SYMBOL SOURCEBOOK
AN AUTHORITATIVE GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL GRAPHIC SYMBOLS
Henry Dreyfuss, R. Buckminster Fuller [foreword]
Henry Dreyfuss, R. Buckminster Fuller [foreword]: SYMBOL SOURCEBOOK: AN AUTHORITATIVE GUIDE TO INTERNATIONAL GRAPHIC SYMBOLS. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1972. First edition. Quarto. Publishers tan cloth stamped in red. Printed dust jacket. 292 pp. 1,000 + black and white illustrations. Book design by Henry Dreyfuss. Jacket lightly nicked along top front edge. A fine copy in a nearly fine dust jacket. Definitely uncommon in this condition.
8.75 x 11.25 hardcover book with 292 pages and over 1,000 graphic symbols. "Dictionary" of symbols used internationally. Arranged into ingeniously devised sections to access information easily. Contents listed in 18 languages. A convenient reference tool divided by discipline, graphic form and by meaning, semantography (a phrase coined by Leibnitz) is a complete system which crosses all language barriers.
This book is the culmination of a lifetime of collecting and codifying graphic symbols as they are used in all walks of life throughout the world by Henry Dreyfuss. Compiling them all together in this "dictionary" of symbols.
This large format book is a must have for international travelers & all interested in graphic art.
The name Henry Dreyfuss is synonymous with industrial design. Dreyfuss was one of the "big four" industrial designers, along with Walter Dorwin Teague, Norman bel Geddes and Raymond Loewy.
During his 44-year career, the versatile Dreyfuss designed hundreds of products that have become icons of modern design, among them the Princess and Trimline telephones, John Deere tractors and Hoover vacuum cleaners, which he outfitted with headlights and bumpers to protect furniture. Other designs by Dreyfuss range from the familiar Honeywell round, wall-mounted thermostat, the Big Ben alarm clock, trains such as the 20th Century Limited for the New York Central Railroad, and the "Situation Room" for the Joint Chiefs of Staff during World War II.
Dreyfuss streamlined even his wardrobe by wearing only brown suits, stayed exclusively at the Plaza hotel while he was in New York, so clients could always find him, and reportedly missed only five days of work in twenty-two years. He enjoyed long-standing relationships with such firms as AT&T, John Deere & Co., Honeywell and Lockheed. [xlist_2018]