Book By Its Cover » Levels and Degrees of Light

4.19.11

Levels and Degrees of Light

Alex Fuller and Gabe Usadel

review by Chad Kouri

The third installment of Alex Fuller and Gabe Usadel’s 5×7 Books is another beauty. At first glance this book didn’t really strike me as deeply as the first two but once I got it in my hands the book grabbed me by the eyelids and drug me deep into a forest of obscure compositions and hairline strokes. A majority of my time looking through this book was spent less than 2 inches away from the page. The gold foil stamped cover, rich green interior and milky paper stock really makes for some warm sensations both mentally and physically which flipping through. With much looser compositions than there previous releases, looking more like the silhouette of stacked cut paper than gridded out geometry, and what seems to me an experiment in negative space as positive shapes, Levels and Degrees of Light is a delightfully unexpected new release from the Chicago experimental design duo. All I’m waiting for is a little collab with these dudes and some obscure experimental music duo. Talk about a mind blow. The book is on sale until Friday right here.

7 Comments

04/19/11 9:39am

Alex Fuller wrote

Thanks Chad. We’re excited about publishing more crazy experiments at 5×7!

04/19/11 1:21pm

Allie wrote

Awesome work, guys! I agree, the gold foil stamp is really striking, a nice addition to the series.

04/19/11 6:57pm

Kira wrote

Hmm… this seems so stark and minimal. I can sometimes see how plain abstract forms like this can be interesting, but having a title like that just makes the whole thing seem a bit pretentious.

04/22/11 2:54pm

Chad Kouri wrote

I agree Kira. One thing that I noticed about this book is it REALLY is difficult to get the full experience in photos. It is a whole other world when you can hold it in your hand and see how they play with a 5% tint and show-through in different ways throughout the book.

04/28/11 8:31pm

Richard wrote

I ordered the book, received it in a couple of days, and it is beautiful – even better than I expected.

The forms in the book came from cutting up jazz album titles, and “Levels and Degrees of Light” is the name of an album by Richard Abrams, of Chicago at one time and now in New York.

04/28/11 8:40pm

julia wrote

Oh nice! I didn’t realize that. Thanks for sharing Richard.

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