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Something for the Weekend, September 18th, 2009


Bring the Noise — Toronto illustrator Michael Cho (known locally for his much-loved signage for the now defunct Pages Books & Magazines on Queen Street) discusses his jacket art for the Penguin Graphic Classics edition of Don Delillo’s White Noise.

I ‘m very happy to hear that D+Q are publishing a ‘petit livre’, Backalley Drawings, by Michael next year.

And watch this space for an awesome Q & A with Paul Buckley, the art director of the Penguin Graphic Classics series (coming soon!)…

But Is It Type? — Design educator Ellen Lupton on the difference between lettering and typography for Print Magazine:

I subscribe to the rather rigid theory that typography is about readymade, reproducible families of letterforms. Vernacular hot-dog signs, handwritten wedding invitations, and space-age logos aren’t typography…

Perhaps my quibble is an old one: you just can’t view real typography online. Beautifully printed books and magazines are still the best resource for designers who want to know what’s happening in their field. Yet the design discourse is unfolding in real time on the web, and this is where students and young designers go to participate and be inspired.

And while were on the subject of typography, I thought — as a bungling amateur — that Brian Hoff’s post 10 Common Typography Mistakes was useful. Although I like to think I was surprising good at Cheese or Font (for what it’s worth).

Publish Local — An interesting list from The Task Newsletter (via REFERENCE LIBRARY). Would this work for book publishing?:

  1. Find what’s missing
  2. Work in the gaps
  3. Figure it out together
  4. Make it visible
  5. Make it viable
  6. Research and plan
  7. Expand existing systems
  8. Plan transparently
  9. Start small
  10. Commit to it
  11. Learn about your local flora
  12. Don’t get permission
  13. Print what you’ve got
  14. Make positive spaces.
  15. Find funding

And lastly, I just had to post this…

London Shopping Guide — Revised second edition from 1977, cover design by John Carrod, seen at Covers etc on Flickr.

Two design classics in one: Penguin paperbacks and Harry Beck’s tube map. What more could you ask for?