That's too bad
Sendak in Asia is potentially a very cool book. Why in the world did Oak Knoll do that to the cover?
Posted by , Friday, October 31, 2003, at 6:04 PM.
Posted to Book design
Edward Gorey book design
Great covers by late artist Edward Gorey.
via Stephen Coles.
Posted by , Friday, October 31, 2003, at 11:38 AM.
Posted to Book design
Amazon.com's text mining + 1 week
Vernica feels the need to atone for her Amazon.com related sins while Pub Weekly reports:
As publishers continue to question Amazon’s Search Inside the Book, the retailer today has a simple answer: it increases sales.
The company has released a statement saying that sales growth for titles in the program “outpaced growth for titles not in the program by 9 percent.”
The retailer sought to head off any undermining of the survey by adding, “This is a large, statistically significant sample (120,000 titles) with a large valid control group, consisting of the remaining titles that do not have Search Inside treatment” and a comment from Jeff Bezos saying that “Search Inside the Book is driving increased sales.”
Why isn’t Booksense coming up with these ideas??
Posted by , Friday, October 31, 2003, at 11:27 AM.
Posted to Book sellers
Hey—Why are you dressed like it's Halloween?
I will be assembling a costume fairly quickly today, so that I can go see the madness of the East Village Halloween parade. Two years ago they had some wonderful stuff: a Dune homage, where college students in rubber suits “rode” a sandworm, a big metal praying mantis that become flustered and tried to fly away, and a lot of Star Wars devotees. I think my costume is going to be a Young Monk Covered in Asps, but we’ll see how many asps I can acquire by the end of the day.
So what are YOU dressing up as?
Posted by , Friday, October 31, 2003, at 9:28 AM.
Posted to Whatever
Reflections on Children's Lit
Nursing a baby in the middle of the night (sometimes a few times a night), in a dark room lends for plenty of thinking. Last night I got thinking about children’s book, after having read Madeline (a gift from godmother Jamie Roberts) to Bailey earlier in the day. And that led me to do a little research on children’s literature in general, where I came across this cool book by Alison Lurie, Boys and Girls Forever: Reflections on Children’s Classics . Not only did it get me thinking about what life lessons I’ve gleaned from the books of my childhood, but it got me focused on the lessons I want to pass on to future generations, namely Bailey. Food for thought…
Oh, and although I’m no book designer, I do like this cover!
Posted by , Thursday, October 30, 2003, at 3:06 AM.
Posted to Books
Bibliography Week
Cool librarian and archivist Vernica Downey has the scoop on New York’s Bibliography Week in January.
Events include lectures and book art/design exhibits throughout the city. In addition, Grolier Club’s 120th Annual Meeting and Dinner will be held on Thursday, January 22nd.
Posted by , Wednesday, October 29, 2003, at 6:36 PM.
Posted to Book people
Put Panther Back in The Cage
Maybe naming it after a big cat was appropos after all. In keeping with the Siegried and Roy snafu, Apple’s new Panther is like a trained show-beast that just doesn’t know any better.
The attempt at font management is admirable, but Font Book did a few things that really annoyed me. The first was to replace my fonts on a book that I had spent a lot of work on. No harm done, I could replace them, and start over. Then it had issues with Photoshop, which I still haven’t been able to resolve. Meanwhile, my manager’s having problems with Mail. Would it have been so hard to test and fix these issues? And that brushed metal isn’t looking any prettier, either.
I have to admit that some of the features are pretty cool, but they’re also long overdue. Anybody else having difficulties?
Posted by , Wednesday, October 29, 2003, at 3:58 PM.
Posted to Computers
British blog awards
What a great idea! I can’t wait for the results.
Posted by , Wednesday, October 29, 2003, at 1:54 AM.
Posted to Whatever
A challenge!
Doesn’t this look like fun? Well done to The Guardian for giving power to the people.
Posted by , Wednesday, October 29, 2003, at 1:49 AM.
