Whether or not MPBooks knew of the pun when creating their Novella Series, these little books really do show off The Art — graphically speaking — of the Novella. Each book contains only three colors (one of them very bright, the other two being black and white), one font (all caps), and no games, these novellas mean what they say and say what they mean. How perfect to select such a straightforward cover for such a (well, compared to the novel) short form. ($9 on Amazon.com or the MPBooks website)
Check out the cool Ameture Photo Gallerys at American Apparel. Each gallery includes photos from a specific place (ie Kosovo, California, Coney Island), and lots of them have that old-school, 80s, Polaroid-y feel (matches the American Apparel grunge-effect). Read the rest of this entry »
Yay for public projects, revealing secrets, hearts pouring over, and letting everyone expose their inner-artist! 1000 Journals is a kind of Public Art Project reminiscent of the ever-popular Postsecret (in the anonymous-traveling-art sense). Here’s what happened: a(n obviously creative) man let 100 empty journals loose on bars, cafes, friends, and family. They were sent out in the world to be filled with words and art for whoever found them — instructions called for the journal to be passed on and then returned to the man who started them. Read the rest of this entry »
The Poetry Foundation, on its well-designed, graphically lovely little web-site, has a handful of free poem posters (“For the Fridge”) that you can download as pdfs and then print and stick anywhere. You will instantly look well-read and graphically astute. (Or, you know, just bookish and weird.) Read the rest of this entry »
Photographer Anthony Goicolea takes a lot of photos. Of himself. Of many of himself. Doing awkward/mean/weird things. Check out his mission statement for his series “You and What Army” (from which the above “Classic Picture” is a part): Read the rest of this entry »
Neenah provides paper for any printing kind of printing fun, and offers lots of free swatch books to play with and dream about. The site also offers free “Classic Crest Identity Libraries” (get one here) which is a little paper case full of reference cards for designers and proof readers (check out the Proof Readers’ Marks card above). They also have cards featuring Fold Types, Binding Types, State Abbreviations and more. What’s fun about this freebie is that it’s useful, well-designed, and printed on very nice paper. Yays!
Pulitzer prize winning novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon is, actually, amazing. That’s beside the present point (but worth mentioning anyway). The “Amazing Website of Kavalier and Clay” documents some of this book’s many amanzing and not-so-amazing covers.
Print Magazine recently featured an article called “Cover Girls” about Young Adult Novel makeovers for each new generation of YA readers. Of course the re-design of YA novels makes lots of sense, since that age group is swiftly changing and very focused on cool. But why does Kavalier & Clay need to be redesigned dozens of times in the last mere eight years? Read the rest of this entry »
