After a slew of beautiful entries, I’ve chosen my winner for the Romeo and Juliet Re-Covered Books contest – Christopher Porter. Chris is a designer from Falmouth, Cornwall who wanted to create something contemporary:

I’ve tried to go with a direction that would appeal to younger generations, the Irvine Welsh generation, the sort of people who are more than likely to judge a book by it’s cover.

I think he’s done exactly that. I like his cover for a few reasons – typography, color palette and choice of image. As with a lot of entries, typography, or the lack there of, tends to be a major problem. Chris uses only two typefaces, both of which are appropriately used. The script used for William Shakespeare is so damn beautiful and gives his name such life, it’s a perfect application.

As for the imagery, I love this old photo he found of a dead couple. What I find most interesting is that they aren’t perfect of beautiful, they’re real people. They might not be the correct age, but I think that’s ok. I’m sure we’ve all felt that yearning for true love at many stages in our lives, and this reflects that in some ways. I also love the addition of “Love Is Toxic”, which makes me think of Britney Spears, and I’m guessing others would as well. Overall this one felt the strongest, especially because he created a whole package to show the full idea. Well done Christopher!

Check back in the new year for our next contest, and if you have any suggestions for books you’d like to see, please put them in the comments.

Bobby

I figured to get your creative juices flowing for the Romeo and Juliet Re-Covered Books Contest I should point you to a guy who’s creating amazing covers. His name is Peter Medelsund and he’s the senior designer at Knopf, making covers both complex and minimal, but always getting the point across. I was introduced to Peter’s work through his Kafka covers, which I posted about back in January. Since then I’ve followed his work, soaking in and figuring out what he does and how he does it.

What I really appreciate about Mendelsund’s work is how effortless he makes it seem. I’m sure he labors and toils while he dreams up these covers, but you wouldn’t know. His work adorns the covers of books from all genres, manga to poetry, but each one looks and feels special. I’d suggest looking over the links below as well as reading this interview he did with design:related to get his backstory.

Peter’s website
Jacket Mechanical, Peter’s blog
The Book Cover Archive featuring Peter Mendelsund

Bobby

A while back I received a small package from the kind folks at Trapshot Archives, an independent press from Montreal which caught my eye. Their goal, to encourage the work of up-and-coming creative talents, definitely matches those of this site, and the contents of the package they sent further proved this point. What you see above is a small book with the works of Erika Altosaar called L’Anonyme, which “charts a transformation in understanding sexuality, sensuality, gender programming, and the particularities of being a She.” There’s something so primal and sexual about the images she created, like dirty drawings you wouldn’t want your parents to find, but with a poetic beauty attached. The ethereal shapes she’s created bear the fingerprints of their creator, both literally and figuratively, hear charcoal smears creating the abstract shapes of womanhood.

This wouldn’t normally be something I would post about, but I’ve been pouring over it this weekend and realized why Altosaar is starting to pick up so much steam. I featured her work previously in a collected edition titled E’tranger, works that seem like a more complex version of these found in L’Anonyme. It’s exciting to see where her work will go next.

You can snag yourself a copy of L’Anonyme by clicking here.

Bobby

The contest to redesign The Outsider proved to be difficult, or at least that’s how it seemed. The task was a bit difficult, not using any sort of typical imagery that you associate with The Outsiders, i.e. a bunch of guys standing around in leather jackets smoking. Using that kind of imagery seemed too easy to me, so I wanted to see something that was a bit outside the box, something that required some creative thinking while still staying true to the feeling of the book.

Of all the entries, I felt that Cory Bujnowicz’s entru was the best. As Kyle put it so well, it almost feels like something Barbara Kruger would make, completely basic in typography but strong in visual elements. As Cory put in his email, “What punk didn’t paint their nails when they were younger?” The colors are also really interesting to me because they’re so, for a lack of a better term, fucked. Putrid greens mixed fluo pink and baby pink text. It’s feels “edgy” but without trying too hard. It really just brings me into the piece and makes me want to stare at it, to try and figure it out.

Congrats Cory, you did an amazing job, I’ll be sending you $100 to Amazon shortly. Check back next Monday when I announce the next Re-Covered Books contest.

