The image above was pulled from the Visual Thesaurus, the first information graphic to blow my mind. I was going to wait a while to follow up on Zara’s post on information graphics, but hey if cable TV can have Shark Week, redblackbrown can have Chart Week.
Great conversation with Beautiful Evidence author and information graphics smarty Edward Tufte, compliments of National Public Radio.
Exhaustive collection of samples that succeed to varying degrees from Smashing Magazine from 2007 and 2008.
Perhaps you guys have seen these? I guess it’s all the rage lately but I am always the last to know. In any case they are gorgeous and worth posting about even with the glut of posts about them on the internet.
For those who weren’t in the know (like me), Penguin is re-releasing classic James Bond novels with new covers done by Michael Gillette and they are stunning.
As my friend who tipped me off to them said, “These books are like collectables.” Indeed. Makes me want the whole set, even if I’m not a huge Bond fan.
(Image by Jim Bradshaw)
Castle Magazine, an illustration pdf mag, recently came out with issue #12. It’s chock full of sweet illustration-y goodness. Worth the download. (In German and English, but really, I just look at the pretty pictures)
Also (according to issue 12) they’re on hiatus this year while they work on some sort of book. So enjoy this issue and check out the back issues because it looks like we’ll be castle-less for awhile.
I’ve been a fan of {ths} for years. His grungy (and sometimes perverse) style has inspired me to rough up my sketchbook covers and embrace the dirty side of life. There’s something very free about his collaged scribbles and the textures he creates with his layering. His gluebooks have always been one of my favorite things he does and now the contents of those books have been collected into an book available for pre-order now.
As soon as I save some pennies this baby is coming home with me.
ever since i saw the balthazar cookbook, i have admired the beautiful typography that mucca design created for it, balthazar restaurant, bakery, wholesale, etc. it is exquisite and evocative of traditional french bistros without feeling prosaic. quite a feat, in my opinion.
(from The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon)
when i was an undergrad and doing a lot of mixed media work, bill gave me one of the most amazing books, The Journey is the Destination: The Journals of Dan Eldon
dan eldon was a mere 22 years old in 1993 when he died at the hands of an angry mob in somalia, where he was working as a photographer for reuters. his journals, filled with paint, photographs, ads and pop culture references, are a beautiful, haunting record of his life and humanitarianism. in short, this book is brilliant and inspiring.
at the end of december, i saw this article in the new york times about an exhibit of eldon’s work and learned that his mother and sister founded creative visions foundation, which provides artists with support so that they can “raise social awareness and catalyze action of social, humanitarian and environmental issues.” what an amazing tribute.
oh, and if you don’t have the book, run out and get it now. it’s that good.
from Zak Smith’s Pictures Showing What Happens on Each Page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow
So I’ve embarked on this silly obsessive quest/project/etc to draw everyday. Ever since I’ve made this known, my friends have been alerting me to other people who did crazy drawing projects like Zak Smith. The artist (and apparently porn star) drew on the same size piece of paper one image that depicted what happened on each page of Thomas Pynchon’s Novel Gravity’s Rainbow. The book
A few more images from the book:
