Recently Received
Here’s the latest round of books and goods to hit our shelves. Included are impressive new titles from Nobrow, Chronicle Books, Lars Muller, Laurence King, F&W Media and Princeton Architectural Press. Especially worth noting is Unit Edition’s latest endeavor – a hearty monograph on Lance Wyman.
Lance Wyman: The Monograph
Edited by Adrian Shaughnessy / Published by Unit Editions
Designed by Spin
Edition of 2000
464 pgs / Hardback, black cover and white foil
I’ve long admired Lance Wyman’s work, but that appreciation was limited to the scant selection of projects featured in peer journals over the years. I know others felt the same way and clearly there was a demand for a more comprehensive collection of Wyman’s output. It appears Unit Editions was listening and have answered in the form of a hefty and thoughtful tribute to the man’s work. Weighing in at almost five and half pounds the monograph showcases his significant and prolific out of identity design and examines his role as a pioneer of wayfinding. Included are his iconic designs for the Mexico 68 Olympics, the Minnesota Zoo and much more. Also featured are many previously unpublished items and a selection of pages from Wyman’s vast unseen archive of graphic design ‘log books’.
I’m afraid the pictures below barely do this book justice. It really needs to be seen in person to be fully appreciated.
Copies are available at Unit Editions. Highly recommended!
Cyber Realm
By Wren McDonnald / Published by Nobrow
24 Pages
Blending sci-fi with an honest and dark humour, Wren McDonald transports us to a post-apocalyptic future world where a tyrannical King reigns supreme over the disparate and feuding common people; a people that survived the earth’s annihilation, only to endure the cruel powers wielded by the King.
Available at Amazon, Nobrow and your local book shop
Presenting Shakespeare: 1,100 Posters from Around the World
By Steven Heller & Mirko Ilic / Published by Princeton Architectural Press
320 Pages
A skull held aloft, a lovesick donkey, a bloodied dagger: these familiar icons are instantly recognizable shorthand for the plays of William Shakespeare. In the four hundred years since his death, the Bard of Avon’s exalted place in the pantheon of theater and poetry—indeed, all of Western culture—is unequaled. As Ben Jonson proclaimed, Shakespeare “is not of an age but for all time!” And just as centuries of theatrical artists have reimagined his works through the lens of their own time and culture, so too have illustrators and designers been inspired to create posters that reinvent Shakespeare’s well-known themes for each new generation of theatergoers. Presenting Shakespeare collects 1,100 posters for Shakespeare’s plays, designed by an international roster of artists representing 55 countries, from Japan to Colombia, India, Russia, Australia, and beyond.
Available at Amazon, PA Press, and your local book shop.
100 Great Children’s Picturebooks
By Martin Salisbury
Published by Laurence King
216 pages
This unashamed visual feast celebrates the best designed and illustrated picturebooks from around the world over the past one hundred years.
Each book is a creation of genius and inventiveness, and their design and illustration represent such diverse trends as the Russian Constructivists, Italian Futurists and Postwar Neo-romantics. They are also mirrors of their times reflecting social concerns from a child’s and family’s perspectives throughout the twentieth and into the twenty-first century.
Available at Amazon, Laurence King and your local book shop.
Outside the Box: Hand-Drawn Packaging from Around the World
By Gail Anderson / Published by Princeton Architectural Press
256 Pages
In an age of slick, computer-generated type and Photoshopped perfection, hand-drawn packing is enjoying a global resurgence. As shorthand for something more authentic, homegrown, handmade, or crafted, hand-drawn packaging is found on everything from supermarket eggs to Chipotle drink cups. In this exhaustive and lavishly illustrated survey, organized by four types—DIY, art, craft, and artisanal—Gail Anderson pulls back the curtain on the working processes and inspirations of forty letterers, illustrators, and designers from all around the world through insightful interviews, process sketches, and her infectious love of the medium.
Available at Amazon, PA Press and your local book shop
Printmaking: A Complete Guide to Materials & Processes (2nd edition)
By Bill Fick and Beth Grabowski / Published by Laurence King
256 Pages
Printmaking is a practical and comprehensive guide to printmaking techniques.
