Beginning with key Chinese characters—which the book refers to as building blocks—author ShaoLan Hsueh and artist Noma Bar have made a memorable guide, as helpful as it is pretty,…
Continue Reading…
Our February issue is an illustration special including our pick of this year’s Pick Me Up artists (the work of one of whom, Carine Brancowitz, features on our cover), BBH’s Mark Reddy on illustration in advertising plus what an agent can do for you. And: designing sounds for cars, the future of news and what we can all learn from the marvellous Mr Paul Smith
The February issue of Creative Review is available to buy direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe to make sure that you never miss out on a copy – you’ll save money, too. Details here.
February’s focus on illustration kicks off with a discussion with four leading illustrators’ agents on the state of the industry, how illustrators can develop their career and what agents look for in new talent
Then we profile four up-and-coming illustrators from those selected to exhibit at this year’s Pick Me Up graphic art fair
And BBH head of art Mark Reddy reveals why illustration can sometimes be a hard sell to advertising clients and the advantages it can bring when done well
Too busy to keep up with everything online? Our new Month in Review section brings together all the main creative talking points and our pick of work from the previous four weeks along with your favourite columnists
Plus, amazing ‘pareidolic’ (look it up!) imagery from Graham Fink’s show at the Riflemaker gallery
Five things our columnist Gordon Comstock learned from his former employer Paul Smith, a master of branding
What should an electric car sound like and what effect will that have on our cities? We report on the efforts of a group of designers to re-engineer the sounds of our streets
France is to have its first ever festival of graphic design – will it help improve the standing of the industry?
US adman Gerry Graf (creator of the genius Skittles campaign) shares his tips on creative success
How much do we need to know about designers’ personal lives? Rick Poynor argues that an exhaustve new study of the ‘multi-active’ Dutch master Jurriaan Schrofer takes the design monograph to a whole new level of biographical detail
While Andy Cowles reviews Francesco Franchi’s timely examination of the future of editorial design, Designing News
And our Monograph this month documents the extraordinary graffiti-covered Magasins Généraux building in Paris, soon to become the new home of ad agency BETC
The February issue of Creative Review is available to buy direct from us here. Better yet, subscribe to make sure that you never miss out on a copy – you’ll save money, too. Details here.
“I’ve always remembered Where the Wild Things Are so clearly, which isn’t the case with most other children’s books. Wild Things was a favorite from the start. I remember looking at the images a lot and really studying [Maurice Sendak‘s] crosshatching at a young age—and even attempting to draw like him on my own. This was probably kindergarten, and so he was an early influence. All of the fantastic creatures—and especially the monsters…have such character and personality, and it’s so great that they’re not evil monsters but more co-conspirators. Maybe Maurice got me started on monsters and beasts, which pop in my work a lot, too.”
-Artist Marcel Dzama, in an interview with Spike Jonze that appears in Marcel Dzama: Sower of Discord, the sublime new monograph from Abrams
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
A lot has changed online since the literary world’s beloved Dave Eggers began McSweeney’s Internet Tendency 15 years ago. With the current digital climate plagued by frivolous cat videos and impulsive Twitter comments, finding intellectually entertaining…
Continue Reading…
While his spherical characters are perhaps the most simple to execute on paper, James Jarvis‘ first book of their philosophising tackles some of the more complex questions in life…
During 2011, Jarvis managed to produce a single lino-print featuring his new sphere-shaped creations every week, selling the work via a blog and exhibiting the series at Beach London the following year.
At Typo London 2012 he also presented a personal A to Z, drawn live on stage, which touched on his own interest in philosophy – not to mention other favourites such as Conan the Barbarian and doom metal.
That same year Jarvis increased his spherical output to a drawing a day and added his philosophical streak on to the page. Now all 365 of these strips have been reproduced in Spheric Dialogues, which has just been published by Swiss press Nieves.
Nietzsche, Wittgenstein, Aristotle, Kant and even Conan feature. And there’s plenty of existential swearing.
