Review: A History of Graphic Design for Rainy Days
Posted by Amy on Friday January 27, 2012
A History of Graphic Design for Rainy Days – produced by Studio 3 and Gestalten – is an illustrated journey of one boy and his grandfather as they maneuver through the history of graphic design.
A History of Graphic Design for Rainy Days
Hardcover: 204 pages
Publisher: Gestalten
If you’ve gone through texts on history – any sort of history at all – you’ll notice that it’s drab and dry. What A History of Graphic Design for Rainy Days seeks to achieve is a new way of storytelling. One that engages and interests readers through its full-page illustrations, dialogues and facts littered throughout the 204-page book.
The book is linear in fashion – going back in time and re-tracing history made in the field of graphic design from 1776 to 1994. In between, the young boy (and his grandfather) steps into various studios of designers and inventors who has made a mark in the field. Snippets of info and narrative text by the grandfather accompanies each spread, along with clean visuals and an interesting play with two-color illustrations for each section.
While I do appreciate the efforts of the studio, I thought that the book needed a lot more editing – in terms of flow and structure. But most ironically, I thought that the style of the book would have made for an interesting game instead of its current book form. It’s linearity would be a great idea for gamification aspects, and if that were to happen, it would have a better shot of achieving its goal of engaging its reader/audience.
CLICK HERE to read the entire review!
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Review: Quoteskine Volume 1
Posted by Amy on Friday January 20, 2012
When the tough gets going, some people buckle or wring their hands and cry about it. But not Lee Crutchley, oh no. After he came back from a solid year of traveling (after selling off his stuff and quitting his job), he found himself in a recession. He braced himself for a job-less time, but didn’t want his downtime to be of waste – and so Quoteskine was born.
Featuring lyrics and quotes that he has gathered along the years, he started the Quoteskine blog (quoteskine is a combination of the qord “quotes” and “moleskine”) with the mission of drawing a quote every weekday to keep his creative juices flowing. His blog got picked up by quite a few website (including ours) and gathered momentum from then on. Last year, Lee published his first Quoteskine book – a greatest hits of sorts from his weekday exercises – all filled with quotes that he has penned down in his Moleskine in chronological order.
I like how simple his idea is, and that he lives and breathes it completely. His passion for his quotes and lyrics shine through in every page; but most of all I admire his can-do attitude and how he chooses to be an optimist in a time where it was simply easier to just be pessimistic about things. And look how far he has come!
You can get a copy of Quoteskine Volume 1 at his shop where he also has postcards, tees and prints for sale!
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Happy weekend folks! The Chinese New Year is coming up and there’s much spring cleaning to be done to welcome the year of the dragon – so I’m putting down my drawing brush and my mouse and picking up a broom and duster instead for the weekend!
Catch you here again next week!
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Girls Rock Rhode Island
Posted by Amy on Wednesday December 21, 2011
If you’re a rocker, you definitely want to get in on this.
Girls Rock! Rhode Island is a program that seeks to help girls and women to empower themselves through music, and they just published Women Who Rock Coloring Book. The book celebrates a variety of female musicians, from those who paved the way to the ladies who are influencing today’s vibrant music scene. An eclectic mix of performers are represented in its pages, including Cyndi Lauper, Patti Smith, Nina Simone, Yoko Ono, Joan Jett, Esperanza Spaulding and many more.
This first edition features 22 original works of art by local artists including Jen Corace, Allison Cole, Marissa Paternoster of Screaming Females and Delia Kovac, who generously donated their work to the cause! (The book can be purchased here!)
The program has done great things, such as offering full scholarships to 10 girls from schools to attend an awesome week-long summer camp to learn guitar, bass, drums, vocals, or various other instruments; among other things! You can read more about the initiative by heading to the Girls Rock! Rhode Island website.
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Sponsor giveaway: Princeton Architectural Press
Posted by Amy on Tuesday December 6, 2011
As you all know, I’m a book-lover. I love everything about them –they’re beautiful, mysterious (I have this urge to get to the end of each book!) and most of all, that they have the ability to unlock my mind with a single flip of the page.
And that’s the reason I’m so excited about our giveaway this week – we’re going to give away not one, but TWO books this week, courtesy of Princeton Architectural Press!
Princeton Architectural Press is celebrating their 30th birthday this year and they’re one of my favorite publishers of architectural and design books, so I’m thrilled to have them on the blog today where they’re giving away one book each: Maps by Paula Scher and Typography Sketchbook by Steven Heller and Talarico Lita to two lucky winners!
Throwing your hat in the ring for the giveaway is dead simple: just comment on our post to let us know which book you’d like and why — we’ll pick out the winners after 13th December! Easy peasy!
*UPDATE: Commenting has now closed, thanks so much for participating. The winner of this giveaway is Carmen and Megan as chosen via random.org!
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