The Shape of Design

So remember when Frank Chimero launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund his new book "The Shape of Design"? Yeah, that was pretty good. What is great though is the book is finally available for pre-order in both print and digital editions.

The print edition is $30 and also includes a digital version with purchase. The digital version alone is only $10 so there is really no excuse to not buy this.

If you're still not sure you want to spend $10 on something awesome, CLICK HERE.

And no, this is not some sort of sponsored post. I just think it's important to encourage my fellow designers to support our other fellow designers.

PS. More about Frank, including a video about "The Shape of Design".
Plus, his site, which is fantastic.

heat wave!

I'm a Midwest girl to the core and have never desired to live on a coast (the Great Lakes are enough for me). One of the reasons I love this region is we don't have absolutely ridiculous temperatures and we still have seasons. BUT OH JUST KIDDING because Chicago has been hit by a ridiculous heat wave with temperatures that feel like 110 degrees. I did not sign up for this and am so thankful my apartment and my workplace have air conditioning.

I was browsing the Knock Knock store and was like, 'oh hey these guys totally get me right now!' I could fill all three of these fun notebook/activity books with rants about this ridiculous heat (and then look back at them in the winter and pray for a heatwave again of course).

Beautiful, melodramatic notebooks for the win.

Click to find: DIE, OMFG, KILL YOU

Firework Studies

My birthday is on July 2 and when I was younger, I though the fireworks on the 4th of July were for me. I've come to understand that they are not (unfortunately) but have still kept my love for fireworks anyway.

Pierre Le Hors' "Firework Studies" is a book of photos of fireworks, all in black and white.

 On his website, Pierre writes

firework studies is a book compiling photographs of fireworks in the night sky. by constraining nearly all tonal values to stark blacks and pure whites, the trails, explosions and clouds of debris are reduced to a series of simple repeated formal elements: arced lines, spherical bursts, and randomly dispersed particles. i made no effort to limit digital artifacts resulting from pushing the image files past their conventional range; the resulting noise becomes hard to distinguish from the texture of the fireworks themselves.

The book is available from Hassla for $35. CLICK HERE to see the book flipped through in its entirety if you still need to be convinced that "Firework Studies" is beautiful.

(book / fireworks / found via Black Journal)

Write More Good

I love the Fake AP Stylebook Twitter (@fakeapstylebook), created by The Bureau Chiefs. They just released "Write More Good", a phony writing guide.

I want it, I need it. It is clever and journalismy and (presumably) sarcastic. And, the cover is pretty great, too. 

Visit The Bureau Chiefs website for more info.

Review: Travel Writing

I grabbed "Travel Writing" from a shelf at Borders because of the spine. I loved the dots of colors and honestly, and mistakenly, assumed the book would be a collection of travel stories. And while there are a few pieces of travel writing in the book, Peter Ferry's "Travel Writing" is much more a mystery and a journey of people and of self than of cities or countries.

"Travel Writing" is narrated by Pete Ferry and essentially, the whole book is one long story being told to his high school English class. Pete tells his students the story of the evening he witnesses a fatal car accident and his obsession with the woman behind the wheel. His obsession takes a toll on his career and personal life, causing to re-evaluate his priorities. I don't want to give too much away because I think this book is great and absolutely recommend it, so let's talk about the cover.

The cover I own, and which, in my opinion is the best cover for the book, was designed by Alex Camlin. Presumably, the woman on the cover is Lisa Kim, the object of Ferry's obsession. I think the color-by-number idea is fantastic, as color-by-number is a process that slowly reveals a whole picture and Ferry is digging during the whole book to put together the puzzle of who Lisa Kim was.

A few more notes: 
One reason I did enjoy this book so much is it takes place in Lake Forest, IL. Since I cover Lake Forest-Lake Bluff for my reporting job, it was really interesting to read about locations and roads and a community that I am familiar with.

Another reason I was pleased with this book was it examined the limits of fact and fiction. The narrator discusses this with his class, and pushes the reader to think about it as well.

So if you're interested in reading something that is funny but also suspenseful, that blurs the lines of reality and is also a little bit about travel, I definitely recommend "Travel Writing".

WE HAVE TO GO BACK

I think I'm still going through LOST withdrawls. Everytime I see anything related to the series, I get way too excited about it and every so often, I'll hold up my hand to a window and whisper "not Penny's boat".

Anywayyy, check out this book cover concept from Sean Hartter for a LOST choose your own adventure book.
 


Looove it.

PS WE HAVE TO GO BACK !!

(cover, character)

Work/Life

Uppercase is getting ready to publish "Work/Life: The Uppercase Directory of Illustration, International Edition", a follow up to "Work/Life" which featured the work of Canadian illustrators. The new "Work/Life" looks awesome so far.


Plus, there is an iPhone app and although I hate to admit it, I am a slave to my iPhone.


You can view the first "Work/Life" in its entirety on the Uppercase website, and by CLICKING HERE. 

I also recommend Uppercase magazine. When I have a more steady income, a subscription will absolutely be in my name.


(all images)

ROUNDUP: Andy

I was inspired by this image of Andy Warhol's "A Gold Book" to do a roundup of some colorful (duh) Andy covers.

(1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, gold book, flowers)

Marcell the Shell

Today I read the most wonderful news. The "Marcel the Shell with Shoes On" video is being turned into a picture book.