As a toy designer, Jarvis has said that his work is often constrained by production methods; working on exact plans for the toy’s design, adhering to tighter structures. But with the spheres, his drawing style can be much looser.
And much of the artwork Jarvis produced with his previous company, Amos, dealt in reduction, too. His characters were formed from simple lines and his drawing process often involved honing objects down in an attempt to capture the ‘essence’ of something on paper.
So perhaps it’s no surprise that his latest book should concern the existential thought of a group of shapes – they are his most reductive characters, but in Spheric Dialogues, also perhaps his most thoughtful. (OK, thoughtful and prone to occasional violence.)
It’s a rougher approach to drawing that Jarvis has been experimenting with since the publication of his first illustrated storybook, Vortigern’s Machine, which he produced with Russell Waterman in 2006. It’s drawing in a “free and unaffected” way, as he told Dazed and Confused magazine prior to the original show of sphere prints.
Philosophy has always found a home in the cartoon and comic strip, from George Herriman’s Krazy Kat to Charles Schulz’s Peanuts. In just a few panels character’s can question the meaning of life itself and, of course, the existence of their own artist-creator.
In Jarvis’ new book, the spheres get their heads around art, death, being and reality. Well, they are largely all ‘head’ after all.
Spheric Dialogues is published by Nieves ($28), and available from nieves.ch. An exhibition of work from the book is currently showing at colette in Paris (more here), with prints of the work for sale too. James Jarvis’ website is studiojarvis.com.
Ad creatives Jason Bramley, Jonny Biggins and Steve Hanson have launched a website selling personalised books that combine randomly generated trivia with artwork from leading illustrators.
The Book of Everyone offers 50-page digital, paper or hardback books. Customers are asked to enter the name and date of birth of the person they’d like to make a book for, followed by their own name, and a preview is ready to view in around thirty seconds. Users can then edit some pages further, choosing subjects the recipient is most likely think about or super powers that would best suit their personality.
The finished result is a collection of weird and fascinating facts illustrated by creatives including Brosmind, Jean Julien, Malike Favre, MVM, Ian Stevenson and Supermundane.
Trivia includes the likely weight of all the food you’ve consumed in your life time or how many heart beats you’ve experienced, as well as the usual list of chart hits, popular TV shows and world leaders on the day/year/month you were born. Stats in each book are generated using a custom database that contains more than 130,000 scenarios and took developers Hugh Williams and Dan Evans-Jones two years to make.
Of course, personalised books are nothing new but Biggins, Bramley and Hanson felt there was still a gap in the market, which is why they decided to launch the business in 2012.
“We decided to build a technology platform that could create a beautiful personalised book around anyone in a few seconds…something that was well written rather than skimming off the web and tha used a great roster of designers and illustrators to make every page. We wanted every book to feel upbeat and celebratory, with lots of little curious facts and weird witticisms to keep you leafing through,” say Hanson and Biggins.
To celebrate its launch, The Book of Everyone is hosting an exhibition at KK Outlet featuring work from contributing illustrators and a collection of sample books. Biggins and Hanson also say they are interested in launching greetings cards and merchandising but have no fixed plans just yet.
“It’s a great opportunity to work with lots of different styles and work with loads of great artists, [and] we really encourage the collaborators to have fun and make their own interpretation of the assignment,” say the pair.
Supermundane, you can store 1,000 terabytes of memories in your head.
As it’s all compiled digitally, The Book of Everyone lacks a certain hand-crafted appeal but the custom platform makes ordering one quick and simple. Each copy includes some excellent illustrations and Biggins and Hanson say they will be commissioning new work on a regular basis.
“We really want to work with all the illustrators again, while at the same time adding adding to the list of great people that we work with. The nature of The Book of Everyone means that we are always looking for new contributors,” they add.