Posted to Writing
Happy 100th to Evelyn Waugh
Thanks to writer and blogger Amy Welborn who has collected the usual links and notes on celebrations.
Posted by , Tuesday, October 28, 2003, at 2:22 PM.
Posted to Book people
Color help
Nevertheless, it’s a pretty cool color palette script.
Posted by , Tuesday, October 28, 2003, at 11:33 AM.
Posted to Design
A bit of hope
On a day the only literary news we’re getting is full of Paul Burrell (bluck). it’s good to know the British Library is there for us. Check out one of the upcoming events…
Ted Hughes: An Evening of Poetry
26 November 2003
To mark the publication of Ted Hughes: Collected Poems, four leading contemporary poets - Andrew Motion, Simon Armitage, Tom Paulin and Michael Morpurgo - pay tribute to one of the greatest practitioners in modern English poetry. Each poet will read a selection of Ted Hughes’s poems. This special event is chaired by Melvyn Bragg.
Ted Hughes: Collected Poems is published by Faber and Faber.
In association with Faber and Faber
Event time: 18.30 - 19.45
Speaker: Melvyn Bragg with Andrew Motion, Simon Armitage, Tom Paulin and Michael Morpurgo
Location: British Library Conference Centre, St Pancras
Price: £5.00 (concessions £3.50)
Thank you British Library!
Posted by , Tuesday, October 28, 2003, at 1:19 AM.
Posted to Book people
sticklebook
Oh, I love this!
Posted by , Monday, October 27, 2003, at 6:34 PM.
Posted to Design
Booklounge.com
Booklounge.com and its German sister Buchlounge.ch is a pretty site feauturing just released graphic art, architecture, and photography, and new media tomes.
Booklounge.com is an Amazon.com affiliate but its design gives it an edge over other on-line affiliates.
Posted by , Monday, October 27, 2003, at 8:25 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs
To Paul or Not To Paul
I would feel remiss if I didn’t comment on the publication of former Royal butler Paul Burrell’s tell-all, since I do reside in England. The nicest descriptive I’ve heard for this guy is cad. Personally speaking, shame on him for making profit off his dead employer, shame on the publisher for only thinking of cash, and shame on anyone who rewards this type of writing by purchasing the book. With butlers like this, who needs enemies?
Posted by , Monday, October 27, 2003, at 8:22 AM.
Posted to Books
Chinese Propaganda Posters
Oh, I so want this Taschen book for Christmas.
More design inspiration can be found on author Stefan Landsberger’s Web site. Landsberger has collected hundreds of Chinese political posters. An article chronicaling his collecting (mis)adventures can be found here.
Posted by , Monday, October 27, 2003, at 7:24 AM.
Posted to Book design
Covers I love today
Ten Commandments for Pastors New to a Congregation by Lawrence Farris.
Kevin, did you design this??
Posted by , Monday, October 27, 2003, at 7:00 AM.
Posted to Book design
Authors on Amazon's book search
Amanda’s mentioned how much fun Miss LL and indeed many of us are having with Amazon’s new book text search function — but it seems that the Author’s Guild is less pleased, “conclud[ing] that these publishers do not have the right to participate in this program without their authors’ permission.”
The Importance Of — an always-excellent blog covering technology, rights, law and nearly everything in between — has more, including a full copy of the Guild’s email.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, October 26, 2003, at 11:43 AM.
Posted to Book sellers
Controversial, as always
Germaine Greer is at it again, causing a stir as she always manages to do. Her new book The Boy seeks to explain why art throughout history has always focused on the boy, and what that means for us today. As expected, it seems as if her book is as academic as it is thought-provoking, and has been the focus of attention here in England, partly due to the recent television show she hosted to accompany the book.
Just so you know, this book is titled The Beautiful Boy in the US.
Posted by , Sunday, October 26, 2003, at 10:21 AM.
Posted to Books
Amanda's visit
We had a wonderful time with Amanda this week. This is my favourite pic of her time with us. She’s reading Madeline Says Merci to Bailey.
