Making Fist to Face by Mirko Ilic

I first saw and fell in love with the Serbian version of this book, written by Dejan Krsic, before I had ever heard of designer Mirko Ilic. When I became editor of Print magazine and was looking for interesting books to launch Print Publishing with, I thought an updated, English translation of Mirko’s work would be a great addition to the list. Working with Mirko and Dejan, we translated and updated the original book, adding years of recent work by Mirko and his team.

This acclaimed visual biography of one of the most prolific and distinguished designers of the last half century traces Ilic's formative years as a precocious youth in Yugoslavia during the Communist-bloc era; his early illustrations for comic books and magazines; and his eventual move to the United States, where he quickly achieved notoriety as the art director of Time magazine's international edition and The New York Times' op-ed pages. As a designer, Ilic has constantly pushed his craft to new limits, experimenting and reinventing himself at every turn.

Listen to Mirko Ilic and me discuss the making of Fist to Face with Debbie Millman on her podcast, Design Matters here.