Bobby

In 2000, threatened a massive computer network to all humanity. The only hope is the sexless Frug Nelson, half man, half mushroom. Frug has at his Steis PS/3-Schnittstelle one with which he can make contact with computers. The world government has one last hope: Frug Nelson!

That’s the abstract and bizarre description for Fabian Jochen Kanzler & Steve Michaelis’ beautiful book called Frug. It’s 256 pages of amazing, random looking imagery that’s somewhere between TV static, pixels and wood grain. I honestly have no idea how they created these images, but there’s such an amazing diversity to each of them, it’s pretty astounding. The book is also wrapped in an A0 sized poster, which would be pretty rad to frame and put on your wall.

Check out the video below for a walkthrough of the book.

Found through Today and Tomorrow

Bobby

Funny enough, Alex has started moving away from the Spacesuit of the Week a bit and then I run into a funny little spacesuit related gem. It’s a book from Andrew Kolb, which is basically a children’s books adaptation of David Bowie’s song, Space Oddity. It’s a great song filled with wild imagery, and Andrew’s interpretation is spot on. The story has sort of a 2001 kind of vibe, but mixed with something you may have seen a in a Golden Book story from long ago. I think it’s a real crime that this isn’t published yet, what parent wouldn’t buy this for their kid?

P.S. You may have seen Andrew’s work on the site before, he did this beautiful poster inspired by The Walking Dead television show.

Bobby

I was catching up on old issues of New York Magazine that I had piled up on my desk a few weeks ago and stumbled upon a really great book review that really struck me. The review was for Simon Reynolds newly released book, Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction To Its Own Past.

While I’ve only read a review of the book, talk of people being obsessed with the past, tied to constant references in art to the past, and an inability to create something new is something that has recently been on my mind. As someone who works as a writer concentrated around entertainment, I contribute to a lot of different sites and networks, all of which are great and super fantastic outlets for Internet conversations. Some of them, however, are seemingly entrenched with the notion of childhood and what was cool “when we were little.” There’s nothing wrong with nostalgia or a shared cultural memory of things we adored growing up. That is fine. That is great. I love talking about how much I loved Sister Act and the Spice Girls! Give me a tiny soapbox and I will preach about those two pop cultural moments at length.

The problem that we are running into though is that we’re sinking in this conversation. What this talk sounds like is, “Oh, wasn’t it great to be young? That was fun.”, when the conversation actually sounds more like, “Oh, wasn’t it great to be young? I wish I was still young.” The difference is somewhat terrifying and that’s what’s been haunting me. While at work, I was working on Twitter and couldn’t help but notice that the only items trending were Keenan and Kel, All That, and Clarissa Explains It All. I was wondering why other things weren’t trending but realized what was going on: the seemingly well-intentioned–and something I supported when the press release was announced–90s Are All That was broadcasting.

The idea of 90s Are All That is something that sounds brilliant and is something we have all talked about with our friends: a desire to see shows from our childhood re-aired for our enjoyment now. Sounds great, right? Well, it is. The problem, though, is that these shows haven’t changed. These shows that are re-aired are the same things we used to distract ourselves from schoolwork as children and now, as adults, we have these late night distractions masked in nostalgia that we’ve been craving distracting us from living a life. Like avoiding homework as kids, perhaps the reason why it was trending on Twitter and continued to trend on Twitter for weeks now and is clogging the pages of Buzzfeed is because we are associating these shows with “happy times,” aka when we didn’t have responsibility.

Maybe I’m just examining this too caustically, but even the fact that Keenan Thompson is on SNL, Urban Outfitters is selling shirts with Kelly Kapowski on them, and we have songs like Don’t Wanna Go Home by Jason Derulo, which mashes both Robin S.’s 90′s dance hit “Show Me Love” with Beetlejuice made famous Day-O by Harry Belafonte. All of these sound great and, in theory, they are great but in reality they are quite disgusting, gratuitous pop culture vomits that seem to have been the product of a Human Centipede-like process.