Posted by , Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 2:54 PM.
Posted to
Man Booker Prize 2003
Has anyone read the recently awarded Man Booker Prize winner? I haven’t and am a bit wary of it, just because the author seems so theatrical. The non de plume, the dishonest past, and the drug use, well, do these things make for good writing or for a headline-catching author? Any thoughts?
Posted by , Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 2:14 PM.
Posted to Books
Catching Up
I started maternity leave in the beginning of August and had some grand plans. As these types of plans usually do, mine went by the wayside. I planned to start writing a book but read at least a dozen instead (and after reading some great work, decided I’m not worthy of writing much more than some postcards). I had tons of time and read most of it away. That was until the baby came on 10 September. Since that date, I’ve barely had time to read the daily Times, none the less write a postcard. It’s all worth it though. We have a lovely baby girl, Bailey, and she has somehow kept 2 full—grown adults (and several visitors, including Amanda who departed on Thursday) running around her. She’s our little despot, although a benevolent one, and our house is all about the girl.
That’s why I haven’t been blogging. I apologise.
Continue reading "Catching Up"
Posted by , Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 2:04 PM.
Posted to Books
Laura's having fun
with Amazon.com’s new search function and helping customers to boot!
In a surprising move to promote literacy, some of the schools of South Carolina have decided that for Halloween elementary age children should dress up as a book character and bring that book with them as they present their costume to classmates and such. Of course, the illiterate hillbillies are wiley so I’ve been getting calls from parents saying how their girl is going as Barbie and can’t I scrounge up a book for her.
Of course, their little Darlene Ann Beth ain’t going as just any barbie. She’s going as CRUISING BARBIE and they want a book specifically on her. To amuse myself, I typed “cruising barbie” into Amazon which now searches for words in the BOOK as well in the title. What book did I bring up?
Beneath the Equator: Cultures of Desire, Male Homosexuality, and Emerging Gay Communities in Brazil” by Richard G. Parker.
Posted by , Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 6:44 AM.
Posted to Book sellers
Why Microsoft just doesn't get it
Another fab article by PBS’s Robert X. Cringely.
Posted by , Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 6:35 AM.
Posted to Computers
Mrs. Yu's Amazon.com
Only it’s called dangdang.com.
In a country where only 8 million out of 68 million Internet users have ever shopped online, Ms. Yu says that the learning curve has been steep.
“It’s really a great leap forward from visiting a physical store to shopping online,” she said. “Half the calls we get are `How do you order online? What does it mean by shopping cart?’”
It has been equally daunting to convince consumers to use plastic over cash, especially given the complicated rules for credit cards drawn up by banks in some areas. So Dangdang uses 30 bicycle courier companies in 12 cities to deliver the products and collect the cash, which is then wired to Dangdang.
You can find David W. Chen’s full article here.
Posted by , Saturday, October 25, 2003, at 6:24 AM.
Posted to Book sellers
NYTimes gets a facelift
“Starting today, the front page and main news sections of The New York Times are receiving a gentle typographical face-lift,” says this coverage of the redesign.
What the article doesn’t link to is this: the front page image. “Gentle” is right — it’s pretty subtle. Wouldn’t be The New York Times otherwise, though, right?
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 21, 2003, at 9:27 PM.
Posted to Design
Day Two at St. Bride
Another fun day with tons to report!
Ok, first off Steven McCarthy talked about Helvetica and its (over)use. Next, Rob Banham showed us various examples of lettering and typography on British trash cans. Banham is very, very cool.
Mid-morning Jay Rutherford showed off his designed quotations on various buildings in Weimar, Germany. Although Rutherford’s work was interesting he, sadly, came across as arrogant. After Jay, Andreas Carlsson of NoFont.com spoke of his Artown design and knowledge accessibility experiment. Spend some time at his site when you have a few minutes. He has some interesting ideas regarding type. Before lunch, Caroline Archer discussed Paris’s underground and its off-limits art exhibit.
