Apple Store, SOHO, Manhattan: Wednesday, October 8th, 6:30 - 8:00pm

(Facebook Event Page)

Just a quick note to let you know I'll be speaking at the Apple Store in SOHO this coming Wednesday evening.

I'll be talking about books, design, the creative process, finding time to work on passion projects and other topics, all within the context of living in Tokyo.

In particular I'll be speaking at length on the books Art Space Tokyo and Goodbye Madame Butterfly. I'll go into the stories behind how the books were made and the reasons why we make the books the way we do.

It's a free event and should be quite interesting - pop by if you're in the 'hood!

John Gall, designer of many beautiful book jackets has been interviewed by Barnes and Noble. We get to see his face, hear his voice and peek in on his office — all good fun for fans of his work.

If you're in NYC this weekend, Andrew WK (!!!) will be reading at McNally Robinson on Sunday at 12:30. He'll be reading from the new Paul Frank (clothing designer) children's book, Only in Dreams. More information on the event here. Very sadly I'll be out of the city. On a side note: I've been doing the Manhattan bookshop rounds and McNally Robinson is coming out on the top of my list. If you live in the city and haven't been, I dare you to go, take a seriously look around and not leave with something. They don't have that much shelf space but what they do have is fantastic — and all the better. It reminds me of an expanded Intelligent Idiot (was in the old Las Chicas complex) in that I want most everything they have.

It's been over two months since my last Things Literary post, so I thought I'd throw a new one up on this windy Sunday afternoon:

BBC's Stephen Fry has a wonderful one hour documentary on the Gutenberg press. People tend to forget the press is the coming together of (at least) three or four new and critical inventions. When you really consider the ingenuity and implications of these pieces of the puzzle, the whole is really quite breathtaking. Also, watching these guys set lead type by hand made me think typesetting Art Space Tokyo maybe wasn't that hard after all.

An edgy jab at "free beer" geeks by Steven (note to self: the world doesn't need any more babies named Steve) Poole on giving away your work (in his case, his writing) for free:

If the breathless advocates of “the free distribution of ideas” are serious, they need either a) to come up with a realistic proposal as to how I am to keep feeding myself while giving the fruits of my labours away for free; or b) come out and say honestly that they don’t think any such thing as a “professional writer” ought to exist, and that I should just get a job like anyone else.3 In a way, I’d respect people who came out and said the second thing. What I don’t respect is people who can’t see that those are the choices.

There's a wonderful copy of a recent TV show about Japanese book designer Shin Sobue available on You Tube. It's in Japanese so you may not catch all the nuances, but it offers a good peek into the "otaku" style workspace and ethic of Japanese creatives.

The main portion of the video revolves around Sobue trying to produce an "inside out" book. That is, where the endpapers are on the outside and the cover on the inside. The men in suits are from the bindery and, to say the least, not particularly enthusiastic about the idea. Mainly because they won't be able to guarantee the integrity of the finished product. Anyone who has tried to design something that pushes the production standards can understand the breathless trepidation of seeing his "vision" fulfilled that Sobue is so clearly feeling in that meeting.

I think my favorite scene is with Sobue at the book bindery where he pulls a piece off the production line and sends a shiver of worry into the workforce of the factory.

It's too bad we don't see the end product. And I partly wonder if the book ever got made. Or maybe it's yet to be published. I feel a book like that would be prominently displayed in the new releases section and I've yet to see it in my regular bookstore visits over the last couple of months.

Anyway, a fascinating little documentary into the Japanese bookmaking world.

Most impressive. For the design? For the sheer tenacity and determination required for keeping tabs on number of coffees and beers consumed, taxis ridden, distances traveled, films watched and other miscellaneous details of the daily mundane for three years running now? You be the judge!

Follow Picador book designer Henry Sene Yee as he opens up his brain on his blog.

1. The book covers blog bring us another wonderful roundup of beautiful book shelf designs.

2. The Book Design Review has a collection of their favorite covers for 2007.

3. Magazine.org brings us the best magazine covers of the year.

4. People still make zines? Apparently so.

And finally ...

5. Some thoughts on canonical web designs.

Buying Books by the Foot: New Yorker

"Since the program’s inception, in 1986, the Strand has built scores of imaginary reading rooms, from the prison library in “Oz” to the Barnes & Noble clone in “You’ve Got Mail.” Clients also include window dressers, commercial architects (the Strand furnished each floor in the Library Hotel with a different Dewey decimal category), and people with more shelf space than leisure time. Kelsey Grammer requested all hardback fiction in two of his homes."

Decorating with books: Design Observer
Somewhat related to the above: The Design Observer on books and the shifting of their usage as decorative objects.

