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The Casual Optimist Posts

Published April 19, 2012

Midweek Miscellany

Insufficiently Bored — An essay by author Toby Litt on technology and reading (and writing) at Granta:

Proposition: ‘The human race is no longer sufficiently bored with life to be distracted by an art form as boring as the novel.’

Perhaps novels will continue, but instead of the machine it will be the connectivity that stops, or becomes secondary.

What we’re going to see more and more of is the pseudo-contemporary novel – in which characters are, for some reason, cut off from one another, technologically cut off. Already, many contemporary novels avoid the truly contemporary (which is hyperconnectivity).

Rereading All Over Again — Bharat Tandon reviews On Rereading by Patricia Meyer Spacks and Second Reading by Jonathan Yardley for the TLS:

[If] rereading… teaches us anything, it is that the conjunctions between readerly and textual lives will always be unpredictable and promiscuous ones. “What did you make of that book?”, runs the conventional phrase. As we revisit the objects of our reading, like recognizable but weathered landmarks, there can be no full going back, because we are not exactly the same people we were; but the consolation of rereading is the knowledge that we are these different people in part because of what those books have made of us.

Artwork Confidential — An interview with Daniel Clowes about the first retrospective museum exhibition of his work, “Modern Cartoonist: The Art of Daniel Clowes, and the accompanying monograph at Publishers Weekly:

[T]he work wasn’t created to be seen on a wall. The final artwork is the book. But I collect original artwork. It has a meaning to me that goes beyond the printed page. It’s the only [kind of] artwork you can see on a wall that you may already have a personal relationship with. If you read the story that that artwork comes from, you have a connection to it in a way you don’t have with a painting or something that’s only intended to be seen in that context. That made it interesting to me. There’s something about that final piece as an artifact of the printed work that gives it a certain value and magic. My goal with both [the exhibition and the book] is to get people interested in the work and then to read the books. If that is achieved, then both of these will have been a success.

And finally…

Six Degrees of Aggregation — A really fascinating history of the Huffington Post at the CJR:

Huffington Post, they understood, was not an enterprise whose core purpose was the creation of works of journalism—as significant or mundane as that can be. It was in the content business, which created all sorts of possibilities of what it could gather and, with a new headline and assorted tags, send back out, HuffPost’s logo affixed. Content would come to mean original reporting by Sam Stein or Ryan Grim from Washington, as well as Alec Baldwin’s blog, Robert Reich’s rants about the forsaking of the American worker, a “Best Retro Bathing Suits” slide show, “Why Women Gladly Date Ugly Men,” David Wood’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 10-part series on wounded veterans, “Nine Year Old Girl’s Twin Found Inside Her Stomach,” campaign dispatches from the Off The Bus citizen journalists, “Angelina and Brad Wow at Cannes,” and “Multitasking Wilts Your Results and Relationships”—as well as Nico Pitney’s blogging on the violence after the disputed 2009 Iranian presidential elections and the 111,000 comments it generated. Because comment was content, too.

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Published April 18, 2012

The Art of Film & TV Title Design | Off Book

The new episode of PBS Arts documentary series Off Book takes a look at the art of the title sequence. The designers of the titles for Blue Valentine, Mad Men, The Pacific, Se7en, and Zombieland discuss their work, and there’s a lovely bit at the end when they all talk about the influence of the mighty Saul Bass:

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Published April 18, 2012

Q & A with Nigel Peake

I first saw the work of Nigel Peake in his book In The Wilds, published by Princeton Architectural Press in 2011. Collecting Nigel’s beautiful and meditative drawings and watercolours of rural landscapes and buildings, the book reminded me of both of the work of Paul Klee (Highways and Byways, for example) and Rings of Saturn, W. G. Sebald’s discursive record of ambling through East Anglia.

I subsequently discovered, of course, that Nigel had already produced a significant body of work prior to In the Wilds, including illustrations for Ninja Tune, Hermes, the Royal Horticultural Society, Habitat, The Believer and Dwell magazine, as well as several books.

And in this shiny digital age, there is undoubtedly something wonderful in Nigel’s meticulous hand-drawn maps and tumbledown sheds. We corresponded by email.

Do you remember when you first become interested in art and illustration?

