Booth Clibborn Editions 2004
228pp Colour and B&W reproductions. ISBN 1861542658
27 x 33.5 cm English text. Hardcover
Packaged in a cloth bag; Includes a large poster, CD, unisex shift dress, and a pattern for overalls
"…a smart, eminently danceable band…"
TIME
"…suddenly trendy…"
ROLLING STONE
Chicks on Speed (COS) are Melissa Logan (from New York), Kiki Moorse (Munich), and Alex Murray-Leslie (Bowral, Australia). They're a band, a clothing label, a website, a record label, a design team, and a 21st-century phenomenon. This, their first publication, aims to capture their sense of freedom and spontaneity. Each page is crafted and designed in their own handwriting. The book is divided into periods of their lives: 'Fake Band:, "Pressing the Press", Sell Out", and so on. Die-cut, over-printed, and assembled from many different paper stocks, this book approximates a COS scrapbook, full of press clippings, personal mementos, printed ephemera, and free merchandise.
The three members of COS met at art school in Munich and then moved to Berlin, where they reinvented themselves as Chicks on Speed, an all-girl collective. From providing raunchy, cover-version soundtrack to parties and gigs, to customising visitor's clothing at exhibitions (Fondation Cartier), to posing with Karl Lagerfeld for the cover of their latest album, the Chicks have invaded the worlds of fashion and music with their endearing do-it-yourself aesthetic and good-time vibe. Price: £59.95
Princeton Architectural Press 2004
168 pages Colour and B&W reproductions. ISBN 156898457X
18 x 25.5 cm English text. Softcover
Welcome to EMPIRE. Billions drink its sodas, listen to its music, breathe its air, drive its cars, smoke its tobacco, practice its religions, watch its movies, ingest its pharmaceuticals, and benefit or suffer from its policies. Every person, animal, and insect on this planet is affected. From the melting ice caps in Antarctica to the defoliated wastelands of Africa, its relentless expansion goes unchecked. But EMPIRE is more than a political reality. It has, in its often elusive way, imbedded itself beneath our skins. It is an aesthetic, a conditioning, a psychology, and a lifestyle. Where does our individuality end, and the EMPIRE begin?
At a time of global crisis, Empire rallies a coalition of artists, designers, writers, and photographers to protest the mysterious, all-powerful phenomenon that dominates our civilization.
Empire is the first book based on the award-winning alternative political graphic magazine, Nozone. Featuring the best known and freshest unknown designers and cartoonists, this issue includes new work from Charles S. Anderson, Michael Bierut, Art Chantry, Seymour Chwast, Luba Lukova, Christoph Niemann, Stefan Sagmeister, Paul Sahre, and Ward Sutton.
Nicholas Blechman is principal of Knickerbocker Design, an illustration and graphic design studio in the meatpacking district of Manhattan. He is publisher of NOZONE and former art director of the New York Times op-ed page. His work has garnered awards from AIGA, American Illustration, Society of Publication Designers, and Art Director's Club. Price: £14.99
Die Gestalten Verlag 2003
216 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 3899550218
24 x 30 cm English/German text. Hardcover
Whether they appear as painted stones, smiling houses, Nick Park-like clay figures or classical cartoons, characters are still the best way to create visuals with which one can identify. Peter Thaler has built upon the success of “Pictoplasma”, one of dgv’s best-selling titles of all time. Avoiding the lure of creating a straightforward sequel or the simple repetition of his winning formula, he has once again distilled a fine selection of first-rate works from over 9,000 entries. While the traditional role of these loveable icons as commercial branding tools remains important, this volume also touches on the vital new design impulses that have enriched the picto realm during the last few years. More and more often, designers are taking their favourites from the drawing board and computer to the streets as customised objects, urban art and graffiti. Parallel to an overall trend to shake off the shackles of two dimensions, even more of Thaler’s selections have made the jump into the third dimension. For example, cute to grotesque action figures, which are increasingly coveted by adult collectors, are spread across the pages in perfect harmony with traditional graphic design and illustrations by both talented newcomers and stars like Peter Fowler. No matter if it’s scribbles, freehand or vector designs, puppets, street art or abstraction: Pictoplasma 2’s prime focus remains the development of interesting character ideas and the fertile exchange between different styles and media. Price: £28.99
