Books #2

Another Flickr collection of vintage publications - this time centred around those that have championed type. It's the use of a limited palette that really makes some of these stand out for me. More via this link.

Center for Visual Music

Another link - Los Angeles' Center for Visual Music. That's here.

While my study is generally concerned with noise, music is going to be an important aspect if not just for the fact that there is already so much information regarding the visual depictions of music. I also picked up the Thames & Hudson book on synaesthesia today plus a few more that look at combinations of auditory and visual stimulus. Oh, and I found the Center for Visual Music site while researching John Cage's work in fusing sound with art. It also looks like the theories employed by painters like Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky [below] might have some bearing on the research too.

Alex Roman's 3D animation of Kahn's Library

My head is still spinning from simply trying to balance a cone on top of a cylinder in today's Virtual Worlds class. Alex Roman doesn't seem to have had the same problem as his CG animation of Louis Kahn's Phillips Exeter Academy Library clearly demonstrates.

There's more about the work via this link.

Mechanized Mules of Victory

The Paul Rand work I mentioned earlier was the brochure titled Mechanized Mules of Victory which dates from 1942. It was printed using just black and yellow ink. There's more on that publication via this link.

Anyway, the Northern Quarter's brilliant Marc The Printers shop has a risograph printer that's available and I wondered about its potential to produce two colour work with a similar feel. There are some limitations (for example, it doesn't produce blocks of colour - specifically black - very well) but its halftones and very unglossy look bears some relation to some of the material that has been inspiring me of late.

Here's the information that they supply on the service:

"If you wish to do printing for a community group, charity or other voluntary sector organisation, you can book one of our Risograph machines and print it yourself. (DIY printing). This avoids all the charges for staff labour and makes printing very inexpensive. Professional help is always on hand to lead you through the printing process.

You can also use our finishing equipment to produce booklets, guillotine paper and card, or fold your finished printing.

Risograph printers are the modern equivalent of the old duplicators. Today they are clean, easy to use and produce a much better quality finished product. They use soya-based inks and we have a very wide range of recycled paper and card. This is ethical printing at its best.

You must book DIY printing in advance, in person or by phone (not by email or fax!) - it is only available on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays and to bone fide voluntary and community groups. Full colour printing cannot be done as DIY."

Kate Moross videos for Simian Mobile Disco

While looking at how sound is represented visually, I remembered these two music videos directed by the very talented and annoyingly youthful Kate Moross. Both are for Simian Mobile Disco - being virals for the tracks '10000 Horse Can't Be Wrong' and 'Synthesise'. (The artwork she has done for their new album - titled Temporary Pleasure - is stunning too, by the way.)





Link to album: Temporary Pleasure

Books #1

I've been collecting together some of the books that I like from a design perspective. Amy and Nicola picked up two very nice publications for me while at the market in Toulon and I also got a pile of old Penguins and Pelicans from eBay.

The Penguin By Design book that I treated myself to is also proving rather inspirational. It documents the development of some of those more iconic covers including some real insight regarding the grids and logos that have been used over the years. I'll be posting more on these at some point.

For my own records, I just wanted to note a few links here that I'm sure will prove helpful over coming months. One is Joe Kral's Flickr collection of Penguin books that you will find via this link. There is also another Flickr group for Penguin collectors to upload their favourites via this link. And while eventually they may stray into cliched 'shiny robot' territory, there are some interesting Penguin sci-fi covers via this link.

Looking at other publishers around the globe, A Journey Around My Skull documents some very beautiful books which can be viewed by clicking this link and there is also Martin Klasch here, The Book Cover Archive here, the delightful Grain Edit blog here plus The Graphis Collection which has some astounding retro work here.

I also picked up By Its Cover - a compendium of modern American book design - from the library alongside a very nice Paul Rand book. I'll certainly post more about the latter. Specifically there's his mid-century brochure for an American automobile company that I really, really like.

Blog layout #1

I thought it might also be interesting to note the development of this blog's appearance as the project progresses. After all, it is a study largely concerned with aesthetics.

The banner depicted above will most likely be replaced this week - probably with something with a touch less fuzzy and thrown together. So it's documented here as just a reminder of a quick solution that owes a small debt to The Designers Republic sleeves for the Warp10 compilations from a decade ago.