I feel like I have always drawn. Some of my earliest memories are associated with painting and the things that surround it, the plastic containers that held the primary colours and the smell from the cheap paint. When I was growing up I did not really think in terms of design or illustration I just had a wish to draw all the time. And that is still true now, I type this surrounded my paints, pens and paper… so maybe not much has changed. Drawing for me, is essentially a way of thinking through a thought or an idea, to document and try to understand what is around me.

What was your first job as illustrator?

When I was still studying and finishing my architecutural thesis I designed a snowboard graphic for a company in California. After that I worked on a project with Ninja Tune…

And how did the project for Ninja Tune come about?

In truth I am not too sure, I remember leaving a zine for DJ Food when he was djing at Edinburgh, I was not even thinking of it in terms of work , I just wanted to share my work with those that I admired. One way or another I ended up drawing the artwork for the Coldcut ‘Sound Mirror’ LP and singles. They were really nice people to work with and I have made a few other things for them since.

You’re also an architect as well as an artist. How does that inform your work?

I am not a ‘complete’ architect – in that I have yet to finish it professionally. I did study it for 6 years. Studying architecture did not directly affect how I draw, but it did introduce me to a lot of different ways of thinking. I read a lot of interesting books and listened to some wonderful conversations. It was hard work, and the studio ethic of working all day is still engrained in me. I am interested in architecture and how it holds all these moments that occur every day. I recently made a book about the bridges of London, these fantastical structures that essentially have become invisible to those who live there. It is amazing to be in a city and look around, and you have all these forms and shapes that where designed and made by us. It is the combination of our efforts.

Why did you decide to move away from the city?

It was not intentional, it just happened. I was tutoring and drawing projects and then I seem to end up in the country, I probably got tired of being in a city. I had been living in Edinburgh for 8 years. At the moment I travel a lot with my work so it is nice to live somewhere that is quiet and simple, and a place that I want to return to.

What is it about the details of vernacular architecture that particularly interest you?

I am not sure, it is probably because it is what I have grown up around. I enjoy how things are put together, and vernacular architecture is very honest in that respect – you can see what holds what up.

Also a lot of things fall apart because of the wind and the rain and old age, and I find this equally beautiful because when this happens you see all the parts that where previously hidden to the world.

It is an architecture determined by what is close to hand and so the materials and colours used are more interesting. Blue twine holds it together and plastic bags and old gates bridge the gaps.

Is there a tension between your love of the countryside and your fascination with built structures?

Not particulary, probably because I look at them with the same interest, when I look at a leaf I am still amazed by the detail and the wonder of it and then when I look at a skyscraper I can not believe that we can make such incredible structures. The only tension is that if I spend too long in a city I want to go to the places where there are no buildings, I particularly miss the sea if I have not seen it for a while.

Do you take a lot of photographs or do you rely more on sketchbooks?

I do take photographs, but not to draw from, but just to remember things that I see along the way. I also like how a camera allows you to frame what is around you – by taking a photo of something you edit everything else around you and that one moment is held. I keep sketchbooks and draw in them every day not because I think it is fashionable or because I think I should but because I will forget things – so I use them to hold those things that might turn into something someday. I think this idea of keeping a book comes from school because for years we sat at tables with books marked maths, geography, chemistry… so it seems normal to keep writing and drawing things into a book.

Apart from nature and buildings, where do you look for inspiration?

Nearly everything I see has an affect upon me, one of my favourite things is to sit and just look, not as a form of procrastination but as a way of observing what is around me. There is so much to see and hear in everything.

Beyond what I see, I know that music is probably my biggest influence. In the same way that I have early memories of drawing – these are entangled with memories of music. My mother played Gracelands on repeat in the house or the car. And my father always had Pet Sounds. On a Friday night we would have record night and each of us would get to choose one to play. I always listen to music when I am drawing or making things. It is such a beautiful thing to close your door for a while, sit at your table and put on a record and simply draw.

You publish some of your work with Analogue Books in Edinburgh. How did that come about?

I studied architecture in Edinburgh and Analogue opened a few years after I had arrived. I remember going in and liking the books they had and more importantly the people who owned it seemed kind. And so I started to bring some work in and got to know Russell and Julie through that. Since then we have published zines and books and exhibitions and probably eaten a lot of McVities biscuits. They are some of the best people I have met through my work. Hopefully in the next few months we are going to make some new things.

Your work does seem particularly well suited to the books. Are you interested in the juxtaposition of word and pictures?

