About On Growth and Form
On Growth and Form draws its entire visual logic from D'Arcy Thompson's 1917 treatise — a 793-page volume in dark navy publisher's cloth, gilt-lettered at the spine, its interior a quiet duet of old-style serif letterpress and pure black line-block diagrams. Cartesian transformation grids deform one fish into another; logarithmic spirals trace the chambered Argonauta shell.
The system keeps that discipline: hairline black geometry and plate-paper figures float on a deep blue-black cloth ground, with gilt gold used only for rules and accents. It is matte, letterpress, and mathematical — never glossy, never colourful, never modern.
- Origin
- Cambridge, Scotland / United Kingdom
- Era
- 1900–1950 (first edition 1917)
- Key figures
- D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson · Cambridge University Press
- Movements
- Mathematical biology · Morphology · Scientific letterpress illustration
On Growth and Form design spec
Colors
Typography
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