From the monthly archives:

March 2009

Monday Miscellany, March 30th, 2009

by Dan on March 30, 2009

Oh. My. GoshJon Klassen’s lovely illustrations and designs for the movie adaptation of Coraline.

Schadenfreude — Literary agent Nathan Bransford on the “death” of the publishing business:

There are definitely problems with the business… But the industry is not stupid. Like any massive industry that is comprised of tens of thousands of individuals, it is a human institution with some institutional problems and weaknesses. But despite a reading public whose appetite for books is not growing at a particularly fast rate, despite tremendous competition from other media, we’re still here, and we’re doing way better than a lot of industries, including ones comprised of supposed geniuses and masters of the universe.

Japan’s 21st Century Cultural AmbassadorRoland Kelts, author of Japanamerica, profiles Haruki Murakami for 3:AM Magazine.

Isolating the CommonplaceThe New York Times Book Review‘s photography editor Jeffery Scales discusses the William Eggleston photograph used illustrate Edmund White’s review of  Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by (the improbably — yet charmingly — named) Wells Tower.

Give me Twitter or give me deathThe Globe and Mail‘s Ian Brown possibly overthinks things…

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Alternative MangaEric Skillman on designing a template for Top Shelf’s AX: Alternative Manga series at his blog Cozy Lummox.

FiledBy — a social network for authors and their readers, co-founded by Peter Clifton and Mike Shatzkin.

Extended Grey Skies — Henry Sene Yee on designing the cover of David Cullen’s  Columbine:

In the end, I didn’t want to say anything or felt the need to frame the book in any Point-of-View. What really needs to be said? The Publisher had already set the tone for me. As far as the cover copy, there was no author’s name, no descriptive subtitle, no high school, just the word COLUMBINE on the front cover. That said it all.

Router — Jeremy Mickel on the year-and-a-half process of designing his first typeface at I Love Typography:

Several designers have told me how important it is to have a specific use and point size in mind. The idea is that if you try and design a font that’s good for everything, it might not be REALLY good at anything. But if the font works really well for one specific use, then it can probably work well for lots of others.

In search of Chandler — Editorial Assistant Anna Kelly recounts her search for the original jackets of Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep, Farewell, My Lovely, The Little Sister, The Lady in the Lake, and The Long Good-bye for Hamish Hamilton’s new reissued editions. Chandler died 50 years ago this week.

And finally, I’ve mentioned Tom Gauld’s Flickr page previously but,  honestly, it’s so good who cares? Tom’s just uploaded some of his sketchbooks and needless to say they’re genius. You can see Tom’s books at Cabanon Press.

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1/3 Alligator: The Book Cover Archive Q & A

March 24, 2009

Lauded and linked to by everyone from The Guardian newspaper to the New Yorker blog (not to mention the really important folks like Drawn!,  Kottke, We Made This,  and Veer)  the dazzling The Book Cover Archive is — as the name suggests — a hand-picked archive of book cover designs and designers, collected “for the [...]

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Monday Miscellany, March 23rd, 2009

March 23, 2009

The Story Artist — Stand back and admire Cristiana Couceira’s cover for the New York Times Book Review (pictured above) illustrating Colm Toibin’s review of Hiding Man: A Biography of Donald Barthelme by Tracy Daugherty (St. Martin’s Press).  You can see more of Cristiana’s fabulous work at her blog Sete Dias. ma collection de boîtes [...]

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Something for the Weekend, March 20th, 2009

March 20, 2009

Book City Jackets– Printed at a small press in downtown New York, these lovely “updated versions of the classic paperbag bookcover” are made from recycled paper and sized to fit almost any book (pictured above). And they have a blog!  (via swissmiss & Design*Sponge). Near Heretical — The inimitable Mike Shatkin on the story of [...]

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