Pentagram: Living by Design review: hefty tome on a world-famous design firm

These detailed books provide insight into Pentagram, its partners and its work.

image of Pentagram Living by Design book
(Image: © Future)

Our Verdict

Pentagram: Living by Design is a monograph of one of the world's leading design firms, and it provides a history lesson as well as a journey through visual design over the last 50 years. It consists of two books, The Directory and The Biography and each is fascinating in its own right. If you're into Pentagram in a big way, this is the book for you.

For

  • Insight into Pentagram partners
  • Inspirational work
  • History of the company

Against

  • Not cheap
  • So weighty it's hard to handle

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Pentagram is probably the world's most famous design agency. As one of its partners, Michael Bierut, once put it, "If you've heard of a design firm, you've probably heard of Pentagram". To celebrate 50 years of the agency, a new tome written by Adrian Shaughnessy digs deep into its past and present, and the result is a rather special volume aimed, it seems, at super-fans. 

The book has two volumes, The Biography, which runs at 656 pages and covers the agency as a whole, outlining its achievements, approach, business model and even a "miscellany of artefacts" stored in the London and New York archives. 

The Verdict
9

out of 10

Pentagram Living by Design

Pentagram: Living by Design is a monograph of one of the world's leading design firms, and it provides a history lesson as well as a journey through visual design over the last 50 years. It consists of two books, The Directory and The Biography and each is fascinating in its own right. If you're into Pentagram in a big way, this is the book for you.

Rosie Hilder

Rosie Hilder is Creative Bloq's Deputy Editor. After beginning her career in journalism in Argentina – where she worked as Deputy Editor of Time Out Buenos Aires – she moved back to the UK and joined Future Plc in 2016. Since then, she's worked as Operations Editor on magazines including Computer Arts, 3D World and Paint & Draw and Mac|Life. In 2018, she joined Creative Bloq, where she now assists with the daily management of the site, including growing the site's reach, getting involved in events, such as judging the Brand Impact Awards, and helping make sure our content serves the reader as best it can. 

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