Wow — A book that isn’t a book.

This is a collection of 500 examples of the best in graphic design from around the world. Everything from newspapers; to logos; to corporate design; to typefaces.

Nothing new there. (It feels like there are lots of those kinds of publications).

But this one is special.

Why? Because each example of design has been printed on a card and placed in a box instead of being printed on the pages of a book

This is genius. Phaidon have recognised that the book format keeps control with the publisher  - the order and structure of the pages is defined by them.

But the whole point of an archive like this is that different people want different things from it. So by turning it into a box of cards Phaidon can let everyone arrange the archive according to their own tastes and needs (Just like people used to do with vinyl records in the old days)

There is no need for a blurb — just an instruction:

The dividers that come with this ‘book in a box’ allow you to define how you want to organise, whether it is chronologically, alphabetically, by designer or by subject.

We love it: Thinking outside the box — By coming up with the idea of a box.