 | |
| Founded | 1923 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Fritz Ungar,Bela Horovitz andLudwig Goldscheider |
| Country of origin | Austria |
| Headquarters location | London andNew York City |
| Distribution | Penguin Random House Distribution (UK, AU) Hachette Client Services (US)[1] LKG (DE) SODIS (FR) CB (NL) OLF (CH) Messaggerie Libri (IT) Jonathan Ball Publishers (ZA)[2] |
| Key people | Keith Fox (CEO) Philip Ruppel (COO) John Murphy (CFO) Deborah Aaronson (VP, group publisher) Emilia Terragni (publisher) Linda Brennan (VP, global marketing and communications) James Booth-Clibborn (managing director) Julia Hasting (creative director) |
| Nonfiction topics | Art, Photography, Design, Architecture, Fashion, Food, Travel |
| Revenue | £26.5 (2018) |
| No. of employees | 139 (2021) |
| Official website | www |
Phaidon Press is a global publisher of books onart,architecture,design,fashion,photography, andpopular culture, as well ascookbooks,children's books, andtravel books. The company is based inLondon andNew York City, with additional offices inParis andBerlin. With over 1,500 titles in print, Phaidon books are sold in over 100 countries and are printed inEnglish,French,Spanish,German,Italian,Mandarin, and dozens of other languages. Since the publisher's founding inVienna in 1923, Phaidon has sold almost 50 million books worldwide.
Phaidon-Verlag was founded in 1923 in Vienna, Austria, byLudwig Goldscheider,Béla Horovitz, andFrederick "Fritz" Ungar. Originally operating under the name "Euphorion-Verlag",[3] the founders settled on Phaidon (the German form of Phaedo), named afterPhaedo of Elis, a pupil ofSocrates, to reflect their love ofclassical antiquity and culture. The company's distinctive logo derives from the Greek letterphi, which represents the golden ratio, employed by artists, architects, and designers since the fourth century BC. Originally, the publisher's backlist was mainly literary in nature. Its first two publications consisted of a thin, four-volume print edition of the works ofShakespeare and a two-volume edition ofPlato. Horvitz took over sole ownership in 1924. From 1923 to 1925 it largely published classics, e.g. works byWilliam Wordsworth,Jonathan Swift,Ovid,Novalis,Friedrich Schiller,Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,Theodor Storm orHeinrich von Kleist (including again a thin print edition of Kleist'sComplete Works, with text arranged by Goldscheider). In the years that followed, the program was expanded to include works by more contemporary authors such asThomas Mann, Hanne Back, and translations by Samuel Butler, until finally, from 1927/1928, the program turned largely towards only publishing contemporary literature. Works by the German writer Alfred Henschke (Klabund) were printed in high numbers, as were works byArnold Zweig,Hugo Salus,Hugo von Hofmannsthal,Knut Hamsun, Heinz Liepmann, andRichard Specht. From its offices in Schulerstraße 10, Phaidon also eventually became known throughoutEurope for its affordable, high-quality books about art and architecture. Its large-format art books first emerged in 1937 with the publication of books featuring works byVincent van Gogh,Sandro Botticelli, and theFrench Impressionists.[4][5]
To avoid the effects of the impendingNazi annexation of Austria, Goldscheider and Horovitz sold the company to British publisherGeorge Allen & Unwin in 1937.[6] Phaidon-Verlag was removed from the Austrian commercial register on May 31, 1939.[3] Both men subsequently emigrated to London, where they reestablished the imprint as the Phaidon Press as one of the leading British art book publishers. In 1955, during a stay in New York, Horovitz suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 56, upon which the leadership at Phaidon was assumed by his son-in-law,Harvey Miller. A decade later, in 1967, Phaidon was acquired byFrederick A. Praeger Inc, a subsidiary ofEncyclopædia Britannica. Goldscheider remained director of the Phaidon Press until his death in London in 1973.
From 1974 to 1981, Phaidon was owned byElsevier, when it was sold in a management buyout under the name Musterlin. It was acquired by entrepreneur Richard Schlagman[7] in 1990 and its headquarters returned to London in May 1991. Schlagman then hired renowned designerAlan Fletcher in 1993 to be the creative lead. In 1998, Fletcher brought on board the German designerJulia Hasting, who began focusing on conceptual book design, emphasizing the art book as an object. This approach was translated into the architecture and photography books, as well as the cookery program.Leon Black acquired Phaidon in 2012.[8] Phaidon acquired the online art-sales business Artspace.[9] In January 2020, it acquired the publishing house The Monacelli Press from its founder.[9]
Phaidon publishes monographs on the work oftwentieth-century masters includingMarcel Breuer,Le Corbusier,Mies van der Rohe,Alvar Aalto, andEero Saarinen. It also publishesmonographs on contemporary international architecture practices, for example onTadao Ando,Peter Marino,John Pawson,MAD, andSnøhetta.
