Formica forever

Abbott Miller's "Formica Forever" book illustrates the company's century of innovation, design and cultural impact.

From the Series

Colours, patterns and insightful essays come together in Abbott Miller’s Formica Forever book.

This year sees Formica celebrating their 100th anniversary and Pentagram’s Abbott Miller has designed a commemorative book telling the story of the iconic brand’s evolution through cultural shifts, technical innovations and global growth.

Designed for a wide readership, Formica Forever functions as a serious history but also captures the inherent playfulness and modernity of the material. The book highlights Formica’s versatility through bold colours and unique graphic patterns throughout.

We didn’t want a cumbersome coffee-table book; we wanted to create something celebratory rather than grandiose, authoritative but also lively, says Miller.

The cover introduces a graphic motif that is used throughout the book: a pattern of colourful Formica specification chips. These feature tiles and other information to indicate content and different languages, highlighting that the book is multi-lingual as Formica has a global reach.

Loosely divided into three sections, Formica Forever groups essays that look at the history of the company, an illustrated portfolio of the company’s history and a section of translation in six languages.

The book is published in association with Metropolis Books and will be available in early August at bookstores and online.

Earlier this year, Miller created the Anniversary Collection of laminates for Formica that celebrates the brand's century of innovation, design and cultural impact.