There is a visual treat in the current exhibit about Future and Fortune magazines, on display at the Department of Typography & Graphic Communication. Designed and produced by Mónica Oliveira as part of her postgraduate degree in book design, the exhibition presents and compares the graphic design of information in Future and Fortune, two important periodicals, produced, respectively in the UK and America, in the immediate post-was period.
This exhibition provides an overview of the graphic influences, collaborations of notable printers and designers, and their innovative approach to the integration of graphic information in an editorial format. Future Magazine was produced by Adprint and incorporated work from the Isotype Institute until 1950; notable designers to have collaborated in Fortune magazine included renowned Czech émigré Ladislav Sutnar.
The items on display are from the Department’s Otto and Marie Neurath Isotype Collection and from private collections.
‘Atomic energy’ by Richie Calder, Future Books, vol. II, ‘The stage is set’, 1946. Charts by the Isotype Institute. Lithography.
‘Medicine from earth’, Fortune, July 1946. Design by Will Burtin. Photogravure.
In the background, ‘Music from the home’, Fortune, October 1946. Information graphic by [Ladislav] Sutnar + Hall. Photogravure.
The exhibition will be open to the public Monday to Saturday, between the 8 and 26 of June.
Opening times:
Monday to friday: 9am–5pm
Saturday: 9am–3pm
Department of Typography & Graphic Communication
University of Reading
2 Earley Gate
Reading RG6 6AU
I am writing an article for Parenthesis magazine on Contact Books, and want to mention Fortune books as part of the context. I would be grateful for as much information and as many images as you might be able to send me,
with many thanks, Alan