The company's distinctive logo derives from the Greek letter phi, which represents the golden ratio, employed by artists, architects, and designers since the fourth century BC.

[4][5] To avoid the effects of the impending Nazi annexation of Austria, Goldscheider and Horovitz sold the company to British publisher George Allen & Unwin in 1937.

In 1955, during a stay in New York, Horovitz suffered a heart attack and died at the age of 56, upon which the leadership at Phaidon was assumed by his son-in-law, Harvey Miller.

[9] Phaidon publishes monographs on the work of twentieth-century masters including Marcel Breuer, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, Alvar Aalto, and Eero Saarinen.

It also publishes monographs on contemporary international architecture practices, for example on Tadao Ando, Peter Marino, John Pawson, MAD, and Snøhetta.

Phaidon has published monographs on Anthony Caro, Lucian Freud, Olafur Eliasson, Ellsworth Kelly, Willem de Kooning, Agnes Martin, Bruce Nauman, Harland Miller, and JR. Phaidon has worked with The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts since 1977 to publish The Andy Warhol Catalogue Raisonné, which currently spans five volumes.

Recent publications in the series include Kerry James Marshall, Yayoi Kusama, Frank Stella, Wolfgang Tillmans, Sarah Sze, and Mark Bradford.

Phaidon's children's book program is partly inspired by the company's traditional publishing categories and is designed to meet the developmental needs and interests of specific age groups.

Phaidon publishes children's books by authors and illustrators including Gabrielle Balkan, Jason Fulford and Tamara Shopsin, Sara Gillingham, Jean Jullien, Lotta Nieminen, Chris Raschka, JR, Julia Rothman, Joshua David Stein, Hervé Tullet, and Tomi Ungerer.

These include monographs on the work of Dieter Rams, Ettore Sottsass, Stefan Sagmeister, James Irvine, Naoto Fukasawa, nendo, Verner Panton, Richard Sapper, and Harry Bertoia.

Other world cuisines published include American, Chinese, Cuban, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Mexican, Nordic, Peruvian, Spanish, Thai, and Turkish.

The ongoing "Explorer" series features thematic visual surveys on a range of nonfiction subjects including maps, plants, astronomy, animals, and anatomy.