144 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 3899550315
24 x 28 cm English/German text. Softcover
Romantik presents classical romantic elements in outstanding examples of contemporary illustration, photography and graphic design. While making a clear reference to nineteenth century Romanticism, the book defines a current version of the term through its selections and presentation. The book features examples, which expand the forms of visual expression available in our computer-dominated world and which develop style elements that exist beyond the canon of forms used in the 1990s. In place of uncluttered surfaces and clean lines, colorful collages and ornaments are used to generate a feeling of warmth, closeness or commitment. Because the computer is firmly established as a creative tool, today's "Romantik" is pragmatic rather than dogmatic. At the same time, the book challenges the role of the computer in the design process, appealing to the romantic in all of us. Price: £23.00
Lawrence King 2003
160 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 1856693333
24 x 28 cm English text. Softcover
From Mumbai to Chennai and from Kochi to Karachi, from the humble signwriter to the blue-chip advertising agency, the creative industries of India entice and inform a population of over one billion. In this crowded, colourful world, innovation is often born of necessity and scant resources, and can result in the very clever or the completely ridiculous. The most exciting graphic work has been singled out by the keen eye of Keith Lovegrove on his journey through India. He lovingly documents a wide range of vernacular graphics and commercial art from the personalized bodywork of vehicles through to advertising hoardings; from political posters to lavish Bollywood publicity. The result is a celebration of the huge variety of graphic work that Lovegrove found in this densely populated landscape and a reflection of the religious, political and cultural diversity recorded in specially commisioned photography. Price: £25.00
208 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 3899550021
It’s been barely four years since Büro Destruct, trailblazers of modern Swiss design, published their first ever collection of works at dgv. Best-known and -loved for their ostensibly digital design solutions with a generous touch of craftsmanship, relaxed cleverness and humour, this Bern-based design collective has since realised a multitude of fascinating projects for clients of all shapes and sizes – and assembled the resulting highlights in this book. Büro Destruct II follows its predecessor in layout, structure and the healthy mix of commissioned and free designs. In content, too, the volume shows a consistent continuation, development and refinement of the distinctive Büro Destruct style, providing an in-depth peek at the collective’s experiments, work methods and background through a number of case studies. In addition, internal projects like Typedifferent, the Los Logos website, Büro Discotec, Büro Discount and Rainbow are exhaustively documented. With their “instinctive graphics” Büro Destruct prove that it’s possible to become both more complex and focussed, older and fresher, wiser and punkier at the same time. Still inspired by literally everything that surrounds them, they have retained their cheeky freedom to (every once and again) dabble in a little cultivated nonsense. Price: £26.99
720 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 9780141031880
16 x 23.5 cm English text. SoftcoverA collection of Penguin covers from Britain and around the world, Seven Hundred Penguins is a celebration of 700 Penguin jackets that remain visually distinctive and addictive to us today, from the beautiful to the garish, design classics to design oddities. A full-colour, sensuous delight, with one jacket on every page, the featured jackets represent the personal favourites of Penguin staff from offices all over the world, and run from Penguin's birth in 1935 to the end of the twentieth century.
Throughout this beautiful book there are jackets that bring back a flood of memories of the first time a book was read; there is typography from Jan Tschicold; arresting illustrations; visual witticisms from Derek Birdsall; countless mutations of the much-loved Penguin grid. There are also, with no formula at all, jackets that just make sense.
Featuring old favourites and plenty of surprises, Seven Hundred Penguins is a unique and inspiring collection of the most impactful and well-loved Penguin covers of the twentieth century.
