Craft
Here are a couple videos that demonstrate the level of craft once (and sometimes still) required to design and print a book. It’s rare that a designer is very involved in the physical process of printing and binding of a book. There’s something fulfilling about turning a bunch of flat sketches, specs and measurements into a three-dimensional object. There’s a sense of authorship you don’t feel from an InDesign file or website.
This first video follows John Carrera’s tedious recreation of an 1898 pictorial dictionary. From discovery to recovery to printing and binding, the project took him over 10 years to complete.
The next video is a short documentary on letterpress, by the man behind Firefly Press.
Laika Dynamic Type
This bachelor thesis by Michael Flückiger und Nicolas Kunz assigns font styles (such as boldness, serif-width, italic slant, etc.) to various inputs that dynamically change the text. Watch the demo above, or try it out for yourself. Dynamic graphics from body movement/input have been popular in digital signage, it’s interesting to see this applied to type.
Evolution of Mice
Sue Kwon — Street Level
I was at this opening a few weeks ago and had to pick up the book. Twenty years of black & white photos documenting life in New York City from strangers on the street to Biggie’s listening party.
Creative Menus
Besides having cheap drinks and great food, I like that Concrete repurposed old book covers to hold their menus. Love this one:
Svpply
I’m digging these focused bookmarking sites, lately. Delicious can be a monster to maintain and, while useful, without any visuals it’s about as exciting to use as a library card catalog.
Svpply is a retail bookmarking site that let’s you pinch an image of any product, enter some quick info about what it is and how much it costs, and add it to your collection. Like other bookmarking sites, the real utility here is the “Similar Items” and ability to filter the entire pool. My collection (read: wishlist – my birthday is in May) is getting started here.
A designer behind the site, Ben Pieratt, is responsible for another favorite site of mine, The Book Cover Archive.