Always happy to
meet new people!
For general inquiries
hello@lmnop.works
Achter de Dom 14
3512 JP, Utrecht
In 1957, Thames & Hudson launched its best-known series, the 'World of Art'. The series of simple accessible books is for everyone who wants to find out more about the key artists and movements that have shaped our culture. More than half a decade later, over 300 titles have appeared, of which many remain in print today and are sold around the world. After more than fifty years, the time was right for a rebranding of the covers and page layout of the series.
From our perspective, creating a series is all about the search for the ultimate balance between expectation and surprise. A balancing act between a long-lasting legacy and recognizability at one hand and an unexpected, modern and powerful visual language at the other.
For the covers, we developed a fresh and contemporary design inspired by the Golden Ratio, a classical principle of mathematical proportion believed for millennia to be the secret of aesthetic harmony in nature, art, and design. The design empowers us to create endless variations of shapes, while at the same time unifying all individual books within the continuing series.
For the interior pages, every element was reworked to create dynamic layouts that enable the reader to focus on the text and the imagery at the same time. The images, reproduced in color throughout, and as large as possible, allow the reader to study key works in detail. This versatile new design works for the varied subject matters throughout the series.
The complete World of Art series consists of over 300 titles. Over time every individual existing title, as well as new ones, will be published in the new brand design format. This massive operation will still take years to fully realize. Up till now around 25 titles have been published following the new design.
“World of Art delivers real knowledge with crisp, useful clarity. Now it’s reborn and has visual glamour, too; an escape into art’s worlds.”
- Jonathan Jones (British art critic writing for The Guardian)
“The outcome of the hard work was the outstanding newly designed World of Art series. The designers were extremely imaginative in their approach, but also appreciated the long history of the series.”
– Ilona de Nemethy Sanigar (Thames & Hudson)