Octavo

Octavo. An international journal of typography. Nos. 1-8 [all published]. Ed. by Simon Johnston, Michael Burke and Hamish Muir. Eight Five Zero Publishing, 1986-92. Seven 16pp. paper issues and a CD rom. Loose folding poster. A nice set. SOLD

'Octavo had a high-mindedness and a purity that set it apart intellectually and aesthetically from both the commercial and 'style' wings of contemporary British graphics. Octavo was sternly opposed to typographic mediocrity, nostalgia, fashion, decoration, symmetry, centred type and the hated serif. It was for a semantically determined use of structure and the infinite possibilities of typographic experimentation. "We take an internationalist, modernist stance," the first edition concluded. "This is necessary in England."'
Rick Poynor, Eye 9:3, 1993