BOOK REVIEW

Alliance Graphique Internationale, German Members, Deutsche Mitglieder 1954 - 2011 by Edited by Jianping He, designed by Uwe Loesch, published by and available from Hesign Berlin, Berlin (DE) (2011); 384 pages, 26 x 18 cm, about 500 color reproductions ; softcover in transparent book case; ISBN 978-3-9810-4-6; in german and english; The book presents the works of all 45 members of the international designers association AGI, including those who have died. It is a history of german graphic design and introduces the best german designers in chronological order, from Helmut Lortz to Niels Schrader, with their biographical details and design philosophies.

Not all AGI mebers are poster designers, especially the younger seem to branch out into visual identity, multimedia, signage, type design, exhibition design, package design, even art. Almost all of them have however included at least one poster in their work samples:

1971, Helmut Lortz (1920-2007), member since 1954	1930, O.H.W. Hadank (1889-1965), member since 1955	1981, Anton Stankowski (1906-1998), member since 1956	1966, Walter Breker (1904-1980) member since 1956
1962, Herbert W. Kapitzki (1925-2005), member since 1958	1964, Hans Hillmann (1925-), member since 1961	1963, Karl Oskar Blase (1925-), member since 1964	1971, Heinz Edelmann (1934-2009) member since 1964
1982, Guenther Kieser (1930-), member since 1964	1999, Hans Peter Hoch (1924-), member since 1974	1963, Gunter Rambow (1938-), member since 1974	2007, Bruno K. Wiese (1922-2011) member since 1974
1972, Frieder Grindler (1941-), member since 1976	1972, Holger Matthies (1940-), member since 1976	1962, Isolde Monson-Baumgart (1935-2011), member since 1977	c. 1970, Rolf Mueller (1940-) member since 1976
1993, Pierre Mendell (1929-2008), member since 1980	2010, Christof Gassner (1941-), member since 1988	1995, Uwe Loesch (1943-), member since 1988	1991, Feliks Buettner (1940-) member since 1993
1993, Nicolaus Ott (1947-), member since 1997	1991, Volker Pfueller (1939-), member since 1997	2009, Bernard Stein (1949-), member since 1997	2002, Helfried Hagenberg (1940-) member since 1999
2000, Heribert Birnbach (1956-), member since 2000	2006, Guenter Karl Bose (1951-), member since 2000	1998, Daniela Haufe, cyan (1966-), member since 2000	1998, Detlev Fiedler, cyan (1955-) member since 2000
2010, Henning Wagenbreth (1962-), member since 2002	1997, Helmut Brade (1937-), member since 2009	1991, Dieter Feseke (1956-), member since 2003	2009, Gerwin Schmidt (1966-) member since 2003
2007, Markus Dressen (1971-), member since 2004	2006, Fons Matthias Hickmann (1966-), member since 2004	2008, Jianping He (1973-), member since 2005	2007, Sascha Lobe (1967-) member since 2009

AGI is now divided into national chapters which act independently from headquarters and have their own meetings, separate from the yearly international meeting. Only 4 years after Ben and Elly Boss have written their monumental international history of AGI - Graphic Design since 1950, the german branch felt the need to write their own historical survey, maybe tempted by the fact that one of their members, Jianping He, has extensive experience in graphic design publishing and has edited many award winning and popular books about graphic designers in the past years. Concentrating on Germany, he can go into more detail than in the one page summaries in the Bos book. Also his book concept is very clear and simple, like in all his publications, and it is easy to find a particular designer, while the international AGI book is a mixture of biographies, essays, anecdotes, photo souvenirs and work samples, so it is worth to have both books. Even with a clear concept, editing this kind of book takes a lot of work, as Uwe Loesch, President of the German AGI members and the designer of the book points out. It is something of a mistery to me how Paula Scher, President of Alliance Graphique Internationale, comes to the conclusion that "It edited itself" in the preface she wrote. I like the book for it's disciplined approach to the subject, both in style and content. It is definitely not one of the books that tries to impress the buyer with the cleverness of the author or the originality of the designer, it has a title and a table of content, and page numbers and figure captions where they belong, is comfortable to read and pleasant to look at, useful and beautiful.