I’m a little fatigued by all the inevitable post-Book Expo harping, hand-wringing and hubris, so please forgive me if today’s links are a little light on book-book stuff…
Community Organizer — The New York Observer profiles John Freeman, the new editor of literary journal Granta:
Mr. Freeman believes in the inevitability of books—even if, as he will lay out in his forthcoming manifesto for Scribner, The Tyranny of E-Mail, the Internet is engendering in the people who use it habits that distract them from reading. This is the salve he has to offer a chapped and chafing industry. As people cry doom, he’s there to hold hands and assure them that it’s not that bad.
Cover Versions — Starting with Olly Moss‘ Video Game Classics, Design Week looks at the trend of remixing just about everything to look like vintage 1960’s paperbacks. What Consumes Me has a nice round-up of recent mash-ups (thx James!). And, if that wasn’t enough, Drawn! points to the another recent example: classic records reworked as classic Pelican paperbacks.
Which leads rather nicely to Emmanuel Polanco‘s Saul Bass inspired design for Moby Dick:
Throwing Down the Gauntlet — As widely reported elsewhere, Google are preparing to sell e-books according to the New York Times.
Making Mistakes — A fascinating interview with designer Paula Scher talking about creative failure at Psychology Today:
If you find yourself defending yourself and protecting yourself and being outraged about what’s around you, you’re in trouble. That doesn’t mean some things aren’t genuinely outrageous. But you have to ask yourself: Why are you outraged by something? What are you hiding from? What are you defending?
And, on a not dissimilar note…
Use It or Lose It — Indispensable creative advice from ad exec Dave Trott (via Mark McGuinness on Twitter):
If we wait for the right opportunity it won’t happen. It’ll stay in our drawer until the world has passed it by. Times will change and newer, more exciting things will be happening. Now it looks old and tired. Now it’s too late.
If we don’t find a way to make it happen, if we don’t take a chance and overcome lethargy and embarrassment to do it, it will disappear.
Students always ask me what I think they should do.
I tell them, “The answer is always the same two words: ‘everything’ and ‘now’.”
Everything and Now… Everything and Now…
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