Hasta La Ideas

The Elegant Cockroach artwork will be on display at Collage Collage in Vancouver opening this Thursday!

The UPPERCASE Book Bundle is a great Christmas gift!

Receive four beautiful and unique books over the course of the next few months.

The bundle begins right away with recently published The Elegant Cockroach, a beautifully illustrated tale of a stylish creature living in the big city. For booklovers (and lovers) it is a romantic story of love, longing and six legs. The book is hardcover with black cloth and copper foil title with a full colour jacket and black endpapers. Here’s a look at a sample image from inside the book. (See a short book trailer film here.)

The Elegant Cockroach is followed by Work/Life 2: the UPPERCASE directory of illustration (international edition) to be published in February. Nearly 100 illustrators from around the globe are profiled, with peeks into their studios, sketchbooks and personal lives. You can take a look at the first edition of Work/Life to get a sense of the content and design of the next edition. (Limited numbers of the first edition are still available.)

Cover illustration by Alyssa Nassner

image by Andrea D’Aquinoimage by Juliana Salcedoimage by Blanca Gómez

Then in March, we send you A Collection a Day by Lisa Congdon. I am REALLY excited about this one. Throughout 2010, Lisa has been posting an image of one of her collections every day. It is an amazing project full of incredible objects and visual inspirations. It has existed as a blog for the year, but we are turning the project into something you can hold in your hands: a small but hefty 6.5″ x 4.5″ tome with over 400 pages at about 1.25″ thick. The book itself will be packaged inside a collectible tin, in which you can store your small collections and precious treasures. The tin design is in progress and I’ll be sharing it with you soon. When purchased as part of the Book Bundle or preorders, the special tin is included at no extra charge.

In June, we send you the icing on top of the cake: The Suitcase Series Volume 2: Dottie Angel. Tif Fussell is a prolific crafter and blogger. I’ve prepared a short film to introduce you to Tif and her alter ego Dottie Angel, but we will have to wait a few more weeks before it makes a very special premiere. The book will be around 192 pages full of Dottie wisdom, craft how-tos, anecdotes and ramblings, pretty pictures and ponderings… The design details are still in progress, but the book will include some very special touches such as actual sewing on the cover and the inclusion of vintage fabric swatches! When purchased as part of the Book Bundle or preorders, you will receive some special extra goodies with the book. (The first book in the series was about Camilla Engman; take a look here.)

All of these amazing books will be sent to you or your recipient as they are published—The Elegant Cockroach will be sent out now so there will be something to unwrap under the tree. We can also email a Christmas e-card to your recipient to let them know what they’ll be receiving in the coming months.

The bundle is just $100 and you will save off the total cover prices plus get the special extras. You also save on shipping costs by purchasing the bundle rather than each book individually. To order the bundle, please click right here.

Do you want the UPPERCASE Book Bundle for Christmas? Let your Santa know by sending him this link: http://tinyurl.com/2vsr7nd

The Elegant Cockroach is a just-back-from-the-printer book that I had the pleasure of art directing and publishing. I fondly describe it as “a storybook for whimsical adults and sophisticated children.” Written and co-art directed by Deidre Anne Martin, the book tells the tale of an elegant cockroach living on his own in the big city. Although there’s always lots to keep him occupied — learning Spanish guitar, sitting in coffeeshops, going for walks and reading fine literature — the cockroach is out of place and out of sorts. He seems to be the only one of his kind and longs for love.

With collage illustrations by New York-based artist Stefanie Augustine, the Elegant Cockroach is a dapper and charming fellow living in a grey metropolis. Designing such a character and setting the scene was a challenge: how do you make an insect an appealing and sympathetic creature? How do you make what is perceived as a pest into the romantic lead? Deidre set the tone with this description: “It’s Charlotte’s Web meets The Elephant Man; Aesop’s Fables crossed with The Magnificent Ambersons; one part Tim Burton, two parts Leonard Cohen.” Stefanie deftly used scraps of paper to piece together a cockroach with heart and style.

Further inspired by black and white cinema, New York in the 1940s, newspapers and classic literature, the book design is simple yet dramatic. The typography is set to enhance the nuances of the text and subtly shape the reader’s experience of the written word.

The process of creating this book was very collaborative, with each of us bringing our sensibilities and talents into the mix. “Writing the story was only the beginning,” says Deidre. “I had to walk around with it in my back pocket for what seemed an eternity until I came across just the right people to help me turn it into a real book.”

(The book is available in our online shop and is also part of the Book Bundle that includes A Collection a Day by Lisa Congdon, The Suitcase Series Volume 2: Dottie Angel, and Work/Life 2.)

Tonight we celebrate the publication of The Elegant Cockroach by Deidre Anne Martin with illustrations by Stefanie Augustine. Friends and family are welcome to join us from 5-7pm and then it is open to the public from 7-9pm. Deidre would be happy to sign your book and Stefanie’s original collages are for sale. Please come by!

We’re in downtown Calgary, upper level of Art Central which is at the corner of 7th ave SW and Centre Street. Conveniently located along the c-train route and kitty corner from the Hyatt Hotel.

Above are images of Stefanie’s illustration work in progress.

The book is hardcover with black fabric and a copper foil beneath the illustrated slipjacket. Matte black endpapers with silky cream paper. Very elegant!