Wolf-Gordon: Sample Book
Wolf-Gordon $40.00
American design company Wolf-Gordon has released “Wolf-Gordon: Sample Book,” a single-volume compilation of color, pattern, and texture in interior surfacing materials from 1967 to 2017. Four sections organized by time period lead up to articles by design experts including Ellen Lupton, senior curator/contemporary design at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum, and several design journalists. The authors collectively analyze the trending styles that were prominent over the last 50 years, while also detailing Wolf-Gordon’s design contributions during that time.
“At Wolf-Gordon, we are focused on designing for our time,” said Marybeth Shaw, vice president, design and marketing. “Since 1967, with each new project, we are invigorated by the possibilities of what the product or installation will become. The body of work in ‘Sample Book’ truly conveys Wolf-Gordon’s values and character.”
“Sample Book” is organized by strategically varied paper stocks to distinguish its assorted topics. These textures stand out when going through the book’s “channels” about licensed design collections, Wolf-Gordon’s various stages of graphic identity, and the company’s numerous creative projects. Texture also appears on the book’s cover, where physical wallcovering samples are inlaid on debossed sections.
Through images, “Sample Book” chronicles 50 years of the family-operated business. Included are archived tipcards that have been photographed and printed on glossy paper to show how pattern and color have changed throughout the years. Overall, the volume documents Wolf-Gordon’s participation in the design continuum, which included a shift when Rick Wolf, David Gordon, and Rob Wolf took over the company in the 1990s. At this time, the company embarked on a design-centric path, hiring new team members and revitalizing with renewed entrepreneurial spirit the company founded by the fathers of Gordon and the Wolfs.
