Book By Its Cover » Design

Russian Textiles: Printed Cloth for the bazaars of central asia

julia — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:13:05 +0000

Looking for some inspiration for making some new pattern designs I came across this book. I am very attracted to the traditional looking floral, ikat and paisley designs. And most of the designs are dominated by the color red. Flipping through the book gives you a sea of spectacular bold color and intricate patterning. From the introduction I learned that in the beginning, 1870s, the patterns were used mostly for the lining of robes, and around a decade later, they started appearing more on the outside of the robes. Sometimes three or four different patterns were sewn in blocks across the garments front and sleeves creating beautiful juxtapositions of designs. Get a copy of this book here
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Type: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Vol. 1

julia — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 23:30:46 +0000

I bought this book for a friend and then decided I needed a copy for myself. Not unlike The Handy Book of Artistic Printing which I posted about a little while back, this book is full of gorgeous examples of decorative typefaces and printer’s ornaments. This massive first volume, they are coming out with a second volume, has so much inspiring type design you might drool while turning the pages. The best part is the book comes with a keycard with a code, which gains you access to over 1000 high res scans of the specimens found in the book- such a great perk to having the printed version. Get a copy here

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ADC Young Guns 7

julia — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:05:44 +0000

Tomorrow and Friday I will be at the Art Directors Club as part of the interactive jury for the 89th Annual Awards. I’ve been lucky enough to be a judge at a few different competitions but none as prestigious as this one. I am really looking forward to meeting the other judges and picking the best work. One of the ADC’s most popular awards aside from their yearly annual competition is the Young Guns competition. Each year this award recognizes the 50 best designers/illustrators under 30 from around the world. Aside from getting an award cube, the ADC puts out a moleskine full of the Young Gun winner’s work. Each designer gets a few pages that give you a taste of their style. I love that this little book holds so many young talents I want to learn more about. It’s like a little directory of the freshest out there. You can get this limited edition book or any past ones (ALSO’s work is in the YG6 book!) right here.

Exciting World of Pattern Design

julia — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:54:30 +0000

Just a quick mention- On Monday, Feb. 22nd, in Chicago, my ALSO partners Jenny Volvovski and Matt Lamothe will be giving a talk about our work at the Apple store on North Michigan Ave at 7pm. It’s part of the Art Director’s Club speaker series and should be a real treat. Find out more info so you can attend here.

It feels like there are a huge handful of pattern design books coming out right now, and I couldn’t be more thrilled. Similar to the book I shared last week, this book is small and thick, but this book displays more than 700 designs. The patterns are from designers from around the world who are labeled both on their pattern and in an index in the back. The images show the flat design and often it’s application, whether it’s wallpaper, pillows, apparel etc. The selection of designs seems fresh and edgy. There’s a lot of stuff in here that I feel like I haven’t seen before. I’m happy to have a bunch of my own designs featured as well. You can buy this book here or here.

S,M,L,XL

julia — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 19:30:17 +0000

For three years in college I dated an architect major. And this book was like his bible- he treasured it. He idolized Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and his O.M.A firm. And he wasn’t alone. You couldn’t get the first edition of this book, it sold out so fast. (First editions today are selling for as much as $2000.) If you’re a New Yorker, you probably know Rem Koolhaas’s work because he designed the insane sloping Prada store in Soho. I’ve always been impressed with that space. So when I was walking my dog the other day and came across this book in a box with some other giveaways I decided to lug it home. It’s a second edition- the first editions cover type is yellow instead of blue, and unfortunately it has lots of waterstains across the front. Inside is what seems like an insane hodgepodge of stuff. It’s over 1300 pages and filled with images of drawings, models, surreal photo collages, random inspirational imagery, a comic. Plus there’s essays, fables, diary excerpts, and a glossary that runs in the margins throughout the whole book. It incredibly overwhelming at first but then it’s easy to focus on reading and understanding small sections. It feels almost like how sketchbooks feel- alive and fresh and unedited- everything and anything that may have inspired. The book was designed by Bruce Mau and seemed to have revolutionized what architecture books could be at the time. You can get this book here.

