Best Book Covers 2007

For more see:
http://nytimesbooks.blogspot.com/2007/11/my-favorite-book-covers-of-2007.html
And take the poll at the bottom of the page to vote.

Irma Boom article on The New York Times website.

From the New York Times:
..."Winning prizes is nothing new for Irma Boom. Working with a single assistant in her Amsterdam studio, she is also accustomed to struggling — in one way or another — to make each of her books as inspiring and surprising as possible. Over the years, she has experimented with everything from elaborate color-codes and hidden motifs to scented bindings, printing on filter coffee paper, producing a 2,136-page book with no page numbers or index,

and hacking page edges with a circular saw.

"...

Read the article.



Irma Boom's website.

Creative Time celebrates 33 Years

New York Art organization Creative Time celebrates their 33 years of existence with Creative Time: The Book designed by my heroes over at KarlssonWilker. Check their site out for some graphic design inspiration while you're at it.

Seung Pyo Hong in "And Fork: 100 Designers, 10 Curators, 10 Good Designs"

Check out And Fork: 100 Designers, 10 Curators, 10 Good Designs for fellow Cranbrook alum (3d, 2002) Seung Pyo Hong (3d, 2002). Furthermore, Seung's piece "Masked Citizen X prototype 02" is mentioned in Domus Magazine no. 902 (April issue).

Also see On the Cutting Edge of Design on & Fork at the BusinessWeek website..

At samsungexhibition.com Seung explains:
My name is Seung Pyo Hong, who is an Industrial Designer. I have designed for a car manufacturer, design consulting firms and an online game company. Nowadays I am maintaining my career as a freelance designer specializing in consumer products including electronics. I am also teaching product design at some universities in Seoul.

I would like to describe my characteristics. Basically, I am a very easy-going and laid back person. I love taking photos of people around me (but do not like to be pictured). Sometimes I feel I am a bit anti-social but I never hesitate when it comes to discussing about design issues. My favorite sketch tools are Post-it and Sharpie. At work I always wear indigo blue T-shirts which I refer to as a “school uniform.” I only drink Americano with one packet of Equal and a bit of half and half. I like three-door hatch typed cars, especially VW Golf. I am addicted to watching the movement of heavy equipments like an excavator in huge manufacturing facilities. And, I also like the actor Kevin Bacon.

One thing I have to mention is that I am running a design project group with my partner, Jackson Hong. We have been friends for a long time and studied design discipline together in Seoul and the US. People tell us we are very similar in many ways, but in terms of design perspective, we are the opposite. I mostly play the professional and academic role in the mainstream design industry, but Jackson works for the Korean contemporary art scene. While I work as an industrial designer who mainly thinks of consumer’s satisfaction through market research and design process, Jackson Hong explores unusual desires in the relationship between everyday objects and their users by inventing products with unusual functions ranging from electronic devices to furniture, which mainstream design industries have not given attention to.

Although the direction of our objectives is different, our partnership has always been successful. I guess our characteristic differences have actually made an interesting synergy. Recently, we had a group exhibition named “UPSET” last June at a venue called ONEANDJ Gallery in Seoul. We unveiled some experimental art pieces. Below is one show item called “Masked Citizen X,” an electronic facial prosthetic for anti-social people.


Masked Citizen X 02 Prototype 01 - An anti-communication device 2006 / ABS plastic, Aluminum, Stainless steel / 33 x 79 x 80 (H x W x D Cm)

Since I have a background in design, most of my writings on this blog will handle design issues. As a design commentator, I will analyze the electronic devices on the IFA show in Berlin and interpretate their design stories from a cultural perspective to a more detailed user perspective through my very personal point of view.

American novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., has died at age 84.

[From Voice of America:]

Kurt Vonnegut emerged as one of the most influential and provocative writers in the United States, during the 1960's. His writing was an ongoing protest against what he felt were the horrors of the 20th Century. He wrote of an unending sequence of disastrous wars, the destruction of the environment and the dehumanization of the individual, in a society dominated by science and technology.

Vonnegut's themes were by no means unique to contemporary literature. It was rather the way he expressed his protest that made his works so forceful and popular. Fantasy, science fiction, humor, a keen sense of the absurd, and despair were the ingredients of his satires. In his fantastic tales, he would show the frustrations of average people with their burdens and boredom.

Read the whole article on Voice of America.

CHARLEY HARPER: AN ILLUSTRATED LIFE

The amazing body of work of under-exposed illustrator Charlie Harper finally gets the careful attention that it deserves.

Graphic Design by Kelly Rakowski. (My fabulously talented former intern at MASS MoCA and now designer at Todd Oldham Studio,

Charlie Harper, An Illustrated Life is certainly worth a look.

From the AMMO Books site:
"AMMO Books proudly presents this beautiful large format title as the definitive monograph of artist Charlie Harper’s lyrical illustrations, spanning his six decade long career. Renowned New York based designer Todd Oldham rediscovered Charlie Harper’s work in 2001, and since then has collaborated closely with him, combing through his extensive archive to edit and design this stunning AMMO Books release.

Charley Harper is an American original. At 84, Charley continues to make art in his studio in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. He is beloved for his delightful, graphic and often humorous illustrations of nature, animals, insects and people alike. Charley likes to say, that when he paints a bird, he doesn’t count all the feathers in the wings – he just counts the wings. Minimal realism, he calls it, and his unique and precise style continues to resonate and inspire his admirers.

Charlie Harper - An Illustrated Life, showcases his illustrations that appeared from 1950-1975 in the Ford Times magazines, as well as in books such as the beloved “The Giant Golden Book of Biology” in 1961, “Betty Crocker’s Dinner for Two” in 1961, and “ The Animal Kingdom” in 1968, among many others. His well loved book “Birds and Words”, first published in 1974, is considered a classic. Remarkably, however, Charley’s work has never before been published in one complete retrospective.

Bringing his legacy to a wider audience, AMMO Books offers Charlie Harper, An Illustrated Life a large format standard book, or as a luxurious limited edition.

The Artist's Guide to Making Money

An exciting, decidedly eccentric, relentlessly well-crafted, and not without hope of being lucrative venture — The Artist's Guide series. The Artist's Guide is a topic-driven art journal produced
by Matt Cassity and Sam Spratlin.

This is a book/magazine full of inspiring, self-deprecating, insightful, intelligent and humorous creative discourse. Buy it for the words, buy it for the pictures... or both! Not by a Cranbrook grad, but the team behind "The Artist's Guide" certainly deserve your support for this exciting creative endeavor.