PROFILE

Pentagram, founded in 1972, is one of the best known and most influential graphic, product, and architectural design firms in the world. Its partners are distinguished members of the international design community, consistently generating award-winning work of the highest quality. Profile is the first Pentagram book to include the design firm’s `new guard`; partners Fernando Gutiérrez, DJ Stout, Lisa Strausfeld, and Abbott Miller. The book is a unique collection of essays on Pentagram’s nineteen partners by best-selling authors, revered design critics, editors, and other well-known cultural figures. Eloquent and insightful explorations into the personalities, thought processes, careers, and work of the different partners, the essays are generously illustrated with examples of both key projects and lesser-known works. As a whole, Profile not only sheds light on nineteen individual talents, but also provides a comprehensive overview of the legendary firm that has influenced the course of design for over thirty years. Included is a foreword on Pentagram’s history and evolution by Rick Poynor, one of today’s most respected design critics and founder of the incisive British graphic-design magazine Eye. Pentagram began with five partners; today, there are nineteen, working in London, New York, Austin, San Francisco, and Berlin. Following the firm’s unique partnership structure, they each have their own clients, and work in their own way with their teams. They share equally, and contribute equally. Similarities in style, temperament, and aspiration between them are few. What these designers do have in common, however, is Pentagram itself, and the shared commitment to producing high-quality, relevant work in the fields of graphic, product, and architectural design. .