Mervyn Kurlansky, co-founder of design studio Pentagram, also happens to be the man behind what is widely considered to be one of the earliest books formally documenting the developing Graffiti scene in 1970s NYC. “Watching My Name Go By” was first published in the U.K. in 1972 and contains some stunning images of early pieces. The U.S. version of the book was published later on but featured a different title and the publisher also had different ideas for the cover image, as recounted by Kurlansky:

Norman entitled his piece, The Faith Of Graffiti, after a comment by one of the kids he talked to, and the publisher decided to change our title for the book, to Norman’s title, without our consent. He also changed the original cover image. My idea had been to use an image on the cover which featured some of the graffiti writers, and the content of the book to be their (and others’ ) work. His alteration destroyed the rhythm of the book for me, especially as he repeated the cover image inside the book. Jon and I flew to LA to meet with Schiller and try to dissuade him from these changes but to no avail. He insisted that the book would not sell with Black Americans and Hispanics on the cover. He threatened that if we made trouble over it, he would simply pull out of our deal and send his own photographer to get the same pictures and publish the book without us.