finally! i’ve been drooling over the penguin classic cloth bound books for pretty much ever. and now they have finally been released in the states! design sponge has a lovely interview with coralie bickford-smith about the project here.
so mom (or bill), if you’re reading this, feel free to pick up a few holiday gifts for me. i would be thrilled to have beautiful versions of pride and prejudice, sense and sensibility and cranford, if you’re so inclined. and jane eyre too, but i’m having trouble getting that link to work.
Scott Thomas the design director of the Obama campaign (and also of Post Family fame) is releasing a book that collects art inspired by Obama’s presidential campaign. Like the Obama campaign, Scott is financing the publishing of the book with the help of micro-donations. They are currently a little less than half-way to their goal of $65,000 (which is the minimum they need to publish the book). You can read more about the book and why they’ve chosen to publish it this way on the book’s website, Designing Obama.
In addition to this being a beautifully designed book, I can’t help but be excited about it because if you look at the very bottom of the artist list you’ll see my name. To be included in a book about such a historical event and be surrounded by so many amazing artists, is pretty surreal. I feel quite honored.
pretty things (on the bookshelf)
since bill has been working his way through the aubrey / maturin novels, over the weekend i decided to start in on some napoleonic naval books of my own, specifically the horation hornblower series.
i was thrilled to see that the covers of the newest editions feature illustrations by douglas smith, whose work i have admired since reading wicked so many years ago (though the latest edition has another great cover, it is no longer smith’s, which is below). i have to admit that i’ve actually read a number of books based solely on the fact that he’s done the covers… and since i’m only on the third book of the series (hornblower and the hotspur, which is fantastic, by the way), it’s good to know that i’ve got eight more lovely covers to look froward to.
Check out this awesome new site which is dedicated to collecting beautifully designed book covers. Yum.
Who doesn’t love pop-up books? This one blows my mind with so many clever moves to illustrate the entire alphabet. Thanks to the illustrious Lee Hanson for making me aware of it.
All I can say is, wow. Sam Ita makes amazing pop-up books. If you’ve never seen one in person, you should. They are awesome.
(His books: Moby-Dick
One of the design blogs I frequent, Noisy Decent Graphics, is posting visitor-written book reports for design related summer reading. This page from The Story of Graphic Design in France by Michel Wlassikoff put me in pricecheck mode.