I almost didn’t want to post this link just so I could snag a few of the books, but I don’t think I really need to add any to my collection right now. The Strange Attractor turned me on to Counter-Print’s great selection of vintage design books. The real beauty here is the pricing; pretty reasonable compared to what I have seen elsewhere. The main attraction for me though are the great pictures and excellent page selections. Counter-Print: please, please keep your archive of sold books going (the grayed-out selections at the bottom) so we’ll always have a record of some of these rare finds.

Design books in general have always been a dichotomous obsession for me. On the one hand I am compulsively drawn to them; as if owning a physical copy of the images inside will allow me to understand or appreciate them better. But on the other hand, I rarely refer back to these books once I’ve owned them for any amount of time. They look nice all stacked up on the bookshelf, but whether they serve any real function beyond that I can’t really say. I suppose they are good to refer back to for inspiration or reference but for some reason I never actually take the time to crack most of them open. I suppose they aren’t really meant to be all that functional, perhaps they’re best viewed as a collection and something to be enjoyed as a whole. At any rate, you could do your own collection some serious good by checking out what Counter-Print has on offer.