The video, created by SNL cast member Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp, is absolutely hysterical. In the video, Marcel tells us all about his life as a shell, the ups and downs and the routine of his daily life. It is adorable.

In case you haven't seen the video yet, you should watch it now:



According to Publisher's Weekly, the book, to be published by Razorbill, will feature oil paintings based on photos of Marcel. An interactive version of the book and a downloadable digital audio version will also be available.

(all images screen capped from video)

Total Design!

"TD 63-73" is a pretty good looking book about good looking design.

"TD 63-73: Total Design and its pioneering role in graphic design" is a unique insider’s account of the evolution of Total Design, one of the most important and influential design groups in the history of visual design. Written by Ben Bos, it contains hundreds of images from the TD archive, and in Ben Bos’s text the reader is given an ‘up close and personal’ history of a design group that remains as important today as it did when it launched in the icy winter of 1963.

The book isn't available until April 2011 but if you pre-order it now, you can get free postage to anywhere in the whole world. Cool! 


(all images)

Carine Brancowitz

Carine Brancowitz has a really nice illustration style. I love the colors and patterns that fill her images. Plus, much of her personal work features books.

See more of Carine's illustrations under the jump.

(found via Supersonicelectronic / all images)

Traumgedanken

Maria Fischer's "Traumgedanken" (Thoughts On Dreams) is "a collection of literary, philosophical, psychological and scientifical texts which provide an insight into different dream theories." She designed the book as a model of a dream about dreaming; She designed something really beautiful.


The threads in the book connect key words, visualizing the confusion and fragility of dreams.



More information on the book and other works by Fischer are available on her website.

(all images)

Standford Kay paintings

I love these paintings of books by Stanford Kay.



My favorites are from the Gutenberg Variations 2009-10:

In his artist statement, Stanford says:

"Both paintings and books are vessels for ideas, experience and memory. The books we read and the paintings we love and choose to live with, define us. A book requires the reader to assemble images and ideas out of its signs and symbols. Likewise, a painting asks that you translate itsstrokes and drips into reason and emotion." 

Really beautiful thinking behind really beautiful paintings.

(found via Apartment Therapy / all images)

ROUNDUP: NPR

Right now, NPR is offering 20% all books in their online shop. Here is what I would recommend purchasing:


Clockwise from top right: Book Lust to Go, Book Lust, This American Life: Buildings Book/DVD, This Is NPR, When You Are Engulfed In Flames

Endless Books

“I am a product […of] endless books. My father bought all the books he read and never got rid of any of them. There were books in the study, books in the drawing room, books in the cloakroom, books (two deep) in the great bookcase on the landing, books in a bedroom, books piled as high as my shoulder in the cistern attic, books of all kinds reflecting every transient stage of my parents’ interest, books readable and unreadable, books suitable for a child and books most emphatically not. Nothing was forbidden me. In the seemingly endless rainy afternoons I took volume after volume from the shelves. I had always the same certainty of finding a book that was new to me as a man who walks into a field has of finding a new blade of grass.”

C.S. Lewis


(image)

Pocketbook of Lightning

I was browsing The Book Cover Archive today and came across a Jonathan Safran Foer book I didn't know existed. I guess I'm not a very die-hard Foer fan.


I just ordered "The Unabridged Pocketbook of Lightning" off Amazon and can't wait for it to get here. I really like how simple and obvious this cover design is, and as with most Foer covers, the hand-written typography look.

Cover design by Ruslana Lyzchicko.

(image)

Frank's New Book

I've blogged on here about designer Frank Chimero before, but this time he is up to something really awesome. Frank is going to write "The Shape of Design" and has launched a Kickstarter profile to help fund the project.

"The Shape of Design isn't going to be a text book. The project will be focused on Why instead of How. We have enough How; it's time for a thoughtful analysis of our practice and its characteristics so we can better practice our craft. After reading the book, I want you to look at what you do in a whole new light. Design is more than working for clients.

But really, this book aims to look at the mindset and worldview that designing develops in order to answer one big, important question: How can we make things that help all of us live better?"

To learn more about the book and donate to the project, visit Frank's Kickstarter page. 

YOU Deserve a Medal

A new item in the Knock Knock store: "You Deserve a Medal", written and illustrated by Stefan G. Bucher. A nice, bold cover and simply structured page design.


"You Deserve a Medal commends those who struggle in the search for true love with forty hilariously truthful stops along that timeworn path."
(all images)

Sliced Books

Awesome upcycling in the form of beautifully cut books by Issac Salazar. According to his Flickr page, Issac's tools to create the art are: "simple arithmetic", an exacto knife and time.

"I like to take a book that would otherwise end up in a landfill and turn it into art. Rarely do I use new books, unless I am commissioned to. I like to watch Planet Green, and am into alternative energy, recycling and repurposing so it's a good feeling to know my art can contribute to reducing waste."

Issac also has an Etsy store. Although nothing is currently posted, he says work will be up soon. 


(all images from Issac's Flickr)

New from Frank Chimero

If you are into design, illustration and other awesome creative things, and you don't know who Frank Chimero is yet, you're really missing out. He's pretty inspiring, and he just posted some new things in his shop, including painted books.

Some of my favorites from the shop:

Visit Frank's shop to see the rest of the books, where they are also available for purchase at $75 each.


(all images Frank Chimero)