Notes from The Book Trust Prospectus, 2010

P79 - L. V. Deursen: I also don't like it when publishing is meant to just satisfy a small group. Book publishing is interesting because a book can travel easily, because it can be purchased cheaply, and because it's actually the best device to distribute thoughts and ideas.

P84 - you can talk about the book and you can make dummies, but to all of a sudden have it back from the printer is often quite a shock. Especially the way this book came back - sort of purposefully casual, not very expensive-looking or particularly beautiful.

P86 - I quite like when there are some restrictions in a given project; I think that's actually quite healthy.

P88 - I can imagine a lot of people study graphic design because they have an interest in books and their content; in that sense, maybe it's not to weird that this field is now somehow new and more inhabited by designers.

Why do people want to look alike? Why do they want to do the same thing?

P90 - I can't really say that every graphic designer is a good publisher. Not every graphic designer is a good writer, far from it. Not every graphic designer is a good designer, even! [laughs]

-p91 - creating your own content is a good exercise and it can be really helpful when you have to make work for clients.

- p.98 - Goods allegedly exchange for a single bulb [of tulip]: two lasts of wheat, for lasts of rye, for fat oxen, wit day swine, twelve fat sheep, two hogshead of wine, for tuns of beer, two tons of butter, 1,000 pounds of cheese, a complete bed, a suit of clothes, a silver drinking cup.

From S. Heller, The Art Direction Explained at last

The value of multiple entry points
Any universe simple enough to be understood is too simple to produce a mind able to understand it
John D Barrow, p. 56

The rewards of black and white
- Yosemite: one of the "565 world's 565 largest photographs", p. 63
- p.64, color was considered less real, truthful

The use of parallel narratives
- Glazer: I'm convinced the re's a link between all things... you could take two of the most random objects... a chair and a skyscraper... and you will discover an uncanny series of relationships between them. p.68
It's his creative methodology,free associating in order to uncover hidden interconnections.
-Crossing words out, erasing

The difference between What and How
- p.83 Designers have to think about What, not How.
- P.84. African creation myth in which God gives Man a choice between a happy life as a cattle rancher and "What" - but His refuses to define what illusive "What" is. It's up to man to figure it out. Those who choose to pursue this question must leave their ancestral Africa forever, the same way Adam and Eve had to leave the Garden of Eden.

- p.121 Eike Konig, Hort: Every job is a completely new situation and needs to be considered in a new way. The is no room for self-actualisation, or giving your personal design profile a boost. It's about performing the task, learning from it and enjoying yourself in the process.

- p. 127, Vince Frost: Get used to being invisible. Never treat projects as if they are 'bread and butter'.

Art direction goes digital, Khoi Vinh
Art direction has traditionally meant controlling the narrative.
Art director's talent is ... high level of control. Good at direction is good storytelling. P.163
- options transform an audience of consumers into a constituency of users. Users want to retain at least some level of control. p.165
- the need for an art-director is not lost,... it has been re-distributed across many different fronts.p.166
- it is now a form of conversation, many-to-many paradigm
- see Roland Barthes, 1967 essay The Death of the Author
- good narrative gives rise to great conversation, p.169
- great digital art direction lets users shape their own experiences. P.170

At directing myself, Ross MacDonald
- p. 173 personal work - code for "I don't get many paid jobs these days" . Wow! What about rather "I have found an opportunity to finally do something for myself?!"
- p. 178. It would make life a lot easier if I worked digitally, but what fun would that be? Oh, my!
- p.199. Any aspiring art director, no matter what you do or where you work, should read the book Allure by Diana Vreeland
- Movies on my list : Zelig, Shampoo, Sleepers, Day for Night, Andrei Rublev, My Favourite Year, Touch the Sound, Three Umbrellas of Cherbourg, Broadway Danny Rose, Once Upon a Time in the West, Death in Venice
- p.212, Annette Lens, Selina Konig.
I don't think that being creative should ever require me to 'direct' people and deprive them from certain inalienable rights.. Among them Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness
So i don't want to be called an art director. I would never want to work with people who would agree to follow my directions.
-p218- so that's how i meet David Bowie, genius music legend and world's worst at director. Having said that, i worked with several hundred horrible art directors, and not one of them can sign "rebel, rebel" worth a damn.
-p232- 'the possibility of future work' - If you'll let us take advantage of you now, you'll win a chance for us to take advantage of you in the future.

-p246- Milton Glaser likes to say his role is "to inform and delight" - an expression he borrowed from Horace

Heated Debate: an article on Grafik

A book by Emma Tucker, which is a first ever translation of a renowned 1972 Crouwel/van Toorn debate. Read more on Grafik website

The Infographics Atlas has arrived!

With our piece about Hitchcok films in it. Congrats @adamfrostuk and a big thank you to @srendgen!

Hitchcock graphic in the book

Our Hitchock infographic appears in the Taschen new Infographics book!

Infographic infamy at Graphic Towers! pic.twitter.com/wPDmBbAwmw
— Aimée Stewart (@NativesAgency) November 5, 2014

Is anybody home?

There was an Old Man, who said, "Well! Will NOBODY answer this bell? I have pulled day and night, Till my hair has grown white, But nobody answers this bell!"

E.Lear, 1846

Limericks book, part I, is complete!

The book is finally here! Part One of Edward Lear's limericks "Book of Nonsense" (see some sample drawings here and in the news section) with my pen and ink drawings, with all respect to original illustrations by the author, to commemorate 200 years since his birth. The process of hand-making the book has proven itself to be rather lengthy, so from now on I'm still sending books through the mail, but also accept some donations, to cover postage, time to produce, etc. I hope to hear from you - drop me a line to my email. Here's some photos of how the book looks like:

On the cliff with Homer

There was an Old Person of Cromer, Who stood on one leg to read Homer; When he found he grew stiff, He jumped over the cliff, Which concluded that Person of Cromer.

E.Lear, 1846

Ack! I was at the last chapter!

There was an Old Man of Vesuvius, Who studied the works of Vitruvius; When the flames burnt his book, To drinking he took, That morbid Old Man of Vesuvius.

E.Lear, 1846

Illustrations for Camus' Outsider

Stalin's thinking of you

An old man with a beard

There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, "It is just as I feared!-- Two Owls and a Hen, Four Larks and a Wren, Have all built their nests in my beard!"

E.Lear, 1846

A good book to read

I picked this book for the second time (the first time I only looked at the pictures), now I wanted to read about Grosz' life, and also about the time he lived in. And there was a lot going on in Germany between 1893 and 1959, I must tell you.

Honza's New car highlights

Highlights from the "Honza's New Car" 12-spread children's book I created during my course at Kingston Uni. The book was highly commended at Macmillan children's books competition in London in May 2010. Here's a link to the full book on Issuu.