From innovative fonts and commercial logos to products and artists' books, the work of graphic design collective Thirst is unmistakable: dazzling in form, intellectually challenging, incorporating Real Human Presence, just over the edge of the Discomfort Zone. The firm is known not only for fusions of text and image but for the emotion and strength that pervade the work. Thirst hallmarks include striking color photographs, creative computer manipulation, the use of new media, and challenges offered to the reader/viewer (and sometimes to the client as well).

The first monograph on the design group, Emotion as Promotion is an exuberant manifesto, a collective autobiography, and a brutally honest heart-to-heart with the next generation of design. It showcases work known (designs for Gilbert Paper, Gary Fisher Mountain Bikes, Wired magazine, and Absolut vodka), unknown (unimplemented identities for iXL and U.S. Robotics), and notorious (the "Just My Type" nude alphabet, the Want photo shoot for RayGun). Thirst principal Rick Valicenti and his colleagues tell the tales of each project, offering sometimes funny, sometimes wry assessments of the client, the end result, and all stages in between.