Malika Favre
Jean Julien – the word eco terrorist was added to the diction
Patrick Kyle, the Gameboy was the biggest selling toy in 1989
The Book of Everyone launch takes place at KK Outlet, London N1 6PB on Thursday January 30. For details see thebookofeveryone.co
There can be a little (or a lot) of anxiety around ordering wine at a restaurant or even serving it at home. It’s one of the most refined alcohol cultures and there is always something else to learn—about pairing, temperature, aging and so…
Continue Reading…
For WW Norton’s new translation of Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis, book cover designer Jamie Keenan reworked an old Italian typeface to form the shape of the ‘transformation’ itself. For the second in our series examining the design process behind a single cover or series, we talk to Keenan about how he made it…
New York-based publishers WW Norton’s edition of Kafka’s classic tale is in a new translation by Susan Bernofsky and features an introduction by film director David Cronenberg. The famous story concerns travelling salesman Gregor Samsa who wakes one morning to find himself transformed into an insect. Norton’s art director Albert Tang approached British designer Keenan with the cover commission.
According to Tang his requirement was simply for “something really cool, hip and [that] stands out among the numerous other copies out there.”
“Generally with book covers you’re attempting to sell a story, mood, style, idea and everything else to someone who knows little or nothing about the book at all,” says Keenan. “The cover is like a corporate identity that has to convey everything about the book in a couple of seconds. Which is why, when just about any book becomes successful, it’s not unusual to see covers on other books appear that imitate the feel of that original to grab the attention of people who have become familiar with its visual language.”
Working on the cover of a classic presents the designer with a slightly different challenge. “The need for the cover to communicate everything about the book is no longer so important,” he says.
“You can rely on people’s existing knowledge of the book and use (or even abuse) that knowledge in some way. Also, once a classic is no longer under copyright, you can buy a few different versions of it – the cheapest version of Metamorphosis on Amazon is just £1.70, so you have to attempt to give people some reason to buy your version.”
For the design of the cover, Keenan says he quickly decided upon “the idea of turning the title of The Metamorphosis into the cover image – and I knew I wanted to get across that shiny black quality that beetles have and that weirdo, fiddly, twitchy thing that a lot creepy crawly things have, too.
“This attempt to get across the feeling of ‘fiddlyness’ led to me finding a scan of an old Italian typeface that instantly conveyed that quality and also had enough solid sections for the shiny black part of the equation,” says Keenan. “Fairly quickly a combination of this typeface and some legs donated by an image of a stag beetle produced the cover that pretty much ended up on the final thing.”
Most of the letters that Keenan used on the final cover have been tweaked in some way – curlicues are moved to a different part of the letter, or removed altogether – though the ‘S’ remains as it was in the original font, with the addition of a beetle leg.
The really clever part of the design, however, is how Keenan has balanced the letters in order to create the beetle shape. The ‘M’ forms a symmetrical head; the first ‘O’ helps to form the centre of the body, with other letters flanking it for limbs; while the ‘SIS’ formation neatly closes off the end of the shape.
“The secondary font is much straighter with just a hint of the Gothic about it, while being straight enough to ensure it doesn’t fight for attention,” adds Keenan of the type used to display the rest of the text on the cover. “And the finished version is embossed and uses a gloss to give the beetle a bit of added shine.”
Early version of the cover with different secondary type and less prominence to Kafka’s name
When presented with the first draft of the cover last year, Tang was more than satisfied that the idea would work, as this amusing email exchange between him and Keenan reveals (reading from the bottom).
The Metamorphosis is published this month by WW Norton; $10.95. More of Keenan’s work is at keenandesign.com.
News: US publisher Riverhead has collaborated with 3D-printing firm MakerBot to create the first printed book sleeve.
A desktop MakerBot Replicator 2 was used to print the slipcase for Korean-American writer Chang-rae Lee’s futuristic novel On Such a Full Sea, released on 7 January.
“We think the 3D-printed slipcase for On Such a Full Sea is a work of art, and one we are very proud to have helped create,” said MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis.
The case was designed by Riverhead art director Helen Yentus and members of MakerBot’s in-house design team.
The title lettering is extruded and stretched across the white printed sleeve, as a continuation of the flat writing on the yellow hardback tucked underneath.