In the afternoon, Jared Ash gave an excellent lecture on the poetry and book design of early 20th-century Russian artist Aleksei Kruchenykh. Daniel Jasper then discussed violent type. Later, Peter Bain spoke about the history of photo lettering, while Rathna Ramanathan discussed the practice of sign painting in India.
The day (and event) ended with a wonderful presentation by Martin Andrews on the beautifully sentimental typography and engraving used in 19th-century coffin plates and headstones.
Off to Harrow tomorrow!
Posted by , Tuesday, October 21, 2003, at 5:17 PM.
Posted to Design
Go ahead—it's ok
And here’s your chance to play Jan Tschichold and help design a book cover for Penguin!
Posted by , Monday, October 20, 2003, at 6:20 PM.
Posted to Book design
Be a publisher or just look like one
at Melville House! Fax your resume for an internship to 201-222-8011.
Posted by , Monday, October 20, 2003, at 6:14 PM.
Posted to Publishing
London Fun
Hidden Typography at the St. Bride Printing Library is a blast!
Much to report today. The day started out with Barry Mckay talking sheep and type and the problems that printers have had in replicating their markings for print.
Next we heard from Claire Hartten who discussed typography and food (wine labels to edible Dutch letters.) Claire is also part of the slow food movement and brought us real Cheddar to nosh on. I don’t know what that had to do with typography but the cheese was amazing and far better than what you get at Publix.
Afterwards, John Downer’s presentation was on “one-horse type.” He’s a cool type designer to boot.
Paul Nash talked about the Samson Press. You can catch him at the Oxford Fine Press Book Fair in November if you’d like.
Tim Honnor, the founder of Piccolo Press, spoke after Paul Nash. He gave us the 411 on engraving and die stamping. Tim also gave a nice shout-out to Kate’s Paperie in New York—a favorite place for Giles and me!
Later we heard from Richard Lawrence on TeX, super-cool type designer and Mac evangelist Jean-Francois Porchez, and Barry Roseman from the Atlanta College of Art. Dennis Ichiyama talked about wood type and kept plugging the Hamilton Museum until Mathieu Lommen simply had to roll his eyes.
I’m soooo looking forward to tomorrow! Thank you Karen and Simon for letting me hang out with you and the baby in London. Thank you Giles for, well, being my husband. I miss you.
Posted by , Monday, October 20, 2003, at 5:40 PM.
Posted to Design
Mine this
Ever hear of text mining? It’s a computer program designed to, “categorize information, making links between otherwise unconnected documents and providing visual maps (some look like tree branches or spokes on a wheel) to lead users down new pathways that they might not have been aware of” — at up to 250,000 pages an hour.
Wow! Okay, so it’s not available to the masses yet. But soon, and for any purpose you need — medicine, politics, you name it. Imagine the research ground you could cover on a particular subject.…
The NYTimes has more.
Posted by Giles, Monday, October 20, 2003, at 9:14 AM.
Posted to Computers
2003 National Book Awards Finalists Announced
As everything of excitement and importance does, it took place in New York City. At the Marriott Marquis Hotel in midtown Manhattan to be exact. Some finalist were named, some bronze medallions were handed over with a thousand dollars each to the nominees and promises were made that another zero would be schlacked on that cash prize and that medallion would magically change into a bronze statue if they were named the winner over their category.
There may or may not have been a squirmish afterwards in the back alley between Charles Simic and Carol Muske-Dukes when she may or may not have accused him of not being a US citizen (a requirement to be nominated) to up her chances of winning. He may or may not have replied that at least he sounded human unlike Muske-Dukes which sounds more like a shellfish.
And the nominees are:
Continue reading "2003 National Book Awards Finalists Announced"
Posted by , Thursday, October 16, 2003, at 5:19 PM.
Posted to Books
We love you, Amanda
Amanda’s off to the Hidden Typography Conference in London today, staying with friend and fellow Foreword blogger Karen.