Phaidon also publishes historical and geographical surveys on architecture. In 2004, it published the giant formatAtlas of Contemporary World Architecture,[10] followed byThe Phaidon Atlas of 21st Century World Architecture,[11]Atlas of Brutalist Architecture, andAtlas of Mid-Century Modern Houses.
Phaidon also publishes monographs on established and emerging artists, as well as surveys of contemporary and historical art movements and genres. The company has published two of the world's best selling art surveys:The Story of Art,Ernst Gombrich's narrative survey of the history of art from ancient times to the modern era, which has sold over 8 million copies and has been translated into over 40 languages and released in 18 editions since it was first published in 1950; andThe Art Book, which presents the work of 600 artists from different periods, schools, visions, and techniques, frommedieval to modern times. In 1947–1960 the firm published the series Phaidon Pocket Books which comprised "titles with an art and literary bent",[12] in 1969–79 it published the Phaidon Colour Plate Series,[13] and from the early 1970s published the Colour Library which theAntiques Trade Gazette described as "a good introduction to nearly 50 key artists and movements in art history".[14]
The program includes nonfiction writers, includingAlain de Botton, Martin Gayford, andCalvin Tomkins. Phaidon has published monographs onAnthony Caro,Lucian Freud,Olafur Eliasson,Ellsworth Kelly,Willem de Kooning,Agnes Martin,Bruce Nauman,Harland Miller, andJR. Phaidon has worked with TheAndy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts since 1977 to publish The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, which currently spans five volumes.
Phaidon's Contemporary Artists series, launched in 1996, features over 70 titles. Recent publications in the series includeKerry James Marshall,Yayoi Kusama,Frank Stella,Wolfgang Tillmans,Sarah Sze, andMark Bradford. Phaidon works with the online art marketplaceArtspace to create limited editions of its books.
Phaidon publishes children's books in a wide range of formats including illustratednonfiction,picture books, and interactive board books. Phaidon's children's book program is partly inspired by the company's traditional publishing categories and is designed to meet the developmental needs and interests of specific age groups. Phaidon publishes children's books by authors and illustrators includingGabrielle Balkan,Jason Fulford andTamara Shopsin,Sara Gillingham,Jean Jullien,Lotta Nieminen,Chris Raschka, JR,Julia Rothman,Joshua David Stein, Hervé Tullet, andTomi Ungerer.
Phaidon publishes monographs on product, furniture, andgraphic designers, design histories, and, since 2014, surveys on interior, garden, andfloral design. These include monographs on the work ofDieter Rams,Ettore Sottsass,Stefan Sagmeister,James Irvine,Naoto Fukasawa,nendo,Verner Panton,Richard Sapper, andHarry Bertoia.
Phaidon publishes monographs on designers andfashion houses, as well as surveys of contemporary and historical fashion. It publishes the best selling The Fashion Book and has collaborated on monographs with creative directorsGrace Coddington andFabien Baron; designersMarc Jacobs,Viktor & Rolf, andThierry Mugler; and fashion houseYves Saint Laurent, among others.
Phaidon has published monographs with some of the world's leading chefs includingMassimo Bottura,Magnus Nilsson,Enrique Olvera,Virgilio Martínez,René Redzepi, andFerran Adrià, with whom it published the seven-volume set 2005–2011.
Phaidon publishes surveys of world cuisines, a program launched in 2005 with the Italian cookbookThe Silver Spoon. Other world cuisines published includeAmerican,Chinese,Cuban,French,German,Greek,Japanese,Mexican, Nordic,Peruvian,Spanish,Thai, andTurkish. In 2013 Phaidon publishedWhere Chefs Eat, a global dining guide based on chef recommendations. The series has been extended and adapted to includeWhere to Eat Pizza,Where to Drink Coffee,Where to Drink Beer, andWhere Bartenders Drink.
Phaidon publishes books onpopular culture, such as its bestselling advice books by leading creative voices, includingIt's Not How Good You Are, It's How Good You Want to Be byPaul Arden andDamn Good Advice byGeorge Lois. The ongoing "Explorer" series features thematic visual surveys on a range of nonfiction subjects including maps, plants, astronomy, animals, and anatomy.
Phaidon publishes monographs and collections of photography, as well as limited editions that include a signed and numbered print. Artists published by Phaidon includeLauren Greenfield,Stephen Shore,Martin Parr,Nan Goldin,Robert Mapplethorpe,Joel Meyerowitz,Mario Sorrenti,Steve McCurry, andAnnie Leibovitz, with whom the company has published two books:Annie Leibovitz: Portraits 2005–2016[15] and an updated edition ofAnnie Leibovitz: At Work.[16] Phaidon also publishes limited-edition books that include signed and numbered photographic prints.
Phaidon publishes Wallpaper* City Guides.[17] There are currently over 50 guides in print. Wallpaper* City Guide apps were launched in 2011 and there are currently over 50 available to download in one container app acrossApple andAndroid Platforms.
