Ruth Artmonsky

Through the ages, people have been bombarded with advice, direction or hard selling on ways to keep safe and sound - some of this underpinned by 'science', some just common sense, and some sheer quackery. Here's to Your Health, with its focus on advertising, covers just a sample of such cajoling taking place in the first half of the 20th century - what to eat and drink, what to wear, what to use, how to behave - or not behave. It is a tale of fashionable fads, human suggestibility and social history. Also available: Art For the Ear ISBN 9780957387577 Unashamed Artists ISBN 9780957387522

Britain has been 'exhibiting' itself in fairs and such like since Medieval times. The zenith of the 'exhibition' was in the Victorian and Edwardian Years when grandiose pavilions were sited over hundreds of acres of ground. Exhibiting Ourselves covers the period from post WWI to just after WWII and includes not only celebratory shows, such as the British Empire Exhibition and the Festival of Britain, but more humble, earthier ones such as the British Industries Fairs and the Daily Mail Home's Exhibitions. It also covers exhibitions with other purposes than merely trade, such as the propaganda exhibitions of the Ministry of Information during WWII, and 'design' exhibitions, setting out to improve 'good taste' of both manufacturers and consumers. It celebrates now forgotten exhibition designers, the showmen of their day, and charters the decline of the exhibition phenomenon as a media for change. Contents: Exhibition venues; Celebratory exhibitions; Trade exhibitions; Propaganda exhibitions; Design exhibitions; Exhibiting ourselves abroad; Exhibition murals; Exhibition design era.

Showing Off catalogues a fifty year history of some of London's most splendid and iconic stores; illustrating the formula for successful survival in a competitive and rapidly changing marketplace. These stores have used the architecture and design of the buildings as their trademark, created magical and 'magnetic' window displays, devised clever publicity 'stunts' and popular 'events', and produced wonderfully illustrated catalogues and posters that have become unique works of art. The collection focuses particularly on the use of window display, a neglected area of design history, featuring some of the major in-store designers such as Eric Lucking at Liberty's, Edward Goldsman at Selfridges, Edward Grieve at Harrods, and Natasha Kroll at Simpson's. It additionally acknowledges the contribution of some of the major manufacturers of displays who supplied the stores, such as Leon Goodman and the creative display consultants, who influenced through their originality of design, such as Martha Harris' stylish and colourful posters.

From humble beginnings in the 1830s, The Peninsular & Oriental Steam Navigation Company grew to dominate British mercantile shipping for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Initially, the company's paddle steamers carried Her Majesty's Mail to the Iberian Peninsula, as the name implies, but over time P&O extended its routes across the Mediterranean and onwards to the Middle East, Far East and Australasia. Besides the mail, P&O liners carried bullion, silk, tea, and even opium as well as passengers. The company came to represent the British Empire at sea – but as the Empire waned and British travellers took to the air, so a golden age of travelling by sea came to an end. Ruth Artmonsky here delves into the P&O Heritage Collection to take a nostalgic glance astern at all those who travelled P&O.

F. H. K Henrion was one of a distinguished group of graphic designers - refugees from Europe just prior to World War II, who brought cutting-edge continental design to the rather parochial English scene. He quickly made his mark as a poster designer for the Ministry of Information, and, parallel to this, began to build up a career in exhibition design, culminating in two highly original pavilions for the Festival of Britain. However, Henrion is best remembered for his evangelical work in corporate identity design whereby he raised the status of the graphic designer to boardroom significance. He established the authority of the profession as total re-branders of organisations, from logo, through retail outlets and vehicles, to stationery and labels. The Design series is the winner of the Brand/Series Identity Category at the British Book Design and Production Awards 2009, judges said: "A series of books about design, they had to be good and these are. The branding is consistent, there is a good use of typography and the covers are superb." Also available: Claud Lovat Fraser ISBN: 9781851496631 GPO ISBN: 9781851495962 Peter Blake ISBN: 9781851496181 David Gentleman ISBN: 9781851495955 David Mellor ISBN: 9781851496037 E. McKnight Kauffer ISBN: 9781851495207 Edward Bawden and Eric Ravilious ISBN: 9781851495009 El Lissitzky ISBN: 9781851496198 Festival of Britain 1951 ISBN: 9781851495337 Harold Curwen & Oliver Simon: Curwen Press ISBN: 9781851495719 Jan Le Witt and George Him ISBN: 9781851495665 Paul Nash and John Nash ISBN: 9781851495191 Rodchenko ISBN: 9781851495917 Abram Games ISBN: 9781851496778