ejnord.com | Type: A Visual History by Taschen

At first glance, Type. A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vol. 1 looks like a type nerd book on steroids. Oh, and it is. But the real selling point of this book is the fact that it moonlights as a unprecedented source of stock art, consisting of rare specimens from 1628-1900. Dude, that’s a long time ago. Taschen has digitized — what appears to be — the ENTIRE collection and placed it in an online repository. A keycard in the back of the book gives you full access to these relatively high-resolution scans.

And don’t be fooled by the cover… it’s not all letters and numbers. This book is very heavy on what the title labels “graphic styles”. There is a plethora of borders, ornaments, flourishes, accolades, filets, scrolls, cartouches, etc. This is design gold right here.

Volume 2 review coming soon!