Outros Carnavais

julia — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:41:24 +0000

Artist/designer Joana Lira sent me this book which documents all of the work she created for the Recife Carnival in Brazil. With bright colorful patterns, character designs, and graphics, she really transformed the streets into a festive place. Her designs started as 2D sketches but were then reproduced at enormous proportions, made into huge parade size balloons, lanterns, banners, and papier-mache creations. This book shows her flat graphics alongside the spectacular decorations they became. I wish I could read more about the process, the text is in Portuguese. But seeing the sketches she’s included along with the final images, you can see how the designs really made the party!- a party I sure wish I could have attended! Learn more about Joana’s work here.

Repro Depot Pattern Books: Flora and Fauna

julia — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:17:58 +0000

One of the fun projects ALSO (Jenny, Matt and I) worked on recently was designing the new pattern books for ReproDepot. ReproDepot is notorious for having the best vintage and vintage inspired fabrics around. In each of these books they have shared 225 of the textile patterns as digital files with the themes as Flora and Folk designs. An attached cd has every design as a jpeg repeated across a 8.5×11 page. If you’re a whiz at photoshop you can easily manipulate the designs any way you want. If you’re not computer savvy, it’s still really simple to use the patterns to create all kinds of projects. In fact there are step by step instructions on how to use the files in the programs. Also there is a whole back section to this book with all kinds of crafting project ideas you can try just by printing the pattern pages out on a home printer. For example, there’s directions for creating a decorative light switch and instructions for making adorable tags for your luggage. Pick up a copy of these books here and here and have fun! (There’s also a stationery set if you just like the patterns but aren’t interested in making anything yourself. )

The Incredible Journey that is Consciousness

Chad Kouri — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:15:03 +0000

Since I first met Alex Fuller. and Gabe Usadel I have been a huge fan of their individual work. Outside of their beautifully excited but greatly different illustration styles they both show an innate sense of compassion. Recently they ditched there respective styles and started doing explorations in only color, form and composition in the most minimal way: a primary color palette, triangles, squares and circles, and anything goes compositions. The result of the studies are compiled in a beautifully printed (3 color offset) newsprint book called The Incredible Journey that is Consciousness. Some happy accidents happened with the book included some very nice show-through from page to page and a narrative evolving with the reoccurring red circle. I recommend it as a must have for any minimal-abstract-art-slash-zine fan around! Buy here.

Mikel Casal: Drawing Words

julia — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 22:09:38 +0000

The very talented illustrator Mikel Casal has a new book out- a collection of his work from 2004-2009 created for different Spanish newspapers. Mikel has a super design sense and his compositions are always so beautifully graphic. But even better are the characters he creates. They have so much personality. I can imagine them coming alive on the page, telling stories in crazy voices and walking around in strange ways on their thin legs. Something I’m also impressed with is Mikel’s use of textures in his work. Sometimes I find illustrators throwing in a texture just for the sake of making it look cooler. Mikel’s textures seem well planned and make sense with his drawings. He used pieces of collaged map for a globe shaped head on a character and a wood grain texture on a burly man’s beard. The bright full color illustrations in this book will definitely make you happy. Pick up a copy right here.

Cuba en la gráfica

julia — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 16:07:23 +0000

I’ve have been so busy this week and last. All I can think about is going on a vacation. Except we have no plans for one and couldn’t possible take one now with our packed schedules. But if I had to chose where to go, if it could be anywhere, it might be back to Cuba. I spent my junior year winter session in Cuba studying design. It was an incredible rare experience. Despite how sad it is that colorful Havana is literally crumbling, it’s makes for a really beautiful place. We traveled around the country mostly focusing on studying the history and it’s impact on design. With the all the intense politics came artists reactions, and many of these were on posters. While I didn’t get a chance to take any of those home, I did bring home a great collection of movie posters- they still silkscreen all their posters! I also bought back this book which a collection of all different posters from the 60s and 70s. This book is not nearly as good as some of the more current books on the subject but it is a thin little paperback that took a long journey with me so I treasure it.