M to M of M/M Paris

The definitive monograph of the visionary design team, celebrating their twentieth anniversary. Michael Amzalag and Mathias Augustyniak are among the most distinctive and influential voices in contemporary graphic design. Through close associations with the music, fashion, and art worlds, M/M have developed one of the most original and striking visual languages in the world. Originally working for independent music labels, M/M caught the attention of the fashion world, working for Calvin Klein, Jil Sander, Kenzo, Givenchy, Yohji Yamamoto, and Nicolas Ghesquiere at Balenciaga, eventually landing them the art directorship of Interview and French Vogue, as well as rich long-term collaborations with independent producers and music artists, notably Madonna and Bjork. Although print and an illustrative approach to typography lie at the heart of M/M’s work, they have also produced unexpected three-dimensional designs for the stage, restaurants, and the perfume industry. Featuring interviews with key collaborators and design by the cutting-edge Graphic Design Facility, this ambitious monograph is a rare insight into the world’s most intriguing—and iconoclastic—image-makers.

About the book's organization: The alphabet is a recurring theme in the work of M/M (Paris), which provided an appropriate motif to create a "dictionary" of the projects that appear in these pages. Like the cutting and restacking of a pack of cards, the book has been rearranged so that it opens with the letter M for "Michael" and closes with the letter M for "Mathias". Accordingly, it opens on page 311 and concludes on page 310.

Emily King is a graphic design historian and curator. Bjork is a multiple award-winning singer-songwriter who is ranked among MTV’s "22 Greatest Voices of All Time" and VH1’s "100 Greatest Women in Rock and Roll." Inez van Lamsweerde is a groundbreaking photographer whose work has appeared in Vogue, W, Visionaire, Vanity Fair, Harper’s Bazaar, Interview, and Purple.