Books are wonderful objects. There were a lot of books around me when I was growing up.

The possibilities are endless, in terms of what words and pictures can do. Making a book is as close as I will get to making an album. With this form, you can tell a story or not, but with each page you can explore an idea, knowing that it will be seen after what went before, so for me there is a beautiful rhythm to a book. The flicking of a page has great joy in it. For now I like making work as a series ( maps, sheds, bridges, birds, billboards, cameras…) and so books are perfect for this exploration.

 

Who are a few of your favourite writers?

To name a few who I can always return to, in no order.

John Steinbeck, Earnest Hemmingway, F Scott Fitzgerald, Seasmus Heaney, George Simenon, Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo, Francis Ponge, Jorge luis Borges, Gaston Bacherlard, Walter Benjamin, Arthur Conan Doyle and John Cheever.

What are you reading currently?

At the moment I am living in Austria and have read all the books I packed so for now I am reading the newspaper.

Thanks Nigel!

Full Disclosure: In the Wilds by Nigel Peake is published by Princeton Architectural Press, and distributed in Canada by my employer Raincoast Books.

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Published April 13, 2012

Something for the Weekend

A stunning new cover for James Joyce’s The Dubliners by German designer Apfel Zet (which reminds me — in a good way — of Tony Meeuwissen’s Woodbine-inspired cover for Billy Liar published by Penguin in the 1970’s).

Consistent Forms of Hostility — With an exhibition opening in May at the Barbican in London, Rowan Moore looks at the enduring influence the Bauhaus school at The Guardian:

Not much united Walter Ulbricht, the Stalinist dictator of East Germany for two decades, and Tom Wolfe, celebrant of the splendours and follies of American capitalist excess. Not much, except a loathing of the Bauhaus and the style of design it inspired. Ulbricht called it “an expression of cosmopolitan building” that was “hostile to the people” and to “the national architectural heritage”. Wolfe called it “an architecture whose tenets prohibit every manifestation of exuberance, power, empire, grandeur or even high spirits and playfulness”.

For Ulbricht it was alien to Germany, for Wolfe it was alien to America. Both agreed that it was placeless, soulless and indifferent to ordinary people’s needs. And if the Bauhaus attracted such consistent forms of hostility, that is due to the power and coherence of the image it presented to the world, of disciplined and monochrome modernist simplicity, usually involving steel and glass.

Translators Jay Rubin and J. Philip Gabriel talk about translating Haruki Murakami into English at the SF Bay Guardian.

And finally…

A Very American Critic — Elaine Showalter on film critic Pauline Kael at the TLS:

Cosmopolitan in her reading, sophisticated about international cinema, and au courant with theories of the auteur, Kael was nonetheless a very American critic. She was forty-seven before she ever travelled to Europe, and from the very beginning, she used her reviews and essays to explore what it meant to write film criticism in the United States, where the movies were always a compromise between art and commerce. “The film critic in the United States”, she wrote in “Movies, the Desperate Art” (1959), “is in a curious position; the greater his interest in the film medium, the more enraged and negative he can sound”. American film critics risked the temptations of selling out to Hollywood, or expressing contempt for mass market films. Kael prided herself on both her knowledge of the film medium and her deep love for the movies, trashy and avant-garde alike. Movies, she wrote in “The Function of a Critic” (1966), “are one of the few arts (along with jazz and popular music) Americans can respond to without cultural anxieties”. She did not intend to condescend to her readers or tell them that their tastes were wrong.

 

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Published April 12, 2012

Midweek Miscellany

A.S. Byatt by reviews Peter Carey’s latest novel The Chemistry of Tears for the Financial Times.

Also at the FT: Jennie Erdal, author of The Missing Shade of Blue, on philosophical novels:

The more novels I read at university, the more I felt that fiction was where truth was to be discovered. I seemed to experience Melville’s “shock of recognition”; which is to say re-cognition, for it was there already, waiting to be reawakened – the knowledge that some things, not least what it is that makes us human, can never be adequately expressed in conventional philosophical prose.

Scheduling Time to Stare Out of the Window — Clay Shirky on boredom (via Nicholas Carr):

It was only later that I realized the value of being bored was actually pretty high. Being bored is a kind of diagnostic for the gap between what you might be interested in and your current environment. But now it is an act of significant discipline to say, “I’m going to stare out the window. I’m going to schedule some time to stare out the window.” The endless gratification offered up by our devices means that the experience of reading in particular now becomes something we have to choose to do.

