Constructivist Design Books
Saturday, February 10, 2007 at 4:08AM 
Oh serendipity. I was looking through a box of leave-behinds and takeaways— the miscellaneous detritus of functions invited or attended, looking for the handbill from a 1990s Miami Beach arcade. I never found it. But I did come across a more recent stack of exhibition pamphlets, including the one shown above from the 2002 MoMA exhibit of Constructivist book cover designs: The Russian Avant-Garde Book | 1910-1934.
In my usual stream of conscious, it made me think of a book that I’ve been watching for some time on eBay- debating a purchase. There is a bookseller in Moscow named yellowcaptain. He has many fabulous books on Soviet era art and design. I don’t know his relationship with the publisher, but he sells the same list of titles over and over. This one is on book cover design:
Borr: Book Cover Design of Bor-Ramensky
Excerpt from the description: The book tells the story of quite forgotten extraordinary self-taught designer, Konstantin Georgievich Bor-Ramemsky. His truncated signature, Borr (or BorR), has gone down as a kind of pseudonym. He was born at the turn of the century and died in action in 1943. He worked as graphic designer, stage designer, interior designer and worker’s club decorator in Siberia, Georgia and Moscow. In the Western and Russian literature, only one of his works is referred to, but attributed incorrectly.
After finding the pamphlet (up top) from the 2002 Constructivist book cover exhibit at MoMA, I looked into whether an exhibition catalog had been published, and if so, was it still in print. It was, and it is:
The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910-1934
Excerpt from the description: This richly illustrated catalogue accompanied the 2002 exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art of a major collection of Russian avant-garde books. Often hand-made and hand-printed in limited editions, these books were, in many instances, the result of collaborations between poets and painters. Among the well-known artists represented are Natalia Goncharova, El Lissitzky, and Aleksandr Rodchenko.
The book cover designs concentrate more so on the typography. This is what interests me. I have one book on this era in my home library, but it is focused on advertising posters, not book covers:
Soviet Commercial Design of the Twenties
Excerpt from the description: A richly illustrated account of one of the most original, influential and exciting aspects of post-Revolutionary art: commercial graphic design, during the short-lived period of Lenin’s New Economic Policy.
Art, Book, Design, commentary 
Bravo to Bill Gates
Before the question was closed, it received 3567 answers. Unfortunately, Bill did not mark a best answer (or even a list of good answers). My reply, which appears here (the 18th answer on page 90), emphasized that meeting our job market demand for scientist and engineers could not be met with education alone, but only by also opening up citizenship to foreign born students receiving college degrees in American Universities. My reply began:
On March 12th, Bill Gates gave an address before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology, on the topic of Competitiveness and Innovation. This address marked the committee’s 50th Anniversary.
Bill Gates’ address to Congress:
Most of the committee members were respectful and receptive to Mr. Gates’ message. Representative Ralph Hall of Texas, district 4 gave a particularly warm introductory speech. There was one quite noteworthy exception. Dana Rohrabacher, California representative, district 46, who went on a protectionist/isolationist rant, felt that if Microsoft couldn’t hire the “A students” from abroad, they should just hire “B and C students” that were American born. He felt it was Microsoft’s responsibility to create jobs for these workers too. He even made the argument that, by giving H-1B visas to foreign engineers, that we would unfairly damage the labor needs of the recipient’s home country (you can’t make this stuff up!). After this bone-head (can I say that? …yes, of course I can. It’s my blog.) went beyond his alloted time, the chair of the committee asked him to wrap it up. Incensed by the perceived insult, Mr. Rohrabacher blathered, “You know, I’ve got a, uh, I’m working at, uh, I’m one of the guys who helped Kosovo become independent, I’m on the Foreign Relations Committee…” before he was eventually shut up. California, is this guy really the best you can find to represent you?
There is a very foolish and shortsighted sentiment that H-1B visas drive down wages and/or cause US citizens to loose jobs to foreign workers. With a shortage of scientific and engineering candidates, without more (many more) H-1B visa recipients, these jobs do not then go to natural born American citizens, but rather simply go unfilled. And that highly sought candidate will instead be employed by a foreign competitor.
Bill’s address was succinct but not thin, and his follow-up answers were well informed. He covered everything from the role of philanthropy in improving education, new educational opportunities offered by the internet, US competitiveness as compared to Europe and Asia, US investment in research and development, his strong support for the America Competes Act, teaching programs that have been successful both inside and outside the US, and what effect this has had on American competitiveness and businesses ability to meet their hiring needs. It was however, the issue of H-1B visas that captured the media. Below I have pulled all of Bill’s quotes related to the subject from the more than 2 hours of footage, sans any media spin (only 9 minutes of which was his actual Congressional address).
At time marker 5:25, citing research (PDF) Mr. Gates makes the case that H-1B visas actually create more jobs here in the United States:
At time marker 7:51 he added:
While the video above only contains Bill Gates’ address, and not the follow-up questions by members of the house which, as I point out, lasted much longer than the address itself, I have included a couple of noteworthy highlights. The majority of the committee’s members were sympathetic to Mr. Gates position, Mr. Rohrabacher bizarre comments above being the only exception.
Later, in response to a question by Mr. Rothman, representative for New Jersey, district 9, at time marker 10:47, Mr. Gates further made the point:
In another exchange with the committee regarding the stature of American Universities, Mr. Gates has this to add (11:04):
I would like to commend Bill Gates for speaking sense in the face of all the ill-founded isolationism being advocated by some false populist shills for the labor union special interests. The tech sector is the future of the American economy, and of the world. If America is to continue to prosper, we must increase our number of scientist, engineers and mathematicians. Even if all American college graduates became engineers, we would still have a shortage. This has more to do with birthrates than anything else. The only way to close this gap is through immigration, and the low hanging fruit are those foreigners who have already been educated in our system. They are already here, they want to stay here, and when we force them to leave, they will not leave the labor market, they will simply goto work in a foreign competitor economy, taking American intellectual capital with them as we throw them out.
I started off writing a technology story, and here I am, stuck in politics again.
RELATED LINKS:
Bill Gates’ Address in the C-Span Archives
Bill Gates’ full hearing before the Committee on Science and Technology, including pre-address comments by committee members, as well as a post address question and answer with Bill Gates, can be viewed in full at C-Span’s online archives. Available formats include both a Flash Movie and a Windows Media file (total run time is just over two hours). It can also be ordered on DVD.
Committee on Science and Technology, 50th Anniversary Address
Additionally, the address can be viewed in full from the United States House of Representatives’ website as a Real Media file.
Bill Gates unabridged written testimony as PDF
Due to time constraints, Mr. Gates agreed to give an abridged version of his address. His full testimony was entered into the record in writing, and can be downloaded in PDF form.
Microsoft website— Bill Gates, transcript from committee address
The full transcript of Bill Gates address before the Congressional committee, including all follow-up questions.
Bill Gates’ Speeches— Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Transcripts of other speeches by Bill Gates, in the archives of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.