RRP £20.00
5% online price saving Price: £19.00
19.5 x 14.5 cm English text
What can help you bring back the joy you felt as a kid, the feeling you couldn't resist when you were totally obsessed?! This book features a collection of sticker graphics created by 80 top artists from around the world. No matter what attracts you to stickers, this book has everything you need to satisfy your stickermania Price: £35.00
Southampton Institute 2004
96 pages B&W reproductions. ISBN 1874044600
21 x 29.5 cm English text. Softcover
This book contains interviews with 24 of the greatest graphic designers working in and around the music industry today. They are Adrian Shaughnessy, Stefan Sagmeister, Fred Deakin, R{ick Myers, Kate Gibb, Ian Anderson, Stanley Donwood, Paula Scher, Rob O'Connor, Malcolm Garrett. Elizabeth Kopf, Christopher Murphy, Kim Hiorthoy, Peter Saville, Nat Hunter, Non-Format, Chris Bilheimer, Angela Lorenz, Karlssonwilker, Nick Robertson, Daniel Eatock, Art Chantry, Karl Hyde and Storm Thorgerson. Price: £6.99
Idn/Fabrica 2004
160 pages Colour and B&W reproductions. ISBN 988970658X
20 x 27 cm English text. Softcover
Price: £17.99
Die Gestalten Verlag 2004
206 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 3899550625
Long ignored and belittled for its proximity to comic culture and vandalism, graffiti has steadfastly remained in the public view: ubiquitous and with a natural affinity to architecture it has become a fundamental aspect of the modern city, influencing public perception and borrowed by fashion, packaging, graphic designers and architects alike. An offspring of this grafitti scene, born out of tags and throw-ups, writing is modern urban calligraphy. While the classic New York style of writing originated in typography, it in turn has left its mark on virtually all visual disciplines: strictly speaking the arrangement of space by outlines, writing has become an invaluable influence and inspiration, especially in the realm of illustration, logo design, motion graphics and architecture. Complemented by a number of essays, "Writing" (compiled by Berlin activists and designers Markus Mai and Arthur Remke) now surveys this appropriation of public space and examines the detailed fusion of analogue writing and digital design. Divided by contributors the content spans from straight documentation of this low tech conspiracy to extremely intricate architectural exercises, integrating the unique spatial properties of graffiti writing, its shapes, forms and angles, into three-dimensional objects or buildings. Strict, minimal and purist, Writing is supplemented by a CD-Rom, containing music and a number of experimental tools that allow, for example, 3D rendering of tags. Price: £23.00
Booth-Clibborn Editions 2003
80 pages Colour reproductions ISBN
21 x 30 cm English text. Hardcover
Overkill is a compendium of works by 40 young artists, designers, filmmakers, writers, and musicians from around the world. Each year since 2000 Le Phalanstère (a group of artists based in New York, Berlin and Tokyo) has asked its friends and colleagues to create an original piece based on a randomly chosen theme. This year's theme is Overkill. The end result is a cornucopia of ideas, aesthetics, perspectives and misunderstandings. In the face of the powerful forces of inertia, pretence, and market demands these artists have created Overkill, a diary, a snap shot, a collection of sincere creative acts, which mean only what they mean and nothing else. John Cage said it best when he stated simply "I have nothing to say and I am saying it".
Enjoy…!
Overkill is designed by Miao Wang Price: £19.95
160 pages Colour reproductions. ISBN 3931126714
16.5 x 21.5 cm English/German text. Softcover
A very modern, versatile designer (see his contribution to Coast to Coast), Charles Wilkin of Automatic Art and Design is one of America’s most noted exponents of modern deconstructive typography, juxtaposing multi-layered images with type reminiscent of David Carson. With its splendid 50s colour palettes and a fresh look at classic Americana, his style has attracted a multitude of awards and clients ranging from Coca Cola to adidas. Relying on instinct rather than expectations, Wilkin visually deconstructs the rhetorical line between fine art and graphic design through his unique use of collage, found objects, imagery and typography. Not afraid of mixing the finest of lines with the brash imagery, Wilkin has a way with cut and paste and combining the hitherto uncombinable: in Index-A he takes design apart, dissects it and reassembles it in bold, radical re-workings of anything from Opart to open space, from Panton to Pantone. With a foreword and introductions by Josh Berger (plazm magazine ), Matt Owens and Warren Corrbit (one9ine) Index-A documents this intrinsic and emotive process – it acts as both a catalogue of his informal and dynamic vernacular and a reminder of the importance and influence of individual expression in an extremely commercial world. Price: £23.00