No Friends But Empty Chairs — Michael Dirda on Philip Larkin for The New Criterion:

As Alan Bennett observed, the poet acted sixty all his life and made a profession of it. Larkin certainly had absolutely nothing going for him physically, being tall and stooping, bald, deaf, overweight, with an occasional stammer, multiple chins and inch-thick spectacles. As if this weren’t enough, he generally wore dark, ill-fitting suits or—when on holiday—prissy shorts or a checked tweed sport coat. (A famous picture shows him in such a coat, sitting primly next to a sign that says “England.”) He wasn’t joking when he said, “Deprivation is for me what daffodils were for Wordsworth.”

And finally…

Generation Intern — Tim de Lisle on the appointment of 37 year-old Lawrence Booth, “the youngest [editor] in living memory”, to the helm of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack:

Today’s young journalists have become Generation Intern, condemned to do one not-quite-job after another. Lawrence’s story offers hope, and some lessons. Be professional and adaptable. Embrace both print and web. Don’t fret if you get laid off. Hold your nerve and keep your voice. Write a piece as crisply as you write an email.

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Published April 11, 2012

Typecaster For Life

“I thoroughly enjoy the sound of the machines turning, and seeing the type come out is a joy”

A really wonderful short film about 80 year-old Lewis Mitchell who has been maintaining Monotype casting machines for 62 years and continues to do so for Arion Press:

 

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Published April 10, 2012

Q & A with Jennifer Heuer

Jennifer Heuer is a book designer based in Brooklyn. Formerly a designer at HarperCollins and Simon & Schuster, she now runs her own studio out of the Pencil Factory. Jen’s striking inkblot design for 1000 Black Umbrellas by Daniel McGinn, published by Californian small press Write Bloody, was one of my favourite covers of last year. As Jen was in a list with many of the usual suspects — several of whom have already been interviewed here — it only seemed appropriate to feature more her excellent work on The Casual Optimist and interview her as well.

Jen and I corresponded by email earlier this year.

When did you become interested in book design? Where did you start your career?

In college I always thought that I wanted to design either album covers or book covers. I didn’t really know how to get into either field after I graduated, but I was fortunate to have Dave Caplan hire me over at HarperCollins. It was a great place to start and Dave was an awesome boss. I was in the children’s department there, and worked on a wide range of covers as well as interiors. It was boot camp in learning how to package an entire manuscript — all the way down to the binding specs and headbands. It was a great way to start thinking beyond the cover and the spine.

I spent about 4 years there learning the ins and outs of book design with a great team. My next goal was to move over to adult book cover design. Simon and Schuster became my new home where I was able to have a blast creating fiction and nonfiction covers for five super talented art directors.

Why did you decide to go freelance?

It’s funny, I’d always dreamed of taking the freelance plunge, but had planned on staying in-house for a few years more before doing so. Thankfully, my husband, Jed, and I shook up our lives a bit and moved to Portland, Oregon for a year. He was joining the experimental team of WK12 at Wieden+Kennedy and I figured I’d be miserable if I sat around Brooklyn without him. So we packed up, and took a few weeks to drive across the country and try something new. The best and scariest decision I’ve made in a long time.

I set up a studio in town and biked to work most days. I worked on building up clients and challenging myself with new projects and classes in and around the area. I even learned how to letterpress! In the end, I’m so glad I took the freelance jump when I did.

Who are some of the publishers you work with?

Just over a year out on my own I’m so thankful to say I’ve worked with HarperCollins, Random House, Little Brown, Grand Central, Penguin, Thomas Nelson, Simon & Schuster, Scribner, Freepress, Ecco, Columbia University Press, Write Bloody, Harvard Business Review Press, and W.W. Norton & Co.

Could you describe you book cover design process?

Each book is different, so the process can vary. But ideally, this is how I hope I’m working:

Naturally, I read the manuscript if there is one. While I’m reading I keep a running list of keywords, signifiers, and themes in my notebook. From there I create some free-association lists of words, trying to decide on a general direction for the look. Then I head to the Pratt library. As an alumni, I have access to the remarkably eclectic collection. The library is where I tend to sketch out ideas. I made these simple worksheets, basically 6 book shaped rectangles on a sheet of paper to knock around some layouts before using the computer. When I’m back in the studio I set up a moodboard on imgspark.com to organize the artwork I’ve created and keep track of art I’ve collected. That’s kinda the whole shebang. I do a lot of prep work before starting the actual design, although you need to be wary of overthinking a project. Sometimes it’s nice to have almost no time at all and just go with my gut. I recently got to do that with the 30 Books in 30 Days project and the Lolita Project.

