STREET GRAPHICS CUBA

Much of today's most exuberant, most creative and most telling imagery is all around us, in the street. All over the world, the street has become a public art gallery of visual icons, each city with permanent collections and temporary exhibits, each country with its own much-loved identity. Cuba has a unique place in the planet's street galleries; its colonial past and its revolution have created something vibrantly distinct. Beyond the ideology, this is the venue to enjoy a nostalgic whiff of the chromium trim and high tail fins of the 1950s automobile, the locale for Cohiba cigars, pre-Revolution enamel Coke signs, the ever popular Bacardi rum and all the excitement of the Buena Vista Social Club. Barry Dawson's brilliant photographic eye captures it all in an inspirational, all-colour ideas book for students and practitioners of design, an evocative medley of impressions for visitors - and would-be visitors - to Cuba and an entertaining cornucopia for anyone visually curious. 150 Barry Dawson is a design graduate and has lectured in graphics, photography and art. His previous publications include the photographs for The Traditional Architecture of Indonesia and Arts and Crafts of India.