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Tag: steven johnson

The Innovator’s Cookbook

I had seen the book trailer for The Innovator’s Cookbook by Steven Johnson posted elsewhere and hadn’t paid too much attention to it (elsewhere being wildly more popular than here!) until designer Helen Yentus dropped me a line to say that it showed her process for making the cover’s title letters using a MakerBot 3D printer:

“We really wanted to produce the cover in some way that would fit into the content. The MakerBot guys were nice enough to print the letters for us and they’re a really innovative company. They make the only affordable 3D desktop printer and they run a site where people upload their designs. It’s all pretty cool.”

In the video you can see Helen sketch out and design the letters before they are printed and set up for the cover shoot. It really is pretty cool:

The video and cover shoot were done by YDESIGN.

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Something for the Weekend

EquationsLauren Panepinto’s stunning op-art covers for a new trilogy of novels by Simon Morden, published by Orbit. From the Orbit blog:

These online cover images truly don’t do the packages justice — each book has a single bright colour and in the printed version that will actually be a fluorescent ink. Spot gloss lamination and subtle embossing will heighten the effect of the illusions and make them very nice objects to pick up and stare at — they really draw you in when you see them in person. Here they are separately, and larger, to really start to mess with your eyes…

I immediately thought of Bridget Riley when I saw these…

In Praise of Big Cities — Typographer Erik Spiekermann, author of Stop Stealing Sheep, on cities for blueprint Magazine:

I hardly ever go out; I love to eat at home and can think of nothing worse than a weekend house in the country somewhere. All I would ever need to take my mind off things is right outside. It’s actually a long time since I’ve been to a theatre or the opera, but I wouldn’t want to live in a place that has neither. The thought of all this activity happening outside my front door makes living here attractive. There are lots of cafes, and they always seem to be busy, full of people who seem to neither have a home nor an office to go to. Coffee shops have been described as the perfect place to be out in public while on your own and a good reason to leave your house while avoiding fresh air. I don’t need to go there, but the thought that I could at anytime is enough to avoid feeling lonely.

Iambik — Hugh McGuire walks the talk and launches a new audiobook company with an eclectic collection of literary fiction from independent presses.

And finally…

Good Ideas — Nora Young interviews Steven Johnson, author of Where Good Ideas Come From, for CBC Radio’s Spark:

CBC Radio Spark: Steven Johnson

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Chance Favours the Connected Mind

A clever book trailer for Steven Johnson’s new book Where Good Ideas Come From :

(via Kottke)

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