My junior year of college I went abroad to Cuba for a graphic design course in poster and cigar band design. I thought the cigar band design part of the course was sort of a joke but once I saw some of the cigar band designs I was really impressed. It’s easy to overlook the fact that everything gets designed- down to the tiny paper that hugs a cigar. This new book from Gingko Press about rolling paper graphics really appreciates a possibly overlooked design medium. Gingko Press, in their description of this title, calls it “a typographic dream”. Since many of the designs in this book are from the 19th century, there are many great examples of unique hand drawn typefaces. This book is beautifully designed itself with page after page of pictures- some at actual size and some so close up you can see the paper fibers. Pick up a copy here.

© Julia Rothman 2007