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Tag: retro

Published May 5, 2016

Today in Micro-Trends: Cassette Tape Book Covers

This is another one of those posts that started out on Twitter — a flippant tweet from me sparking a conversation about books with cassette tapes and vinyl records on their covers. It turns out that putting a record on a cover has become quite popular. Unfortunately the composition of many of these covers is often strikingly similar, even if the tone/intent is different.

design and illustration Chloe Cushman
design Michel Vrana
design James Paul Jones

The combination of clunky retro-future technology of cassettes and the DIY aesthetic of mix tapes, on the other hand, provides a richer vein of inspiration…

Art Behind the Mixtape design UnderConsideration
The Art Behind the Tape by Marshall “DJ Mars” Thomas, Djibril Ndiaye, Maurice Garland, and Tai Saint-Louis; design UnderConsideration (2015)

Big Rewind design Regina Starace
The Big Rewind by Libby Cudmore; design by design Regina Starace (William Morrrow / February 2016)

Counter Narratives Palgrave Macmillan
The Counter-narratives of Radical Theology and Popular Music edited by Michael Grimshaw; design Palgrave Macmillan Design (Palgrave Macmillan / May 2014)

don't-you-forget-about-me
Don’t You Forget About Me by Jancee Dunn; design by Catherine Casalino (Villard Books / July 2008)

9781846146459
Earthbound by Paul Morley; design by Jim Stoddart (Penguin / August 2013)

he died with his eyes open design Christopher King
He Died with His Eyes Open by Derek Raymond; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / October 2011)

Iron Rose design W H Chong
An Iron Rose by Peter Temple; design by W. H. Chong (Text / June 2016)

Kill Your Friends design Glenn ONeill photo colin thomas
Kill Your Friends by John Niven; design by Glenn ONeill; Photograph Colin Thomas (Cornerstone / July 2014)

Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death design Jim Stoddart
Landscapes of the Metropolis of Death by Otto Dov Kulka; design by Jim Stoddart (Penguin / March 2014)

UMN28 Walsh Bootlegs D1.indd
Bar Yarns and Manic Depressive Mix Tapes by Jim Walsh; design by Michel Vrana; lettering by Robert Lawson (University of Minnesota Press / NYP)

New Sorrows design Clare Skeats
The New Sorrows of the Young W. by Ulrich Plenzdorf; design Clare Skeats; cover art by Joel Penkman; series design David Pearson (Pushkin Press / September 2015)


Signal to Noise by Silvia Moreno-Garcia; design by Erik Mohr (Solaris / October 2015)

Tape
Tape by Steven Camden; cover art by Keri Smith (HarperCollins Children’s Books / January 2014)

Tsar of Love and Techno design Christopher Brand Photography Bobby Doherty
Tsar of Love and Techno by Anthony Marra; design Christopher Brand; photography Bobby Doherty (Hogarth / October 2015)

(I also rather like this tape-related killed cover by designer Na Kim)

So there you have it — cassette tape book covers are a thing. But please let’s not get started on VHS tape book covers…

design Jamie Keenan
design David Drummond
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Published July 10, 2013

Uncovered QOTSA

I’m surely oh-so-late to the party on this, but Nouvelle Vague’s Olivier Libaux has recorded a new album of Queens Of The Stone Age covers performed by female singers.

The Wall Street Journal spoke to Libaux about the album:

“I remember I was already thinking about doing an album like mine back in 2006, when touring with Nouvelle Vague…I was sure some Queens of the Stone Age songs would become wonderful, played softly, sung by female vocalists.”

Rather than make the covers album into a Nouvelle Vague project with French singers, though, he was keen to try something different.

“I wanted the album to be performed by English-speaking artists,” Libaux said. “I know that Nouvelle Vague sometimes sounded funny because of some of our singers’ accents. But my ‘Uncovered QOTSA’ had to be 100-percent accent free. I believe it’s because I wanted the lyrics to be as close to the bone as they could be. I then listed all my favorite female singers of this world and sent tones of e-mails. I was very fortunate since many of these singers answered ‘yes’ without any hesitation.”

Its charm may well wear thin on repeated plays, but you can currently stream the whole album at Soundcloud and decide for yourself:

If nothing else, I’d love to know who did the jazzy Milton Glaser-esque art.

The album is out in the US on July 16.

(via Largehearted Boy)

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Published June 15, 2013

Beauty in Danger


The rather lovely experimental animated short Beauty in Danger is collaboration between MK12 and New York-based artist Brian Alfred, with a score by Ian Williams from Battles. I don’t know what it means, but I’m not sure it matters…

And if liked that (and why wouldn’t you?) now would seem like a good time to remind you about MK12’s short experimental film TELEPHONEME from a couple of years ago.

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Published December 6, 2011

Ken Barber, House Industries

In this fascinating interview, Gestalten.tv talks to Ken Barber, lead letterer at the amazing House Industries, about lettering, typography, and font design:

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Published August 17, 2010

TELEPHONEME

Inspired by The Alphabet Conspiracy and other educational films from the 1950’s and 1960’s, TELEPHONEME is a hybrid live-action and animated short created by design collective MK12 about the science of the alphabet and sinister hidden messages carried by language:

MK12 also developed a special typeface for the film that can be downloaded from the TELEPHONEME website.

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Published July 15, 2010

Interview with Rich Roat, House Industries

A design:related interview Rich Roat, co-founder of House Industries, about starting a foundry, type trends, and the future of type design on the web:

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Published September 24, 2009

Sunnyside

I just picked up  copy of Glen David Gold’s most recent novel Sunnyside.

Book Covers Anonymous gave the British cover — with a whimsical illustration by Adam Simpson — some love back in July, but I think I prefer this lovely elegant, and understated cover by Megan Wilson for the US edition published by Knopf:

You can see more of Megan Wilson’s work at her website, including these rather lovely covers for Vintage’s Richard Yates reissues:

Young Hearts Crying: Photograph by Richard Rutledge

A Special Providence: Photograph by John Rawlings

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Published August 25, 2009

Megan Abbott Noir Covers

For all my love of clean lines and Swiss modernism, I’m also a total sucker for trashy pulp paperback covers and film-noir movie posters, so when I stumbled across these covers illustrated by Richie Fahey for Megan Abbott‘s crime novels, I thought I should post the series:

Meg Abbott interviewed in 3:AM Magazine.

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