This fully updated edition includes expanded chapters on digital and mixed media processes, and a brand new ‘Print & Make’ chapter, which explores the opportunities for creative expression within the many processes available to print makers. The more traditional techniques of relief, intaglio, collograph, lithography, screen printing and monoprint have also been refreshed with the addition of new images showing a broader range of subject matter, including more contemporary prints and international artists.
Available at Amazon, Laurence King and your local book shop.
William Addison Dwiggins: Stencilled Ornament and Illustration: Expanded Edition
By Dorothy Abbe / Published by Princeton Architectural Press
112 Pages
There has never been anyone in the design world like William Addison Dwiggins (1880-1956). The first American to call himself a graphic designer, he applied his prodigious talents in the fields of typography, calligraphy, illustration, and even puppeteering–a more fitting title might have been Renaissance man. He is best known for his book designs, which combine his expertise in calligraphy, use of stencils, and typography. Very little has been published on Dwiggins, until now. The first of several planned volumes on his incredible legacy, this reprint of Stencilled Ornament & Illustration includes the original book, hand-set in an experimental Linotype face he designed, along with stencils and plates illustrating a dizzying array of graphical elements. A new introduction by Bruce Kennett shows how Dwiggins used ornaments, rules, and other elements in his final book and jacket designs. Originally published in a letterpress edition of 120 copies, this important book introduces the unique genius of Dwiggins to a broader audience.
Available at Amazon, PA Press and your local book shop
Every Person in New York
By Jason Polan, Foreword by Kristen Wiig
Published by Chronicle Books
408 pages
Jason Polan is on a mission to draw every person in New York, from cab drivers to celebrities. He draws people eating at Taco Bell, admiring paintings at the Museum of Modern Art, and sleeping on the subway. With a foreword by Kristen Wiig, Every Person in New York, Volume 1collects thousands of Polan’s energetic drawings in one chunky book. As full as a phone book and as invigorating as a walk down a bustling New York street, this is a new kind of love letter to a beloved city and the people who live there.
Available at Amazon, Chronicle books and your local book shop
Grids & Guides Red: A Notebook for Visual Thinkers
Published Princeton Architectural Press
160 pages / 5.75 x 8.25 inches (14.6 x 21.0 cm), Hardcover
Grids & Guides Red promises another 144 pages of varied and unusual graph paper (including some new grid designs), interspersed with more engaging charts and infographics—from knot tying to logic expressions—for right- and left-brainers alike.
Available at Amazon, PA Press and your local book shop
The Art of Illustrated Maps
By John Roman / Published F&W Media
200 Pages
his book maps the origins and history of creative cartography, analyzes why our brains so easily relate to conceptual maps, presents how professional artists create illustrated maps, and showcases the works of contemporary map illustrators from around the world.
Available at Amazon and your local book shop.
Camper: The Walking Society
Edited by Anniina Koivu / Published by Lars Muller
408 Pages
What is a “walking society”? A society that is in motion, that is setting out for somewhere. And what connects the individuals in this society with the ground they stand on? It’s their shoes of course.
The focus here is on a very special shoe: the Camper shoe. It has gone through considerable changes since its early days, when it was cobbled together by Mallorcan peasants from a piece of car tire and a scrap of fabric. What remains is the philosophy embraced by the Spanish family business, that innovative shoes produced according to the highest standards should not only be comfortable but should also offer their wearers the greatest possible freedom of movement.
The book tells the story of the Camper brand while at the same time unfurling a range of related themes, from the anatomy of the foot to the cultural history of the shoe. All of which leads to a visual exploration of our “walking society.”
Available at Amazon, Lars Muller and your local book shop.
Sigrid Calon Notecards
Produced by PA Press
12 Notecards and Envelopes
nspired by the vibrant Risograph prints of Dutch artist Sigrid Calon, this stunning collection includes twelve deluxe notecards. Each perforated card features two extraordinary works—for a total of twenty-four framable prints! With mesmerizing patterns and fluorescent details, this set makes for beautiful correspondence or display.
Available at Amazon, PA Press and your local bookshop
Disclosure: Some of the links in the post above are “affiliate links.” This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission. Regardless, we only recommend products or services we use personally and believe will add value to our readers.
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