Problem Solved

Add to My Reading List

Michael Johnson

Phaidon Press, London, 2012, English

Nonfiction, Graphic Design

9.7 x 8.4 inches, hardcover, 320 pages

ISBN: 9780714864730

Suggested Retail Price: $55.00

From the Publisher. Problem Solved is the only book that teaches students and professionals how to recognize the recurring problems common to all areas of communication and explains how to solve them. Each chapter explores a different problem and concludes with a case study exploring a particular solution in detail. Themes include: producing innovative work, avoiding repetition, standing out in the market place, reinventing a tired brand, keeping a brand young and trendy, using shock tactics, and word-based advertising in a world over-run with images and sound-bites. This new edition is brought up-to-date with new images and updated text throughout as well as a new chapter, examining the contemporary phenomenon of flexible identity schemes. Examples of companies featured include Saks Fifth Avenue, Google, Aol, The Natural History Museum, the BBC 2 and Channel 4 Idents and The Tate. The book provides an unparalleled overview of the design industry, including over 1000 images from throughout the 20th Century to today and bringing together for the first time discussions and case studies that reveal the working methods of major advertising and graphic design firms. Featured agencies and designers include: Saatchi and Saatchi, Paul Rand, Saul Bass, Bob Gill, Milton Glaser, Wolff Olins, Pentagram and George Lois, as well as examples from the johnson banks archive. An entertaining and thorough primer, Problem Solved is essential reading for students and professionals in all areas of the design and communication industries. The first edition was included on many university and college reading lists and this new edition should prove equally popular.

comments powered by Disqus

Announcements

Now is Better by Stefan Sagmeister

Now is Better

By Stefan Sagmeister
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: October 2023

Combining art, design, history, and quantitative analysis, transforms data sets into stunning artworks that underscore his positive view of human progress, inspiring us to think about the future with much-needed hope.

Order the book.

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future by Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli

Design Emergency: Building a Better Future

By Alice Rawsthorn and Paola Antonelli
Publisher: Phaidon Press
Published: May 2022

Rawsthorn and Antonelli tell the stories of the remarkable designers, architects, engineers, artists, scientists, and activists who are at the forefront of positive change worldwide. Focusing on four themes—Technology, Society, Communication, and Ecology—the authors present a unique portrait of how our great creative minds are developing new design solutions to the major challenges of our time, while helping us to benefit from advances in science and technology.

Order the book.

Love Letter to a Garden by Debbie Millman

Love Letter to a Garden

By Debbie Millman
Contributions by Roxane Gay
Publisher: Timber Press
Published: April 15, 2025

From the award-winning artist, designer, and the host of the podcast Design Matters, Debbie Millman, this book tells the visual story of falling in love with gardening—and the philosophies that work conjures. Spread throughout are simple recipes using the garden’s ingredients from Millman’s wife, best-selling author Roxane Gay.

Order the book.

Milton Glaser: POP by Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber

Milton Glaser: POP

By Steven Heller, Mirko Ilić, and Beth Kleber
Publisher: The Monacelli Press
Published: March 2023

This collection of work from graphci design legend Milton Glaser’s Pop period features hundreds of examples of the designer’s work that have not been seen since their original publication, demonstrating the graphic revolution that transformed design and popular culture.

Order the book.

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall by Alexandra Lange

Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall

By Alexandra Lange
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Published: June 2022

Chronicles postwar architects’ and merchants’ invention of the shopping mall, revealing how the design of these marketplaces played an integral role in their cultural ascent. Publishers Weekly writes, “Contending that malls answer ‘the basic human need’ of bringing people together, influential design critic Lange advocates for retrofitting abandoned shopping centers into college campuses, senior housing, and ‘ethnocentric marketplaces’ catering to immigrant communities. Lucid and well researched, this is an insightful study of an overlooked and undervalued architectural form.”

Order the book.

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition) by Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller

Die Fläche: Design and Lettering of the Vienna Secession, 1902–1911 (Facsimile Edition)

By Diane V. Silverthorne, Dan Reynolds, and Megan Brandow-Faller
Publisher: Letterform Archives Books
Published: October 2023

This facsimile edition of Die Fläche, recreates every page of the formative design periodical in full color and at original size, accompanied by essays that contextualize the work, highlighting contributions by pathbreaking women, innovative lettering artists, and key practitioners of the new “surface art,” including Rudolf von Larisch, Alfred Roller, and Wiener Werkstätte founders Koloman Moser and Josef Hoffmann.

Order the book.