The 41 manuals featured have been expertly photographed, retaining all essential details, and are presented in a spacious and functional layout, allowing you to fully appreciate these wonderful examples of sophisticated information design. These include manuals for Canadian National Railways (1965); New York City Transit Authority (1970); Olivetti (1971); NASA (1976); PTT [Dutch postal/telephone services] (1989); RAC (1998).

The photography is accompanied by a foreword by the late Massimo Vignelli, an afterword by designer Lance Wyman, and texts from Adrian Shaughnessy, Richard Danne, Martha Fleming, Greg D'Onofrio and Patricia Belen, alongside interviews with branding and visual identity practitioners Armin Vit, Sean Perkins, John Lloyd, Michael Burke, Sean Wolcott, Liza Enebeis and John Bateson.