This is a study of corporate identity manuals from the golden era of identity design. The book includes reproductions of 20 design manuals created for US and European institutions and corporations including IBM, Westinghouse, Canadian National Railway (CN), Bell System, Knoll, PTT, the Montreal Olympics and the Dutch police. Many of them have been designed by the giants of 20th-century identity design, including Lester Beall (USA), Paul Rand (USA), Allan Fleming (Can), Total Design (NL), Alan Fletcher (UK), Otl Aicher (Ger), Studio Dumbar (NL) and North (UK).

We now rely on digital templates to implement brand identities. But we might have lost something in the transition to digital style guides, and this printed manual is a true and appreciated example.