustration and street art as well as the work of celebrated artists such as Escher, Picasso, Magritte and Bridget Riley.

This well-illustrated book follows the history of fashion and the social calendar in Britain from the late 18th century to the outbreak of the Second World War, when intricately drawn fashion plates were gradually abandoned in favour of photography. Material is taken from the pages of fashion magazines, showing readers how to dress appropriately and stylishly at any time of year and for any occasion, ranging from weddings and funerals to sporting activities, and the making of morning calls.

Edward Bawden (1903–1989) was one of the most innovative graphic designers of the 20th century, whose work included covers and designs for the Curwen Press, illustrations for the Ambrose Bierce cookery books published by Faber & Faber, ceramic designs, advertising artworks, particularly for London Transport and Fortnum & Mason, and murals. In this volume from the Design series, Peyton Skipwith’s succinct account of Bawden’s career accompanies reproductions of a wide selection of his work.

This visual encyclopedia contains complete alphabets and numerals for over 300 cursive fonts – from simple joined-up letters to elegant copperplate scripts – along with illustrated historical and contemporary examples and an accompanying CD with 122 free fonts.

Due to the expensive materials and craftsmanship required, shoes have often been regarded as status symbols; the desire of owners to display their wealth resulting in extreme designs such as the absurdly elongated toes of 14th-century 'poulaines'. This well-illustrated history of shoe design analyses the many fads of the 20th century and the latest models of contemporary designers as well as investigating footwear styles dating back as far as 3500 BCE – the oldest shoe ever found.

With over 1,000 illustrations, this is a comprehensive and chronological history of worldwide fashion, from Greek draped styles and Inca tapestries of 500 BC to up-cycling and Afrocentric designs of the 21st century, via silk dresses of the Tang dynasty, fantastical headdresses of the 1770s and the Zhongshan suit of 1920s China. Focal points of many garments are highlighted with notes, significant designers are profiled and each fashion period is contextualized with a historical timeline.

Storm Thorgerson made his name as the cover art designer of classic albums such as The Dark Side of the Moon and Band on the Run and his design company's more recent work retains his characteristic style of using photography to create surreal tableaux. This collection presents the studio's work between 2001 and 2011, explaining the design ideas behind album covers by artists including Biffy Clyro, Pink Floyd, Muse and the Cranberries.

Award-winning journalist Harriet Quick describes shoes as objects of ‘fascination, status and desire’ in this lavish volume, presented in an embossed box with a ribbon bookmark. Over 300 images by British Vogue photographers spanning from 1920 to 2015 are organized into five themed chapters including ‘Cinderella’, with bejewelled pumps by Manolo Blahnik, and ‘Fetish & Fantasia’, featuring Jean-Paul Gaultier’s corset-laced, thigh-length boots.

This attractively designed social history rummages through the wardrobes of women in the years before the First World War to reveal the lives and fashions of the real women behind the stiff, mono-bosomed ideal of Edwardian high society, and closes with the newly liberated breed who donned trousers and overalls to work in munitions factories, uniforms to tend the wounded and widow's weeds to mourn a generation of men. The wide-ranging text is highly illustrated.

From the world's first postage stamp, the 1840 Penny Black, to the First Class stamp 2012, Chris West's selection of 36 stamps – 'some beautiful, some quirky, some baffling, some stained with blood' – are the inspiration for his idiosyncratic and entertaining history of Britain. Among his collection are the 1881 Penny Lilac (33 billion printed); the first decimal set (1971); and a single foreign stamp telling a story of reparations and hyperinflation: a 1923 German 200 mark stamp, overprinted 2 million.

From horse-drawn trams and the opening of the first passenger railway in 1836, to the UK's first urban cable car, this engrossing volume traces the history of the transport systems that have made a vital contribution to the development of London. With informative texts and hundreds of captioned artworks and photographs, the book covers topics such as transport during wartime, the challenge of the motor car and architectural design as well as the trams, trains and buses that have kept London moving since 1800.

Michael Foreman dreamed of seeing the world as a boy, but never imagined his artistic talents would enable him to travel, first through a scholarship to visit America and subsequently with commissions to document North Sea oil rigs and the World Fair in Japan. Including a football game in the Andes and pony-trekking in Kashmir, Foreman’s travelogue, which spans the 1960s to the 1990s, is illustrated with his line drawings and watercolours.

Slightly off-mint and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.