In Modernist architecture ‘form follows function’, and this is how the Swedish Co-Operative Union envisioned their shops and factories in the 1930s and 40s. In 1960 Lars-Lennart Forsberg photographed the Co-Op’s entire building portfolio. These photographs are now collected in ‘A Journey Through the Welfare State’, published by The Swedish Museum of Architecture, Stockholm, and designed by Ritator.

 

The colour of Modernism, white, dominates the page layout as it allows for the triplex printed black-and-white photographs to be fully appreciated. In these photographs, a particular grey tone was prominent; therefore, grey was chosen as the text colour. The book design is a marriage between the functionality of Modernism and the aura of Forsberg’s photographs.