Well it’s about time. Communication Arts has finally released every issue, 400 in total, of their magazine in digital format. This is every issue dating all the way back to 1959 now available for download. They aren’t free. They are going for $9.99, but if you are looking for solid research materials and don’t want to have hundreds of hard copies lining your shelves, this is a good way to go. When I got the email about this, this morning I was hoping they might be offering a bundle deal. Something where you could get every issue for a fixed price, or buy a decade at a time for a fixed price, but apparently not. This means if you want them all it won’t be cheap. You’ll be spending $3996.00 for every issue from the current one all the way back to August of 1959. If you run a design library, or if you have a firm that can afford it this would be a valuable research tool for past styles, trends, advertising and communication history, and a barometer reading of the sociopolitical landscape from a design communications perspective.

When I got the email about this, this morning I was hoping they might be offering a bundle deal. Something where you could get every issue for a fixed price, or buy a decade at a time for a fixed price, but apparently not. This means if you want them all it won’t be cheap. You’ll be spending $3996.00 for every issue from the current one all the way back to August of 1959. If you run a design library, or if you have a firm that can afford it this would be a valuable research tool for past styles, trends, advertising and communication history, and a barometer reading of the sociopolitical landscape from a design communications perspective.

If you don’t want to drop any cash on these, you can still look through all the covers going back to 1959, and get a really nice overview of how design styles have changed over the last 58 years.