I would place this blame on the Internet and the popularization of the Ironic. We can share moments of, “Hey, remember this? It was awesome!” so easily and without research or without an organic cue to remember these things that the rediscovery isn’t discover at all but a moment of boredom manifesting itself via a YouTube video showcasing the opening sequence to Eureka’s Castle. It’s intended to be ironic and funny and cute to share these things but, at a certain point, it becomes miserable. It becomes intolerable. It becomes this excuse for a person’s lack of diversity in how they entertain him or herself. It’s lazy and it’s boring: you already lived through the experience of this entertainment, why re-experience it?

We want to re-experience it because we 20-something and early 30-something adults are not adults: we are adult children. We’re stuck in this Neverland complex of not wanting to grow up, therefore we seek solace in artifacts from our youth, from happier times. Entertainers know this and abuse this privilege because we let them. There is a market for Retromania. Instead of the occasional movie based on a comic book or remake of a movie or song or sequel to anything, we are being bombarded with a constant stream of recreation that do not need recreating in order for us to re-experience experiences we’ve already experienced.

Don’t get me wrong: when I heard Xiu Xiu was covering Rihanna’s Only Girl In The World or that The Thing was getting a redo, I about pooped onto already pooped poops. Why? I wanted to see a new take on an old form of entertainment. That’s the intention behind any remake or reboot: bringing back something people remember after they’ve forgotten about it.

But, when you think about it, both things I just mentioned are a little despicable: Rihanna’s Only Girl In The World, although fantastic, is a song from an artist who interpolated a Soft Cell song for her first single only to go on to blatantly rip off late 1990s European techno’s drop out chorus format; moreover, 1985′s The Thing, although brilliant source material, is a remake of 1951′s The Thing From Another World but updated with actual frights. Remaking and rethinking is a wonderful thing, but when we have Spiderman getting rebooted and Wonder Woman having tried to get rebooted and, as NY Mag even said, Ariel Pink sounding like “they’re hallucinating the records they might have owned in some alternate-universe version of the eighties,” one has to draw a line and admit we are getting lazy as an audience for putting up with this shit.

I understand that you readers are well aware of this phenomena and are not champions of Retromania. However, if you aren’t already doing this, you need to be pushing through this entertaining trash to create things that are different and are, maybe, inspired by the past, but are not “the past.” Moreover, you cannot allow yourself to be simply entertained by recycling. Don’t let things like hipsterdom distract you to crusade to get a shoe made popular in a movie made in real life. Things like that sound cool but, really, who are they helping? What are you doing when you leave the house in high-waisted jeans your mom once wore (aka, “Mom Jeans“) you recently purchased from a cool store? What are you doing when you rip off Barbara Kruger by making some “clever” Keep Calm And Carry On based piece of art? What are you doing when you make a song that, essentially, is Daft Punk but not as good? What are you doing when you aspire to make a new car but the car is just an old car you made with a new paint job?

You are not doing much. You may be working hard, yes, but you are not doing much. You’ve brought something to the dinner table, yes, but it was old fruit that are edible but boring. Creativity is about making something new. Anything you have to create should not be preoccupied with the past but with the future. I remember my aunt, who has worked as a professional musician for over twenty years now, explained her job to my father: she said that her job is to “constantly create something out of nothing” and then try to sell it. I feel that is the perfect definition of creativity.

We are in a doldrum of creative media and need to rethink how we are entertained and how we entertain. Instead of being individuals, we are abusing our past by way of the Internet. We are being lazy. We are not being creative. We are stuck in nostalgia and the retro: the past will undoubtedly backfire into the future. Even though I have not read Retromania yet, I know it is going to be at the top of my 2011 book list. With that, I leave you with an excerpt from 2010′s You Are Not A Gadget by Jaron Lanier.

Pop culture has entered into a nostalgic malaise. Online culture is dominated by trivial mashups of the culture that existed before the onset of mashups, and by fandom responding to the dwindling outposts of centralized mass media. It is a culture of reaction without action.

KYLE

In the creative and print industries where long term is often as short as a few months and short term is tomorrow first thing in the morning, it is remarkable that the Imagination book series produced by paper manufacturer Champion Papers was able to succeed and flourish for over two decades from 1963 to 1986. During that time, 26 issues were produced and acclaimed designers, such as Carl Regehr and James Miho, brought their talent and innovation to the pages.

