The notorious House Industries type foundry is always up to amazing things. This time it’s a collection inspired by the legendary Alexander Girard. Over the course of four years House Industries went on a journey of sorts into the world of Girard. They visited Vitra’s archives in Germany, the Girard family in New Mexico, Herman Miller’s archive in Zeeland, the studio of Marilyn and John Neuhart in California. After much research, they have created four typefaces and a variety of gorgeous products based on Girard’s designs. This book chronicles their tribute to Girard and offers a more in depth look at how they came to making the puzzles, nativity set, memory game, the new doll collection with Marilyn Neuhart and of course the new fonts. In fact the back half of the book is large images of their findings from digging through archives of his designs. The characters for the nativity set were influenced by this illustration they found at Girard’s son’s house. The Girard script was developed by researching Girard’s handwriting samples. If you have any House Industries products or have seen any of their mailers, you won’t be surprised at how nicely produced and designed this book is. The fabric patterned cover is stamped with a logo of House Industries as if it was designed by Girard. The interior pages of varying textures are designed in a very limited palette. I can’t think of a better design collaboration. This is a limited edition of 1000 copies signed by all the House Industries designers. Get your book here. And see the entire collection of Girard inspired products here.

© Julia Rothman 2007