“What I like about this project is that it re-introduces the idea of the book as an art object,” said Lee. “Content is what’s most important, but this [3D edition] is a book with a physical presence too.”
The technology was used as an experimental proposal for the future of books covers, which the designer says are becoming less significant as digital books are more widely read.
“We’ve talked a lot about what’s going to happen to books and cover designers if covers aren’t necessarily going to be the focus anymore,” said Yentis in a film about the book. “We’re looking for new ways to present our books.”
Only 200 copies have been produced with the printed covers, each signed by the author. These limited editions are on sale for $150 (£91) and the book is also available with an alternative hardback cover, as well as an electronic version.
When Dezeen spoke to Pettis in 2012, he told us that cheap 3D printers mean manufacturing can again take place at home – read the full interview here.
More information from the publishers follows:
3D-printed slipcase for hardcover of Lee’s latest novel On Such a Full Sea
In an unprecedented and innovative format, award-winning and Pulitzer Prize–nominated author Chang-rae Lee debuts his new novel, On Such a Full Sea, with a first-of-its-kind 3D printed slipcase, printed on a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer.
This highly anticipated new novel, set in a dystopian future America, comes as a signed limited edition hardcover with a custom 3D printed slipcase, designed by Helen Yentus and MakerBot. Only 200 of the 3D printed slipcases will be sold.
“What I like about this project is that it re-introduces the idea of the book as an art object,” said Lee. “Content is what’s most important, but this [3D edition] is a book with a physical presence, too. Of course I hope what’s inside is kinetic, but the physical thing isn’t normally meant to be. This edition feels as if it’s kinetic, that it has some real movement to it. It’s quite elegant as well.”
In talking about the 3D printed slipcase that was made on a MakerBot, Lee noted, “It’s all about changing the familiar. That’s ultimately what all art is about. That’s what we all do as writers.”
Though it won’t be released until January, On Such a Full Sea has been lauded and highlighted in all of its early reviews: “An astonishing feat of encapsulated genius from the inimitable Lee… Brilliant… A heart-thumping adventure,” said Library Journal. Booklist said On Such a Full Sea is “Always entrancing and delving…. Takes a truly radical leap in this wrenching yet poetic, philosophical, even mystical speculative odyssey…. Electrifying.” And Kirkus described the novel as “a harrowing and fully imagined version of dystopian America… Welcome and surprising proof that there’s plenty of life in end-of-the-world storytelling.”
Chang-rae Lee is a deeply influential writer who tells stories about race, class and immigrant life in America. He has built a dazzling reputation as “a spellbinder” (Hartford Courant), “a master craftsman” (Washington Post), and “an original: (Los Angeles Times), and has been honoured with top prizes, including a PEN/Hemingway Award, Dayton Literary Peace Prize, and Asian American Literary Award; been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize; nominated for the Neustadt International Prize for Literature; and selected for the New Yorker’s “20 Writers for the 21st Century” list.
“We are honoured to work with Chang-rae Lee and Riverhead Books,” noted Bre Pettis, CEO of MakerBot. “We think the 3D printed slipcase for On Such a Full Sea is a work of art, and one we are very proud to have helped create.”
On Such a Full Sea is a bold and thrilling departure from Lee’s previous novels. In On Such a Full Sea, Lee has turned his acute eye toward the future of America. The story takes place in a chilling dystopia, a century or so beyond the present, where abandoned post-industrial cities like Baltimore have been converted into forced labor colonies and populated with immigrant workers. China is a distant, mythical memory. Environmental catastrophes have laid waste to much of the world, a cancer-like disease has infected the entire population, and stratification by class and race is more pronounced and horrific than ever. The fate of the world may lay in the hands of one tiny, nervy girl named Fan, an enigmatic and beautiful fish-tank diver who jolts the labor colony by running away.
Epic in scope, masterful in execution, and page-turning right to the shocking end, On Such a Full Sea fires on many levels: it is simultaneously a heart-stopping survival adventure across the wasteland of a wrecked continent; a deeply moving story of a girl’s first love; and a searing, frightening commentary on where America may be headed if we don’t strive to do better. The Boston Globe writes that Lee “asks the crucial and abiding question: How do we live a kind and decent life in this woeful world?” On Such a Full Sea imagines a future in which that question is more urgent than ever, and challenges us to ask what we need to change today.
