Very much a work in progress, I’ve been having a bit of fun with The strange case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde thinking about the mirror (a major symbol in the novel) and the layers that conceal and reveal what was always in fact there:
One of the projects I’ve been enjoying working on lately is this cover for ‘On The Road’. I wanted to stay away from the computer for this one and after a bit of research (Pinterest ‘On The Road’ board) I realised I didn’t want to include any literal or obvious references to a road or a car and decided to focus on the idea of the journey instead. I imagine the perfect road trip can only possibly start by dropping pins on an old map and tracing the route with bright red thread so I did exactly that with type:
Final design mock-up with the ‘O’ subtly referencing a wheel and the second ‘O’ and ‘D’ road painted lines:
I love peeking into people’s houses, the way we furnish our private spaces – those only our nearest and dearest have access to – says a lot about our own particular taste. When it comes to interiors I favour the extremes: the bare minimal (I dream of having an empty white room in my future home) and the excess (my bedroom right now). Spanish fashion designer David Delfin falls into the former when it comes to his design work but seems to prefer the ‘more is more’ at home. Following his instagram is a joy, I love the way he mixes design classics with vintage gems. Too much of a good thing can be truly wonderful!
Loved this BBC documentary about the importance of book cover design over the decades. Interesting to see David Pearson discussing the past covers for ’1984′ by George Orwell now he has recently re-designed it for Penguin,
The Beauty of Books: Paperback Writer from The BDB on Vimeo.
☞ Read MoreAnonymous Press (Α–Π) is a publishing platform that allows anyone to publish their own book. After entering a few keywords into the ‘publish’ text box, Α–Π pulls out the content for the 12 page book from a database (Google Image Search) completely at random so every book is unique and generates the form and layout in only 20 seconds. The resulting anonymous book becomes then part of the Press’ online library and a print-on-demand copy is available to purchase for $3. But it goes beyond that. With this project Karolis Kosas takes the concept of authorship and makes it into a playful exercise . As you press the ‘Publish’ button and wait the 20 seconds all the questions about the anonymity of the author, the content generation and what it means to self-publish seem to acquire a fresh new angle and before you can make up your mind – Bang! There it is, you have just published a book:
☞ Read More
Next time someone asks me ‘what is Book Art’ I’ll refer them to this diagram by Clive Phillpot. I went to see him talk at the Whitechapel Gallery as part of a discussion with Antony Hudek of Occasional Papers about his upcoming book ‘Booktrek: Selected Essays on Artists’ Books since 1972′. He gave the audience very interesting (controversial?) definitions of all this apple, lemon and pear business:
- art: Work usually produced by the use of skill and creative imagination.
- book: Set of sheets usually fastened together along one edge and trimmed on the other edges.
- art book: Book of which an artist, or art, is the subject.
- artist book: Book of which an artist is the author.
- artist’s book: Book belonging to an artist.
- book object: Artwork that only alludes to the book form, or, a bok rendered unusable as part of an artwork.
- book arts: Crafts utilised in the making of books.
- book art: Artworks that utilise books or the book form.
- bookwork: Artwork dependent upon the structure of the book, or, a book that supports or cotains an artwork.
A bit of a cheeky play with On the road by Jack Kerouac. The novel was first published in 1957, the same year Margaret Calvert and Jock Kinneir were asked to re-design the whole road sign system in the UK. They created a new typeface for it: ‘Transport’ and improved the way we travel and live through simple, effective design.