EARTHQUAKES, MUDSLIDES, FIRES & RIOTS
The Left Coast playground of California has always been legendary for it’s creativity and freedom of ideas, which has been captured brilliantly in this marvellous book of groundbreaking offbeat graphic design.
This is the first book to focus on the large outpouring of design creativity from California and It covers both popular culture and the professional design world from 1936, the height of modernism, through the swinging sixites up to 1986.
Edited and designed by graphic designer Louise Sandhaus the book is fantastic in it’s breadth and richness and offers a visual treat of creativity, freedom and social consciousness all wrapped up in one mighty fine volume.
“So what makes California design deserving of special attention, and what, in the first place, makes it by definition “Californian?” Here’s my theory: California has no terra firma—earthquakes, mudslides, fires, and the occasional civil uprising cause incessant upheaval and change. California is fluid. It has a sense of humor. It is a place of boundless reinvention and innovation, where the entertainment, aerospace, and high-tech industries all found a cozy home. A mecca of consumerism, it is also a place of great creativity, freedom, and social consciousness, where the status quo undergoes constant renovation. Without solid ground, tradition lacks secure footing; old rules go out the door and new motivations rush in, resulting in new and vibrant forms.”
Earthquakes, Mudslides, Fires & Riots, by Louise Sandhaus is published by Thames & Hudson
California and Graphic Design, 1936-1986