We hope you’ll be able to blog along the way, sweet A, and the rest of us will try to hold down the fort here…!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, October 16, 2003, at 9:45 AM.
Posted to Design
Hacking books come out fighting
Ok, two books, same trendy subject.
In one corner we have Hacking TiVo by John Wiley & Son and weighing in at 550 pages. In the other corner is O’Reilly’s TiVo Hacks weighing in at 288 pages.
The clear winner from a design perspective? O’Reilly’s tome. What was the art director at John Wiley thinking?
What to pick up your own TiVo cheap? Contact Jhary here.
Posted by , Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 8:14 PM.
Posted to Book design
No Photoshop needed
These Polaroid pics are pretty interesting. Here’s more info on the instant pic manipulation method.
Have any Foreword readers tried this?
Posted by , Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 7:59 PM.
Posted to Public domain
Stockholm Type
Stephen Coles collects. You enjoy.
Posted by , Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 8:14 AM.
Posted to Design
Revolve Redux
Cool Chesire Dave has reviewed the book design behind Revolve. You may remember that Revolve is the new GenY New Testament for Protestant young women that I personally find revolting.
Speaking of Revolve, I found this gem in our library not long ago. It’s pre-Giles so I’m assuming that someone gave it to his dad. Tons of funny pictures throughout of ‘60s boys and girls hanging out a weenie roasts.
Posted by , Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 7:58 AM.
Posted to Book design
St. Bride's Printing Library
I leave in two days for London!
I received this E-mail this morning from the conference’s organizers:
As part of the Hidden Typography Conference, Richard Lawrence has kindly agreed to print a poster sized keep sake for all delagtes to take away with them.
The poster will be printed on one of the library’s hand presses and its design will be in your hands. We asking all delegates to create a motif (on any theme) which will then be cut in lino.
The design should not be too complicated, should be designed in reverse, and should measure no more than 2 x 2”.
You may either cut the design before the conference, or if you do not have the resources, you will be given the lino and tools during the event and you can cut your design at your leisure.
We hope you will enjoy the result.
Kind regards
Caroline Archer & Shelley Gruendler
Conference Organisers
Eeeeek. What should I do?
Posted by , Tuesday, October 14, 2003, at 7:38 AM.
Posted to Design
In case you weren't sure,
Reuters (via Yahoo) has declared that, “the e-book bubble has burst.”
The article points out areas of growth but quotes more than a few booksellers and publishers questioning their initial expectations — and notes that people, shockingly, still prefer the “proven technology” that actual books represent.
Posted by Giles, Monday, October 13, 2003, at 10:12 AM.
Posted to Publishing
On not being a biblioclast
If you missed cool Vernica’s blog entry on caring for your precious tomes a few days ago, go there now. Vernica’s and her blog are super-cool because she’s gets paid to think about about how temperature and humidity impact books. What a romantic vocation!
Posted by , Friday, October 10, 2003, at 8:39 PM.
Posted to Book people
Oh, to be in New York
for openhousenewyork this weekend.
Designers and book people will enjoy an insider’s look at such places as the Van Alen Institute, V Studio, the Tenri Cultural Institute of New York, and the offices for Scholastic.
via Jen Chung at Gothamist.
Posted by , Friday, October 10, 2003, at 8:16 PM.
Posted to Design
Oh, to be in Frankfurt
for the Book Fair! Thanks to my sister, I still know how to say, “One Coca-Cola please,” in Deutsch.
I’d love to do this. Has anyone ever gone? What is it like?
Posted by , Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 10:02 AM.
Posted to Book people
Design Within Reach
Giles, can we get the Kittypod for Daphne and Penelope for Christmas instead of a pony?
Posted by , Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 9:42 AM.
Posted to Design
DarkProfits.com?
Deleted entry due to feeling stupid. Sorry.
Posted by , Thursday, October 9, 2003, at 7:07 AM.