Chang-rae Lee is the author of Native Speaker, winner of the Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for first fiction; A Gesture Life; Aloft; and The Surrendered, winner of the Dayton Peace Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Selected by The New Yorker as one of the “20 Writers for the 21st Century,” Lee is professor in the Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton University and a Shinhan Distinguished Visiting Professor at Yonsei University.
The post “First 3D-printed book cover”
created with a MakerBot appeared first on Dezeen.
Still Procrastinating: The No Regrets Guide to Getting It Done is a book that explains, in an easy-to-read format, the results of the past 20 years of scientific studies on procrastination and procrastinators.
The book defines procrastination as “the purposive delay of the starting or completing a task to the point of subjective discomfort.” More simply, procrastinators voluntarily do not work on important tasks and feel bad or uncomfortable about their delays because they know that this course of action will have negative effects in the future.
Studies cited in the book indicate that although everyone procrastinates about a few things, approximately 20 per cent of adult men and women are chronic procrastinators — they procrastinate habitually in many different areas of their lives. The studies also show that procrastination is a learned behaviour. If people understand why they procrastinate, they can get the support they need and develop strategies to help them learn new behaviours.
There are several types of procrastinators identified in the book.
Thrill-Seekers: These procrastinators claim they do better under pressure, when they feel the deadline is looming. Scientific studies show that these types of people are easily bored and the adrenaline rush of completing the task just before the deadline is a thrill they enjoy. What the studies also show is that even those these types of procrastinators believe they produce better results at the last minute, in reality they make more errors and do not complete all of the task’s components thoroughly.
Indecisives: These types of procrastinators delay making a decision until a choice is made for them. For example, they may wish to purchase tickets for the symphony but they can’t decide which night to attend and they delay so long that there are no tickets available. Studies show that Indecisives may have grown up in situations that did not allow them to acquire good decision-making skills.
Self-Saboteurs: These procrastinators intentionally place obstacles in their paths to prevent successful performance of a task. In this way they can blame external factors, such as not having enough time, to mask their anxiety and self-doubt. However, if this type of procrastinator completes the task successfully despite the obstacle, he/she will protect his/her self-esteem. Many of these self-saboteurs have low self-control. They are unable to delay their need for instant gratification and focus on the task at hand. They do not often reward themselves for a job well done and instead enjoy the “fun stuff” before they get their work done.
Perfectionists: Perfectionist procrastinators maintain impossibly high standards. They delay starting or finishing a task because being perfect is not realistically achievable. These types of procrastinators have a strong desire to be liked by others and show how hard they are working. They often justify their procrastination by saying delays will result in a better quality of work but this is not usually the case.
Regardless of the type of procrastinator with which people identify, Dr. Ferrari is optimistic about procrastinators changing their habits and behaviours. He suggests starting with small changes and gradually progressing. He indicates that getting organized is “Your Secret Weapon in Task Completion.” Do any of these four types of procrastination ring true with you or are you someone who only occasionally puts off tasks?
Professional organizers can certainly help procrastinators in their efforts to become non-procrastinators by helping them declutter, minimize distractions, and improve their time and task management skills. Sometimes consulting a mental health professional such as a cognitive behavioural therapist, may be helpful. Seeking support from family and friends who are non-procrastinators is advisable. These are the people that care for you and will hold you accountable for your changes in behaviour. Checking in daily with an accountability partner or having someone hangout with you as you work on a project at home (like cleaning out your closet) can be beneficial.
Dr. Ferrari states that procrastination is more than just having poor time management skills. Procrastination is an ineffective strategy to cope with the challenges of everyday life. By focusing on the positive aspects of your life and taking action, you can become less stressed and more productive.
Let Unclutterer help you get your home or office organized. Subscribe to our helpful product shipments from Quarterly today.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
