The latest rather nice publications to land on our desks here at CR towers include a really boring colouring book (her words, not ours) by Teresa Monachino, new self published zines from Andy Rementer and also Nigel Peake, and Nobrow‘s latest…
Entitled A Really Boring Colouring Book (£5.99), Teresa Monachino‘s new self-published book is a celebration of boredom, containing as it does no images whatsoever but rather dozens of quotes about boredom, each set in an outline font specially selected to compliment the particular quote, crying out to be coloured in.
All the typefaces used are listed at the back of the book so as not to ruin the colouring book aesthetic, meaning that A Really Boring Colouring Book is actually four books in one: a colouring book, a book of quotations (by the likes of Confucius, Kafka, Ovid, Tostoy, Voltaire, and more), a typeface reference book AND a showcase for great paper (all supplied by Fedrigoni). Boring has never been so much fun!
The book will be available from Magma, The Design Museum Shop and a few other bookshops in London. studiomonachino.co.uk
Issue number six of the lovingly-produced Nobrow (£15) is a bit special. It’s a double ‘flip-cover’ edition filled with 128 pages of work by some of the best comic artists and illustrators around at the moment. The theme for the issue is ‘doubles’ and Gwénola Carrère (above) and Tom Gauld (below) provide the two covers, while inside there’s work by Andy Rementer, Kevin Huizenga, Malachi Ward, Jack Teagle and Michael Deforge. A host of illustration talent including Sean Lewis, Roman Muradov, Katia Spitzer and Luke Best also features. More info at nobrow.net.
My Latest Work by Luke Pearson
The Double by Jon McNaught
I was Tom Cruise’s Stunt Double by Julian Gough and Mikkel Sommer
Home Body by Andy Rementer
by Sean Lewis
by Tom Clohosy Cole
by Joohee Yoon
Also fresh from Nobrow Press is Klaus (£15), a collection of charming comic strips by Richard Short featuring the eponymous feline character who is prone to philosophical whimsy. Lovely stuff.
Regular readers may recall that photographer Indre Serpytyte‘s 1944-1991 series of images was selected to appear in the 2010 Hyères International Fashion and Photography Festival. Now the project has been commemorated in this cloth-bound book, complete with an introductory essay and an interview with the artist by Martin Barnes.
For the project, the artist tracked down Lithuanian forest dwellings which were used by Soviet security services to interrogate partisans after the Second World War, recreated them as wooden models and photographed them. The book also includes forest photographs and photographs of the notebook she kept when researching the project.
Andy Rementer‘s latest self published zine, entitled Perfect Strangers, comprises a selection of what he describes simply as “painting studies”.
Nigel Peake‘s latest self-published book, Bridges, XXXIV Crossings of the Thames (£10 from secondstreet.bigcartel.com) collects a host of drawings all based upon bridges that span the Thames river.
“Walking along the river, depending upon the ebb and flood of the tide, you can see the elevation of these structures,” writes Peake in the introduction to the book, “some with repeated arches, others with a pattern made up of X’s. In a hurry, trains, traffic, bicycles and people cross the thin surface, perhaps unaware of what is below. Walking across a bridge, as on a boat, a different city emerges. Facades are less dominant and you can see beyond and almost through the buildings. With each step, more is revealed. No longer cropped and directed by the architecture, your view goes further. A bridge is a remarkable object.”
The Conductor by French illustrator Laetitia Devernay (Chronicle Books, £11.99) is a text-free illustrated narrative that sees a conductor magically transform a copse of trees into a swirling mass of bird-like leaves that soar and fly as he waves his baton.
CR in Print
If you enjoy reading the Creative Review website, we think you’ll enjoy reading the magazine even more. The December issue of CR includes a profile piece on the independent creative scene in Liverpool, a major interview with Dutch book designer Irma Boom and a great piece on ‘Poster King’ Edward McKnight Kauffer. You’ll also find articles on Dentsu London, a review of the Walker Art Center’s Graphic Design: Now in Production show and a fascinating debate on the clash between design and advertising betwen Wally Olins and CHI’s Dan Beckett.
And if that wasn’t enough, the issue also includes a FREE paper toy for readers to cut out and customise.
If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.
Each year when putting together our Holiday Gift Giving Guide, we look for a theme to unify our selections. This year, we decided to focus on items that get a lot of bang for their buck. We want to suggest items that someone on your list might use daily or nearly every day. We’ve been referring to these as high utility gifts, and they’re amazing when you can find them.
