Introducing the Sprightly Spearmen

Look what I just cane across...front cover, inside front cover, inside back cover, and back cover for a 1915 children's storybook featuring Wrigley's Doublemint chewing gum...lovely.

Sizes May Vary

Lawrence King Publishing consistently release good design books, one of their latest includes ‘Sizes May Vary’ by Mark Boyce. I have just been given this book as a gift, and even though I'm yet to use it, I love it! The book references the varying standardized formats and systems used within graphic design. Part sketchbook, part reference book and part notebook – it is a space for composing and visualizing layouts, sketching and developing ideas, taking reference and making note. There is also a nice hidden surprise, tucked in the back cover; a CD loaded with all the formats, and a very nice A1 poster.

www.sizesmayvary.com

Cutting Books

Artist Noriko Ambe creates her amazing pieces by cutting precise holes in books and other bound publications. Born and educated in Japan, Ambe currently lives in New York City. Check out a list of her upcoming exhibits right here.

Alphabet Truck

Kids and parents often resort to playing the Alphabet Game to avoid complete boredom during long car journeys. Photographer Eric Tabuchi has taken the idea a couple steps further in his cool, limited edition artist's book, Alphabet Truck.

A Field Guide to Weeds

By Kim Beck

"A Field Guide to Weeds masquerades as a 19th century pocket guide, but a guide in which the weeds themselves have taken over. This project uses the physical form of the book as a metaphor for a crack in the city sidewalk: printed in luscious five-color printing, the common dandelion, pigweed, and poison ivy—the very plants we ignore, step over, ignore, dig up, or scrupulously avoid—creep out of the gutter, up pages, and overrun the book. Multiple silhouettes overlap and repeat, drawing the reader’s attention to the overlooked."

Gray318

This week I've, once again, been on the trail for book cover designers for the dissertation. Jonathan Gray works in East London, and has produced many impressive cover designs, a few of which are pictured above.
Gray318

Lazy Soosan:Alphabet Books

Lazy Soosan is in fact the work of two London based illustrators more commonly known as Laura and Lucy.

A self published zine devoted to the rip-roaring phenomenon that is The Alphabet, with each issue being dedicated to one letter.

Each issue contains 26 black and white illustrations related to the letter of the alphabet in question, and a full colour front page. The zine itself is A6 in size, so can be easily slipped into your pocket for a bit of light entertainment whenever and wherever you may require it!

So far they have done A, B & C. Available from etsy

You can also see more of their work by visiting their blog

The Happiest Book In The World

By Alex Ostrowski

"In one way or another we are all looking for happiness. Some people even say that man's sole purpose for existence is to hunt down and capture this intangible and elusive treasure. In 2006 researchers at The University of Leicester concluded that Denmark is the happiest country in the world - this was good enough for me. In March 2008 I made the decision to visit happiness, and embarked upon a pilgrimage to find it. My experiences are presented in this book."

The Happiest Book in the world. Only one copy exists!

JuJu's Delivery

JuJu started drawing album covers and posters for her musician friends. Her work has since graced T-shirts, walls, cars, skateboards and she’s worked for clients such as MTV, pictoplasma and Rojo. Her picures have a great, simple, clarity of line that marks them out from much of todays computer manipulated illustration. She lives and works in Berlin. I really like her work, as her style is not like anything I've seen before. T-shirts, books etc. from concrete hermit or http://www.jujus-delivery.com/

O Book

Oliver Munday self promotional book. 11X17 staple stitched. Black on newsprint.

I'm lookingt at a lot of book covers right now in preparation for the dissertation. This one I quite like!

All Messed Up

This afternoon, I've been having a nosey at this great book which was lying around the office. The book explores the important role that mistakes and accidents play in the creative process.In striving for perfection, we often make mistakes. In aiming for flawless work, things often go wrong. Sometimes these mistakes and accidents end up working to the designer's advantage. To realize this is to override long-standing preconceptions that define such occurrences as fundamentally wrong. All Messed Up creates a space for work in which mistakes, accidents and the unpredictable are celebrated. It's on my amazon wish list already!

Still Stripping After 25 Years!

I came across this book on another blog whilst doing some research for my dissertation. I can't find who is responsible for this apalling book cover, so if anyone knows.....!!! Love the ambiguity though.

50 Designers' Current Favourite Typefaces

Create/Reject asked 50 leading designers about their current favourite typefaces, and the proceeds from the sale of each book goes to Unicef. Great book idea, too bad it's sold out already!!