Initially in the early 1960s, Champion Papers began to idle with run-of-the-mill Dunder Mifflin-like marketing where its main focus was on paper sales and order volume instead of the inventive ways paper could be used by the creative industry. But starting in 1963, Champion Papers made a game-changing decision by electing to adopt a different business approach after a survey showed it was virtually unknown to designers, art directors, and creative printers at the time. In response to the findings, Champion Papers became determined to reach out to that elusive market. This effort resulted in the production of Imagination, an annual print publication targeting the design community and showcasing the varied creative uses of paper in stunning ways.

Each Imagination book has a distinct theme beautifully executed through the use of photography and illustrations richly printed on a diverse range of paper grades using a number of different printing and finishing techniques, such as fold outs, die cuts and specialty bindings. Enlightening and educational text exploring the theme often accompanies the images. For example, the theme of Imagination 25 (shown above) is “Fun and Games,” where the text investigates the toys and recreational pastimes of numerous cultures and the value placed on play by ancient and contemporary societies as a means to learn and recreate. Other Imagination themes include a wide range of topics, such as ships, flight, and time.

Creating an issue of Imagination involved a great deal of resources and effort. A single book often took almost a full year to complete. The material used in the series was deeply researched and the design concepts carefully considered so that they would be long-lasting and classic with each issue building on the one before it. Sometimes an issue consists of just one bound book. Other times an issue comprises a set of individually packaged publications in custom carriers. Whatever the format, however, the editions of the Imagination series became long-lasting paper reference tools for creative professionals, many of whom safeguarded their copies over the years due to the unique presentation and engaging content.

photo credit: Robin Benson for his images of Imagination 2 1963  ”Flight”, Imagination 8 1965  ”Ships & Boats”, Imagination 24 1983 “About Time”, and Imagination 25 1985 “Fun and Games”

Cirrus

I received a Google notification this morning saying that io9 had posted an article citing something from TFIB. Unfortunately I was in an orientation this morning and didn’t have a chance to really read the article, only seeing that io9 had decided to use the poster that Frank Chimero had created for the old Kitsune Noir Poster Club created way back when, which is how I got looped into this. Sadly, it seems that the school board of Republic High School in Missouri has banned the book from the school, citing a complaint from Missouri University professor Wesley Scroggins. Here’s what he had to say:

This is a book that contains so much profane language, it would make a sailor blush with shame. The “f word” is plastered on almost every other page. The content ranges from naked men and women in cages together so that others can watch them having sex to God telling people that they better not mess with his loser, bum of a son, named Jesus Christ.

All I have to say is that’s fucking stupid.

So in response, the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library is giving the 150 students who were effected by this decision a free copy of the book, effectively fighting the ridiculous censorship imposed by the school board. Not only that, but Frank Chimero will be donating 100% of the profits from the poster he created to the Memorial Library to be able to ship more books out.

Please join me in supporting the Kurt Vonnegut Memorial Library, Frank Chimero, and freedom of speech by either purchasing Frank Chimero’s Slaughterhouse Five poster on Society 6 or by donating directly to the Memorial Library. It would also be helpful to spread the word about this and contact the school board and superintendent directly about this. Banning books is and will always be wrong.

Bobby

A few weeks ago those wonderful folk over at Sing Statistics published their third book entitled Reverence Library – Volume One. Following on from their 2009 publication We Are The Friction (which Bobby wrote about here), Reverence Library see the publishers once more teaming up with an amazing group of writers and illustrators to explore the relationship between words and pictures.

Reverence Library is the first in a series of abridged pocket encyclopedias, which founders Jez Burrows and Lizzy Stewart describe as being ‘inspired by fact and reworked by fiction’. Volume One comes in three parts and features interpretations and collaborations by writers and illustrators on the subjects of Galleons, Nikola Tesla and The Trans-Siberian Railway.

Over the last few days I’ve been breezing through my copy and, as you can see from the images above, it’s an absolute beauty. Amongst the 18-strong contributors you’ll find the likes of Always With Honor, Joshua Allen, Meaghan O’Connell and Damian Correll (above – Tesla). I particularly love Luke Pearson’s piece which you can also see above. It tells the tale of a 16th century fire ship told from the point of view of the ship itself. The book costs just £10 (roughly $16) and can/should be bought here; it comes highly recommended.

Philip