Posted to Whatever
Ballot design
Can you say, “Gov. Aah-nold?” (No? I didn’t want to, either.)
But the problem of disenfranchised voters remains. 10,000 — that’s ten thousand — polling places weren’t open yesterday for one reason or another relating to the recall campaign. Those that were handed people a loooong ballot with the governor’s names (133 of them!) and a variety of other choices. Wow.
As a resident of Florida, I am well aware that no modern election can pass without problems and charges of disenfranchisement. Unfortunately, many are true — but not always for the reason you might think.
Slate has an excellent article from Monday discussing ballot design — and reminds us that a USA Today poll showed faulty design as the reason for problems in Palm Beach County, not hanging chads.
The article comments:
“The California Election Code stipulates the use of specific typefaces, minimum and maximum point sizes and margins, and other specifications — but these requirements aren’t based on any accepted design principles. The result is the confusing . . . ballot.”
Confusion we’re all too familiar with here in Florida. (Not to mention living with the results.) All is not lost, however. Many suggestions are given, and alternative designs are even included, with ideas for type, spacing, and color. All are significantly easier to use and understand, although Marcia’s is my fave due to its simple, one-color design.
I’m almost tempted to redo Florida’s ballot, just for fun. Anyone out there want to report on their area’s ballots?
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, October 8, 2003, at 11:11 AM.
Posted to Design
Graphic designer war stories
can be found over at Speak Up.
Warning: These slices of life are not for the faint of heart or small children.
Posted by , Tuesday, October 7, 2003, at 9:21 AM.
Posted to Design
Le sigh.
Giles and I are still not charging enough even though we have been pricing our design higher.
Evidenced here.
We also got a postcard from these cats the other day. I’ve going to set up a Yahoo account and e-mail them for a quote.
Developing…
Posted by , Monday, October 6, 2003, at 8:54 AM.
Posted to Book design
Covers I like today
After the New Economy by Doug Henwood.
Anyone know who the designer is?
Posted by , Monday, October 6, 2003, at 8:18 AM.
Posted to Book design
Borders just says "no" to prices on books
Pub Weekly has the story but here’s the short of it:
Border’s puts their own sticker avec barcode on every book they sell. They now want for publishers to take their prices off of the books sold by Borders so that they can price the book higher.
I don’t like it.
Posted by , Monday, October 6, 2003, at 8:08 AM.
Posted to Book sellers
Timmy and Tammy
via Typographica.
Posted by , Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 7:52 AM.
Posted to Design
Book parties and Scotch
The New York Times has a lovely article remembering Paris Review editor George Plimpton.
In the early days of Mr. Plimpton’s parties, guests included friends like Truman Capote, William Styron, Ralph Ellison, Lewis Lapham and Gore Vidal. He insisted on giving book parties for anyone who had been published in his magazine, which over time included Rick Bass, Mona Simpson and Jay McInerney, among others. Eventually, Manhattan publishing houses simply relied on Mr. Plimpton to give parties for their authors; the publishers would supply the drinks and food, and Mr. Plimpton the venue and the excitement. Crashing these parties was a rite of passage for generations of young aspiring writers and editors, who saw them as an opportunity to rub elbows with literary giants like Norman Mailer and Gay Talese.
Posted by , Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 7:42 AM.
Posted to Books
Belated congratulations to
John Maxwell Coetzee (pronounced kut-SEE-uh)—this year’s winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Here is a list of all the winners since 1960.
Posted by , Saturday, October 4, 2003, at 7:33 AM.
Posted to Books
Amazon.com hacked?
This is the picture I got just a few minutes ago. Someone call 2600!
Posted by , Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 6:28 PM.
Posted to Books
Branding extremism
While Chanel has never bothered me, Porsche certainly has — but Timberland or Camry? Give me a break.
Well, no, I’m talking about what people name their kids! Australia’s News.com has more. (You wouldn’t expect American press to report on this, would you?)
Posted by Giles, Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 4:35 PM.
Posted to Whatever