The Casual Optimist

Books, Design & Culture

May 7, 2013
by Dan
1 Comment

Carolie Bickford-Smith—A Series Woman

In this new interview with Gestalten.tv, Penguin Press designer Coralie Bickford-Smith talks about her love of books, her design process and the importance of research: Coralie’s work is featured in Fully Booked: Ink on Paper, published earlier this year by Gestalten. You can … Continue reading

December 17, 2012
by Dan
2 Comments

Oliver Jeffers: A Quantum of Physics

Gestalten.tv talks to Oliver Jeffers, award-winning author of picture books such as Lost and Found, The Incredible Book Eating Boy, and This Moose Belongs to Me,  about his paintings, collages, installations, and collaborative works, collected in his first monograph Neither Here Nor … Continue reading

June 19, 2012
by Dan
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Fully Booked – Interview with David Pearson and Jim Stoddart

GestaltenTV have been reposting some of their past videos, and I just came across this interview with designer David Pearson and Penguin art director Jim Stoddart from 2008 for the Gestalten title Fully Booked: Cover Art and Design for Books (currently unavailable sadly):

June 6, 2012
by Dan
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Midweek Miscellany

I really enjoyed Naïve: Modernism and Folklore in Contemporary Graphic Design, so I really think I have to pick up  Echoes of the Future: Rational Graphic Design and Illustration, also published by Gestalten. A “compilation of recent graphic design and illustration … Continue reading