Let The Sun In

After visiting the incredible Alexander Girard retrospective on the Vitra campus in 2016, I returned with the exhibition catalogue – Alexander Girard – A Designer’s Universe, and thought I had the ultimate Girard book.

But after a recommendation from my friend and fellow Girard fan Sara Smedley, I recently splashed out on the monograph Alexander Girard: Let The Sun In by Todd Oldham and Keira Coffee. And wow. Zero regrets!

Authors Oldham and Coffee spent 10 days in the Girard archives at the Vitra Campus in Weil am Rhein photographing and scanning their extraordinary collection of his textiles, sketches, architectural drawins, notes, menus, collections… and they still only managed to get through half of the collection in that time. Alexander Girard really was an extraordinarily prolific designer, so no wonder I need at least TWO big fat books about his playful, multifaceted life’s work.  

Of course, there’s lots I’m familiar with from the 2016 Girard retrospective at Vitra – like the incredible Fonda Del Sol restaurant design work. In typical Girard style, he got involved in all facets of design, from restaurant layout, to the motifs on the matchbooks. I wouldn’t even be surprised if he had a hand in planning the menu.

But what really struck me about Let The Sun In is the deep dive that Oldham and Coffee take into Girard’s typography work, as well as his exhibition design and his personal folk art collections.

And, on a more practical note, his cataloguing systems have inspired to get my organizing game on in my own studio. What a wealth!

“Art is only art when it is synonymous with living.”

– Alexander Girard