Hasta La Ideas

This hefty 600 page tome is the fruit of a collaboration between Dutch magazine Fluff and Nike Skateboarding (Nike SB). Nike gave Fluff full creative freedom to come up with a document that celebrated Nike’s SB teams in Europe and Fluff commissioned photographer Marcel Veldman to visit no less than 19 countries across Europe and hang out with skateboarders both on and off their boards. The book features  images of over 100 skateboarders doing what they do best: pulling tricks in a huge variety of urban environments – and, but of course, arsing about at parties. There are interviews a-plenty and lots of nice editorial design – as well as full bleed photography and sequential action shots… Nice book, but weighing in at about three kilos, it’s not something you’d want in your backpack on a trip to the skatepark… To see video footage taken during Veldman’s 150 day European roadtrip – visit the book’s accompanying website: fluff-sb.com/

The Fluff SB Book project was supervised, art directed, designed and published by Dutch design agency vijf890

This is the fifth issue of Centrefold, a large format (A3) bi-annual publication which showcases the work of leading photographers, artists and designers within the creative industries. This issue is The Vintage Issue and contains several photo stories which look to evoke the 60s and 70s by re-imagining defining pop cultural moments and events from those periods, with the models all sporting looks using mainly vintage clothing sourced from Beyond Retro, Elio Ferraro and Bolongaro Trevor, among others. There’s lots of full bleed imagery and the typographic introductory pages, designed by Julian Morey, who worked with Tom Lardner on the issue’s design and art direction, are really nice. The cover (above) features an illustration by Michael Gillette… Centrefold has a blog at centrefoldmagazine.blogspot.com

This is the catalogue that accompanies artist Kamil Kuskowski’s exhibition, The Truth of Painting, which ran earlier in the year at the Piekary Gallery in Poznan, Poland. Seven different stocks, coated and coloured, were utilised to accenuate several techniques used by the artist in his work. “There are four chapters in the catalogue,” explains its designer, Ryszard Bienert of 3group, “each with its own distinct colour and paper stock. The aim was to allude to the techniques and bold colours used by the artist but at the same time keep it simple and uncluttered, in keeping with the artists work.”

Ouroboros is the first publication in Nobrow‘s new 17×23 series: “a new graphic short story project designed to help talented young graphic novelists tell their stories in a manageable and economic format.” The name of the series, 17×23, refers to the format size (in centimetres). The name of this particular 26 page book by illustrator Ben Newman, Ouroboros, meanwhile, refers to an ancient symbol depicting a snake or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle. His story mirrors this concept by cleverly ending precisely as it begins, thus creating a never ending, circular story. Charming stuff – here are a few spreads…

Ouroboros is priced at a very reasonable £8.50 from nobrow.net/ 

Melissa Auf der Maur (MAdM) was a member of Courtney Love’s band Hole – and she also played with The Smashing Pumpkins for their farewell tour in 2000.  Now she’s about to release her second solo album entitled Out Of Our Minds (OOOM) which will encompass various elements besides just a collection of 12 songs. There will be a 28minute film (directed by Tony Stone and starring MAdM) and a twelve page comic book (cover shown above / spreads below) illustrated by Brooklyn-based artist Jack Forbes – which mirrors the story of the film…

“OOOM began as a song,” explains Auf der Maur of the project. “It was half way through the first decade of the 21st Century and technology had just begun to dismantle the music business. It was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The landscape changed and I began to morph my roots in visual arts with the music. The many portals of OOOM invite listeners and viewers to discover on their own, at their own pace and in their own space.” 

Find out more about the OOOM project at xmadmx.com/ooom/

We were recently sent this booklet (just under A4, landscape format) by its author and designer, Jim Williams – a senior lecturer in graphics at Staffordshire University – along with a note explaining that he created it to hand out to his students. It’s a great introduction to typography and includes tips on kerning numbers, ligatures and ampersands, apostrophes and quotation marks and plenty more… Williams can be contacted through the University’s Faculty of Arts, Media and Design on +44(0) 1782 294415 or by email at j.g.williams@staffs.ac.uk

This is the cover of photographer Amanda Marsalis’ self published book, Lost At Sea – which is a collection of Polaroid images shot over two years which, she tells us, “run the course of a love affair.” The cover has an embossed Polaroid frame which hints at the contents. It’s full of beautiful Polaroid imagery taken on beaches, planes, boats, balconies and other locations. Here are a few spreads. See more of Marsalis’ work at amandamarsalis.com/

Illustrator Nigel Peake self publishes small books and zines as and when he feels like it. He actually sent us a copy of his 28 page A5 zine, Des Constructions de panneux publicitaries dessines pour une ville Francaise (Billboard constructions for a French town) at the end of last year (opening page shown above, spreads below) but it got lost under a pile of publications on a desk (OK, it was my desk) here at CR. Having recently uncovered it, I though it only right to showcase it. Some lovely illustrations of what I can only assume are imagined signage constructions for French shops and services…

Ah, just in time to feature in this blog post, Manzine issue 3 landed on our doormat here at CR towers today. And what a cracking issue it is – complete with a free colour Ralph Steadman print and also a colour feature entitled Saddamski which features photography by Andreas Lux and commentary by Daniel West documenting the pair’s visit to the former Iraqi embassy in East Berlin which is now empty and in (glorious) decay… At a glance the issue looks great. Looking forward to reading on the tube on the way home. Here are some spreads:

Manzine info can be found at themanzine.com/