Hasta La Ideas

A photograph of Al Gore’s messy office opens Donald Norman’s new book Living with Complexity. At first this reviewer looked at the office and the piles of paper in judgment and then began to realize that the very man campaigning against messing up the environment had a rather messy desk. Donald Norman might differ. Living with Complexity takes the theses offered in his earlier books The Design of Everyday Things and Emotional Design and extrapolates them from the world of goods into the world of service providers.

In Norman’s view, Gore’s desk is the cluttered extension of an organized mind. Indeed, Norman interviewed many seemingly organized owners of messy workspaces and heard them repeatedly request, “Please don’t clean my desk.” The apparent disorder of the office was being carefully tracked in their minds. Norman explains that all of our desire for “simplicity” is a false hope because life is complex. Complexity, however, does not need to be confusing. Those designers who can manage to produce devices (and systems) that corral the complexity of the world into intuitively grouped and well-designed systems will garner success in our digital world.

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James Victore’s new monograph is so slick that a stranger on the subway asked us what we were reading because he “needed a new book.” The design strikes such a careful balance between craft and irreverence that has the same appeal as the cool kid in school that never followed the rules but still graduated on time.

The matte black pages provide a striking contrast to a typically bound book, even when closed, and the cover painting sandwiches those uncommon pages between a carefully defaced oil painting festooned with Victore’s trademark hand illustrations (scrawled painted words and a Van Dyke goatee) combined with a stark typeface arrangement. The cover itself actually forms a fold-out of the painting that can serve as a poster, Victore’s stock and trade. From the cover on in, the monograph is just as boisterous and freewheeling an exploration of the bounds of graphic design as James Victore’s career has been.

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As a book lover, designer and publisher, I am always on the lookout for books that inspire. With review copies, keeping up with the blogs, my magazine and books in progress, it seems that I look at so many things these days that it takes something extra special to grab my full attention. Crafting a Meaningful Home is such a book. Written by Meg Mateo Ilasco (I’ve blogged about her recent book collaboration with Joy Cho, Creative Inc) with gorgeous photography by Thayer Allyson Gowdy, the book goes beyond the typical craft how-to and really does live up to its title: each of the crafts in the book is made by a different artist or family. Sharing meaningful stories on how culture, family and personal histories inform their crafts and home environment, the book is a very interesting read.

The book arrived at just the right time; Glen and I have been redoing our house: putting down new floors, painting the walls, new furniture and bookshelves… With this clean slate, I am inspired to feature more personal items, crafts and collections. (In the photo above you can see a bit of a lovely crochet blanket that Tif made for Finley, and below the amazing colour combination so-awful-it’s-great throw I bought at Value Village.) With all of the activity and work I have to do, I have not had time to sew or crochet… but I remind myself that am crafting a home in the larger sense: Glen and I are creating a wonderful place for all of us to grow as a family.

The book features many of my favourite creative people: Rae Dunn, Joy Cho, Lauren & Derek from The Curiosity Shoppe, Lorena Siminovich and many other fine crafters. Lisa Congdon is also a contributor and her decoupage plates are featured on the cover. Below is a sweet video of Lisa that Meg shares with us:

Crafting a Meaningful Home – Lisa Congdon from Meg Mateo Ilasco on Vimeo.

The book is available through Rare Device and The Curiosity Shoppe as well as other fine booksellers.

It was 1997, I was 20 years old, wandering around random Milan back streets when I stumbled into a little architecture bookstore and picked up the only book on the front table in english, “Aircraft” by Le Corbusier. Written in 1935, I’d argue there hasn’t been a better book written on design since. It masquerades as a book on emerging aircraft technology but in actuality it is a call to arms for all creatives. Corbu’ is at his quotable best with lines like:

“Reform is in the very essence of things. It lies at the heart of craftsmanship. Revolution is accomplished by the cumulative effect of details.”

“No door is closed. Life goes forward… make nothing academic, never say: that is the end!”

“The schools are run by “professors” (the very definition of a school). The professors teach according to the prescribed programme. The programme is prescribed by authority. Is this authority in touch with life? Occasional only. As life a programme? No, life is explosive.”

“Teaching is only possible in the workshop. Arithmetic and handwriting can be taught in schools. But invention originates in the workshop.”

If that wasn’t enough, it has over 100 beautiful pictures of mid 1930’s aircraft. This is the only item you need to put on your holiday wish list. It’s out of print, so you will pay a premium, but it is worth it. Birch Books has a few copies as does Amazon.

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The Exquisite Book by Julia Rothman, Jenny Volvovski and Matt Lamothe takes the surrealist game of the exquisite corpse and puts a modern spin on it. With 100 artists and illustrators it was an ambitious project of organization, communication and design to create a book in which to present a technically difficult format: a very long accordion fold. To make it manageable, the book is organized into ten sections of ten images each. These five-page accordion pages with images on either side are then bound into the book. I’m sure it was a labour-intensive process to bind the book!

Some of the participating artists include UPPERCASE favourites Camilla Engman, Lisa Congdon, Ray Fenwick, The Heads of State, Sarajo Frieden, Nick Dewar, Lab Partners, Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch, Esther Pearl Watson, Kate Bingaman-Burt, Irina Troitskaya, Calef Brown and Matte Stephens among others. (All these people I’ve just listed have participated in UPPERCASE magazine, our books or gallery shows over the years. Sorry if I’ve missed anyone!)

Although by the very nature of the exquisite corpse game the connections between images can be hit or miss, there are some nice moments between illustrations — particularly when each illustrator is sensitive to the content motifs of what came before their piece. And for those fold outs where the connection from one to the next is lacking, there are plenty of standalone images that are interesting in their own right.

The book is available through Chronicle here. Enter the promo code EXQ to get 25% discount & Free Shipping. Thanks to Patti Quill for inviting me to be part of the book tour. (I got to meet Patti and other members of the Chronicle family when in San Francisco this past summer — you can see some images from inside the headquarters in the current issue 7 of UPPERCASE magazine.)

With different bloggers profiling the book, it is interesting to see how each person connects with the book. Decor8 wants to hang it on her wall. I want to figure out how it was manufactured!

Tour Dates
10/18 Design For Mankind
10/19 My Love for You is a Stampede of Horses
10/20 Creature Comforts
10/21 Oh Joy!
10/22 Pikaland
10/25 Print & Pattern
10/26 ReadyMade
10/28 The Post Family
10/29 Decor8
11/1 UPPERCASE
11/2 Mint
11/3 Grain Edit
11/5 7◊7 Magazine