The venerable design partnership consistently impresses.

I got a wonderful gift in the mail last week: my own copy of the Pentagram Black Book. To say that I’m impressed would be putting it mildly.

Pentagram has a well-deserved reputation as one of the world’s premier design firms. It’s not until you see their work collected like this, however, that you get a real sense of just how diverse — and damn good — they are.

There’s the work you know, of course, such as Paula Scher’s typographic masterworks for the Public Theater. But then there’s work like editorial design for Dairy Herd magazine, logo/branding for the New York Jets, and interiors for various stores and offices. Flipping through the book is an exercise in “a-ha!” moments.

It makes a nice companion piece to Decipher: Fourteen Cryptograms, which I was also lucky enough to receive. This book was the firm’s holiday greeting for 2007 and it’s a truly gorgeous piece of work. I can’t say I’ve been able to make much sense of it, but what would be the fun in that anyway? Periodically I just pick it up to remind myself “yes, that’s the way it is done.”

See more pics of both the Black Book and Decipher: Fourteen Cryptograms at my Flickr page.

Keep up to date with Pentagram’s latest at their blog.

Also, you know who else loves their Black Book? The good folks at Orange Element, a pretty impressive design firm in their own right.