IST Publishing is a tiny publisher in Kiev, giving life to books and publications each more beautiful than the other. The publisher offers volumes on art history, philosophy and many other topics – our current favorite is the one showcasing Ukrainian trademarks. Here it comes!
The publishing company was established by Kateryna Nosko, Anastasia Leonova and Borys Filonenko, with the aim of presenting the diversity of Ukrainian art through high-quality publications. The majority of the books published under the aegis of IST Publishing is written in Ukrainian language, but one can also find English publications in their online store. They do not necessarily only work with artbooks: we can also find art history, art theory and art philosophy publications in their repertory.
In addition to the three founders, four additional employees work in the publishing house, but in spite of the fact that we are talking about a relatively small team, we can find their books also on the virtual shelves of the large European book distributor, Motto Distribution and we came across their publication titled „Znak. Ukrainian Trademarks 1960–1980” on the site of British Counter Print.
It seems we are somehow attracting trademarks recently (not so long ago we wrote about the Instagram page named Hungarian Logos – the Ed.), which of course we don’t regret for a single minute, quite on the contrary. In the bilingual, Ukrainian-English book, the authors Uliana Bychenkova, Nika Kudinova and Aliona Solomadina aka U,N,A collective offer an insight into the important phases of the history of Ukrainian graphic design. Even though the book displays Ukrainian corporate identities made between 1960 and 1980 regarded as exciting, due to the complexity of the issue, they also discuss 20th century Avant-garde and contemporary examples, too.
In addition to showcasing the most exciting logos and their designers, the publication also discusses the history of visual identity design, in the form of studies, including that of Rokas Sutkaitis exploring the impact of the West on Soviet trademarks – we can also read an excerpt of it on IST Publishing’s site. Amongst others the studies reveal how the 1953 Motorola television influenced the logo of “Mokslas” publishing house in Vilnius designed in 1975, or how similar the logos of pharmaceutical companies were in Bulgaria, the Soviet Union and Switzerland.
Photos: Maksim Belousov
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