'“There was a time, not so very long ago,” wrote Betty Pepis, author of interior decoration books, in the introduction to 65 Ways to Decorate [published 1956], “when books had little to do with the decorating of a home. Banished from the front parlor or the formal living room, they were confined to a den or a library reserved for the purpose... But homes have changed a great deal in the past two decades. Space is tighter.'

Typographic Art: bantjes.com
Marian Bantjes makes beautiful covers, posters and other visual artifacts exhibiting a strong typographical influence.

Five-thousand metal buck$: The New Yorker
On the cult of Leica (oh how I want an M8, tradition and mechanics be damned):

"If you can conquer the slight queasiness that comes from walking about with seven thousand dollars’ worth of machinery hanging around your neck, an afternoon with the M8 is a dangerously pleasant groove to get into."

Ross MacDonald, illustrator, letterpressman and maker of olde books and things for movies has this to say about a book he did for the Zorro movie:

This huge book was created for the film. Printed on vellum paper, hand bound in fifteenth century style. The covers are covered with leather which was hand dyed in a multistage process, and then handmade metal clasps and corners were attached. A design was burned into the leather with a hot iron bar.

Arthur Sulzberger speaks candidly with Haaretz on the future of The New York Times and going digital.

"I really don't know whether we'll be printing the Times in five years, and you know what? I don't care either."

Steve 2: Farrell

Designer / artist behind one of my favorite books in my personal library, Vas: An Opera in Flatland, Stephen manages to blend typography, unconventional layout, photographs and illustrations in ways that shouldn't work but are ultimately tremendously successful (IMO). Strangely devoid of much of an Internet presence, the best I could find on his background is his faculty page at the AI Chicago.

I feel like I must have written about this book before, but if not, here's a smattering of spreads worth checking out. Honestly though, it's an object best experienced in person, in hardcover.

It looks like the hardcover print run has been extinguished and current options for purchase are limited to a suspect paperback reprint or a $498 hardcover leftover from an independent seller. Mine? You'll need more than $500 to pry this guy from my ink stained hands.

Steve 1: Heller
A nice interview with hyper-prolific design writer Steven Heller. Perhaps the most inspiring bit about his life is the sheer amount of productivity he manages to pull off. On what would otherwise be a burden of a schedule to an average Joe:

You’ve managed this freelance career on top of a full time job for 30 years, you’re co-chair of this MFA program, you answer emails lightning-fast and I’m pretty sure you have a life, too...can you divulge for freelance writers some of your Steven Heller time management secrets?

I don’t think it’s a matter of superb time management as much as filling up time. Without getting Freudian or Jungian or Marxian (Groucho that is), I make up for my deficiencies by appearing to be prolific. Everyone works at their own rhythms, which, if we’re lucky, is in sync with our interests and curiosities. You at UnBeige post six items a day — and you probably do a lot of legwork to do that — for some that’s a tremendous amount of work. But it’s your job, and your passion. I simply do what turns me on (and turns off some of the demons and voices raging in my head). I also like being able to tally up accomplishments, and these come in waves. This year my wave is establishing new MFA programs at the School of Visual Arts, like the brand new MFA in Design Criticism (to be chaired by Alice Twemlow) and a few others that are top secret at the moment. Next year, maybe it will be knitting large scarves.

Design Observer report that Steven Heller, a voracious and devout commentarian and voice of the design world has just launched a personal site. It's unfortunate (but perhaps contractually / legally otherwise impossible) that his articles are not currently archived on the site, but rather linked to in their original online publications. Which, in the case of the NYTimes is often behind a pay-wall. (There is a small side-note informing us, "PDF articles will be available soon for download." Hopefully the NYTimes stuff will also be included. Although, not to miss a chance to be pedantic, for the sake of searchability and liquidity of information it would be great if these texts were also offered online in html/text form.) I'm happy to note though that he has archived his interviews for direct download from the site.

For anyone wanting a burst of erudite design commentary, pop on over.

In other news, 37 Signals has just re-released their Getting Real book for free in HTML form, for $19 in PDF form and for $29 in lulu form. Having sold over 23,000 copies at approximately $19 a pop (some of those 23,000 must also be via their bulk discount rate) that means they've pulled in over $400,000 in pure profit since March 1st.

Between this book and their job board they are doing an amazing job monetizing their huge audience. Without putting too much strain on the imagination, one could even see 37 Signals starting a publishing branch of their company. Would it be such a stretch to see them rivaling O'Reilly? 23,000 copies in the publishing world is nothing to balk at. Go get 'em guys.

And of course this is all on top of the real meat of their business: award winning pay-per-month online software.