Hasta La Ideas

In a quirky marketing move, the Tate has created a couple of teaser films of two forthcoming art books: Peter Blake’s ABC and 600 Black Spots, a pop-up book by David Carter (shown). Cute, yes – but viral? Probably not…

The clips, which reveal the contents of both books, are apparently an example of Tate “keeping up with emerging trends in video and viral marketing,” as the press release somewhat hopefully states.

They might well become viral but, more to the point (and particularly in the case of the pop-up book), they’re simply a rather nice way of giving readers a glimpse of the contents of illustrated books that are, otherwise, bought online fairly blindly.

Imagine if you could quickly flick through every illustrated book available in a gallery’s online store, rather like you’d do in a bookshop. That’s how we buy books in the real world – so isn’t replicating that experience online a good idea?

It certainly gives the reader an idea of what they’re getting for their money – more so than the usual series of spreads that most online design book retailers offer.

But maybe a version without a soundtrack is the way forward.

The tour of Carter’s glorious 600 Black Spots is here…

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…while the A-Z of Peter Blake’s ABC is here:

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Both books are available from the Tate’s online shop, Blake’s is here and Carter’s, here.