Octavo Redux 1:1
Octavo Redux 1:1
£50.00
Title: Octavo Redux 1:1
Authors: Mark Holt and Hamish Muir
Designers: Mark Holt and Hamish Muir
This book is currently on pre-order with shipping commencing at the end of September 2025.
Hamish Muir and Mark Holt, founding members of the design studio 8vo, have produced a book documenting Octavo, International Journal of Typography, the influential magazine they designed, edited and self-published between 1986 and 1992.
Octavo is widely regarded as a landmark in graphic design and typographic history. Original copies are rare and command high prices when they occasionally turn up for sale. Conceived by Muir, Holt, and fellow 8vo member Simon Johnston, the journal appeared during the heated debate around “graphic authorship,” and demonstrated that designers could produce work independently of clients.
The first seven issues were printed editions of 16 pages, A4 format, each with an eight-page translucent wrap-around jacket and set throughout in the typeface Unica from Lineto. The eighth and final issue was released as a CD-ROM.
This book captures the original publications at actual size and in fine detail. It’s like owning the originals!
Here’s what’s been said about Octavo, the magazine:
Octavo, a typographic magazine of intense seriousness and overt graphic sophistication. Now, a decade and a half later, many typographers still remember vividly the impact of seeing a copy. For a few, it changed the course of their careers.”
–Julia Thrift, Eye
“One of the most progressive type journals of the mid- to late 1980s . . . the eight issues of Octavo raised the bar of commentary, scholarship and practice.”
–Steven Heller, Print
“Octavo looks dishy, and like the average Swiss pavement, is clean enough to eat your dinner off.”
–Information Design Journal
“. . . sixteen pages of pride, courage, and love of typography can mean a lot.”
–Rolf Müller, HQ
“[Octavo] The only piece of design worth stealing from my old college library...”
–Ian Styles, Graphics International
Octavo and its legacy.
Octavo, International Journal of Typography, was a maverick gesture that challenged the prevailing graphic formalism of the 80s and 90s.
It sought, above everything else, to foreground typography as a solution in itself. It did this at a time when illustration was the dominant mode of graphic expression. And if all eight issues of Octavo prove anything, they prove that typography can be as expressive as image.
Octavo was a publication that spanned the paste-up to desktop era and is an encapsulation of late 20th century typographic developments.
Octavo demonstrated that designers could function without clients. Self-funded and self-distributed, the journal was launched when the debate around “graphic authorship” was raging. But 8vo took the decision to disengage from theoretical posturing and instead made what they believed in.
The book’s designers and editors
Hamish Muir was co-founder of the London-based graphic design studio 8vo (1985–2001), and co-editor of Octavo, International Journal of Typography (1986–92). In 2009, he co-founded MuirMcNeil, a project-based collaboration with Paul McNeil.
Mark Holt was co-founder of the London-based graphic design studio 8vo (1985–2001), and co-editor of Octavo, International Journal of Typography (1986–92). He studied at Newcastle Polytechnic (1977–80) and worked in San Francisco before co-founding 8vo. In 2001 he formed Mark Holt Design.
Specifications
Size: 315 × 240 mm
Pages: 368
Format: 4pp soft cover with lay-flat binding
Printing: Interior printed 4 col-process with stochastic screening throughout on matt coated paper
Cover printed in two spot colours
Typeface: LL Unica 77 (Lineto)
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