Hasta La Ideas

Despite a painful wrestle with the back end of the then brand spanking new CR website and blog with my Some Nice Publications post back in May – I thought I’d do another round up of nice publications…

If you read the original post, you will have seen images of issue one of Nobrow magazine. Now the Nobrow Small Press has completed its very first screenprinted edition, The Bento Bestiary, which features illustration by Ben Newman and words by Scott James Donaldson. The book, hand screenprinted in three colours in a strictly limited edition of 100, recounts “the habits and whims of a ghastly group of ghosts and ghouls from ancient Japanese legend,” according to the blurb about it on the Nobrow website. Here are some pics:

Actually, I was in the Nobrow studio when the final black colour was going on the pages – CR subscribers can have a look at the footage (in two parts) I took while I was visiting by clicking through to the CR TV section on the site

Floor To Wall: Plastic People Flyers 1988-2003 is a fairly self-explanatory title. This little book collects and celebrates the artwork created by designer Ali Augur for London club Plastic People over a five year period – with a foreword by DJ writer and producer Charlie Dark. Many of Augur’s flyers for various nights held at the were collectible because he introduced illustrative themes – such as his hand drawn images of famous London tower blocks and which appeared on flyers for Balance – or the patterned flyers for the same night that, were inspired by the upholstery found on the seating on the different London Underground train lines.

Augur self published the book using Blurb and it’s great to see this collection of disposable print ephemera celebrated like this.

This has the appearance of a brochure but actually, The Master builder: Talking with Ken Briggs is a celebratory look at the posters created by designer Ken Briggs for The National Theatre from the mid sixties through to the early seventies. As well as showing a selection of Briggs’ posters and programmes from, the booklet features an interview with the designer conducted by Sara De Bondt and Fraser Muggeridge earlier this year.

The accompanying letter that came with the booklet explains that The Master Builder “is the first publication by Occasional Papers, a new, London-based publisher specialising in low-budget, content high books on graphic design and contemporary art.”

Forthcoming titles from this new publishing venture include The Form of the Book book, an A5, 96 page volume which will feature transcripts of a one-day symposium on book design held at St Bride Library with contributions by Richard Hollis, James Goggin, Mevis & van Deursen and more.

I’d never heard of Wooooo until last week when Wooooo issue 6 landed on my desk. It’s a magazine but in a book format stuffed full of  interviews with a host of different young go-getting cool types, such as model Agyness Deyn, photographers Jaimie Warren and Philip Lorca Dicorcia, editor Christopher Bollen and comedian Zach Galifianakis – to name a few. Really like the use of yellow ink as well as the black throughout.

Ah, a music release nestling here in a Nice Publications post… Hopefully we’ll see more and more of this kind of thing as record labels look to furnish music fans with lovingly conceived and produced packages for their offerings… 

This particular release is Mika’s Songs For Sorrow EP released on Casablanca Records which comes in the form of a hardback book with song lyrics and pages of illustration which bring to life the lyrics of each song – created by a host of artists and illustrators that include Peter Blake, Da Wack, David McKee, Jim Woodring, Richard Hogg, Huck Scarry and Sophie Blackall to name just a few… The actual CD is housed in a sleeve tipped on to the inside back cover.

Mika is credited with the concept and art direction of the package with design and layout credited to Alex Hutchinson. Additional design and layout: Richard Hogg and DaWack.

You may recall that last week, in the throes of our summer-long case of Frank Lloyd Wright fever, we alluded to Gloria Vanderbilt‘s new novel, Obsession (Ecco), the tale of a Wright-like architect and his steamy life away from the drawing board. Aside from the Wright angle (and Frank himself detested nothing more) of the “erotic tale,” we detected a distinct mastery in the book’s cover, and we can now confirm that yup, it’s a Kidd! Graphic designer, writer, and budding rock star Chip Kidd designed the stunning cover and elegant interiors of Obsession, creating a cool foil for the hot plot that Joyce Carol Oates described as “a remarkable tapestry of human passion.” Interestingly, the mannequin heads, photographed by Geoff Spear, are from Vanderbilt’s own collection—and yet they could totally pass for the haughty aunts of the moonfaced Eishi Takaoka sculpture on the Kidd-designed cover of Kafka on the Shore! Read on for the first page of Obsession.

continued…

We’ve been really impressed with The Monacelli Press lately, who seem to be tearing it up an extra few notches since being purchased by Random House early last year. We were fortunate enough to get a sneak peek this past weekend of one of their upcoming books, Per Olaf Fjeld‘s Sverre Fehn: The Pattern of Thoughts (which comes out for public consumption tomorrow). It’s filled with interviews, sketches, and some amazing photos of the Pritzker Prize winning architect’s creations — we were particularly smitten, about halfway through the book, with his work on the Terra Cotta Soldiers exhibit in a museum in Norway, which looked perhaps even more impressive than our seeing them recently on their home turf in Xi’an, China. There’s also a pretty great sketch of a semi-nude Le Corbusier, which we enjoyed for some reason (we still haven’t figured out why). In short: it’s a wonderful, very complete tribute to a great architect and interesting person written by a devoted admirer. If you’re a fan, it’s well worth your time. Here’s a bit:

This study of Fehn’s work provides an intimate glimpse into the world of this great postwar modernist. Author Per Olaf Fjeld presents both biography and perceptive critique as he covers all of Fehn’s major projects, built and unbuilt, from world-renowned museums to lesser-known houses. Never-before-published comments by Fehn from lectures, interviews, and conversations with students as well as dynamic sketches are featured, opening a window into the mind of this poetic and personal architect.

Christopher Simmons, writer, professor, former AIGA chapter president, and principle at the San Francisco-based design firm, MINE, was kind enough to drop us a line letting us know about a nifty project he’s in the thick of right now: writing a book. Tentatively titled The Good Design Book, it will be published by HOW next year and will focus on, as the title implies, using design in positive ways, things that make the world better for one. All the better is that Simmons has decided to launch a blog about the whole book writing and designing process from start to finish. It’s still early, so there aren’t a ton of posts yet, but it seems like a great thing to keep bookmarked and check in each Friday for the regular, scheduled weekly update. Also, Christopher let us know that he’s currently on the hunt for examples to use in the book, work to show of that he can highlight as good design. “It’s not a competition, there’s no cost to submit work,” he says. “We’re simply looking for the most compelling examples of good design that also does good.” Have something that fits that bill? Here’s your chance to get included in a new book, so as to show your parents and make them proud of you.

Dezeen have teamed up with Anneloes van Gaalen, author of the new book Never Use White Type on a Black Background and 50 other Ridiculous Design Rules, to offer our readers the chance to win five copies. (more…)