What are your favorite books to work on? The most challenging?

Well, this may sound super obvious, but I really don’t care what the subject matter is — from brain eating aliens to a medical history, or a memoir on life abroad, to a beautiful love story — as long as it’s a smart, well-written book that I want to pass along to friends and family. Those are the best books to work on. The ones where you don’t feel like you’re doing work while reading the manuscript. The most rewarding projects present a conceptual design challenge, similar to editorial illustration.

Do you see any current trends in book design?

I feel like I’m hearing more and more about making the book an object of desire — something that will be coveted and gift-worthy. And I love seeing smart special effects on covers these days. While this may be the knee-jerk reaction to e-books, I hope it will be something that holds on long enough to make everyone appreciate the object of the book. There also seems to be more attention paid to detail throughout the entire book — from the cover to the end paper to the title page. It’s a great thing to see these days, and solidifies the purpose of the designer.

Where do you look for inspiration and who are some of your design heroes?

Inspiration honestly comes from everywhere. The important part is to pay attention. I try to to get away from my desk and go to the library, museums, read fashion magazines, the newspaper, listen to the radio, watch documentaries and observe closely. I tend to find that when I’m not consciously searching for a design solution, I’m inspired by things happening around me. These things are often times closely related to the project at hand. Perhaps its all synchronicity, but either way, paying attention to what’s around me seems to work well.

As far as heroes go, it’s the people around me that inspire me the most. Friends I’ve known over the years who keep me on my creative toes are an incredible source of inspiration. Of course there are greats throughout the history of art and design, but I feel like I look up to a different person or group of people depending on what I’m working on.

OK, that’s annoyingly vague. Here are some examples: I just watched Senna, and loved the Formula One graphics and footage from the 80’s; the silk screen posters from Slavs and Tatars in the Print/Out show at MoMA were wonderfully fresh and fun to read; found this amazing book of South African block prints while searching for artwork at the library; was settling into the new studio and read an interesting article about brainstorming and the chance creative interactions that were coming out of MIT’s make-shift Building 20.

 

Who else do you think is doing interesting work right now?

I mentioned earlier that my husband and I spent some time living in Portland last year, and the WK12 group was a big influence. Not necessarily in how I work visually, but in thinking beyond the assignment. While I love spending hours in bookstores oohing and aahhing over the beautiful covers, I’ve been trying to look elsewhere when it comes to interesting work.

It spans from the gorgeous Alexander McQueen textiles, to the beautifully clever industrial design of Joey Roth (I love these speakers!). I’ve been looking at the photography of Todd Hido, and love the eye of Jason Fulford. But I try to pull inspiration from the world outside of design and art. Shows like The Moth, Radiolab, and TED are obvious ones, but incredible resources. The people who are doing the most interesting work are those promoting solid ideas and telling those stories in brand new ways.

What books have you read recently?

Non-work related reading? I’ve been really into Aravind Adiga’s novels. I randomly picked up Between the Assassinations from the free book shelf when I used to work at S&S a couple of years ago and loved it. Right now I’m in the middle of his latest. I’m also in the middle of Chronic City which is a blast to read. I tend to be in the middle of a lot of books when it’s not work related, and always seem to lose track of what I was last reading.

Work related, I enjoyed reading Alexi Zentner’s Touch—lovely story! And a soon-to-be-released collection of short stories by Lucia Perillo was a truly good read (got to use a photo by Todd Hido!).

Do you have a favorite book?

That’s a tough one… It used to be A Farewell to Arms, but it’s been so long since I’ve read that. I did a piece for a gallery show based on Leaves of Grass and found it to be amazingly relaxing to read. And a recent favorite (before any hint of a movie, which I think I’ll skip) is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. I loved the combination of visual narrative and traditional narrative to tell a story.

What does the future hold for book cover design?

Oh, I’m sure it’s adorable puppies on every cover. I think my mom would be happy with that! Who wouldn’t?!

Thanks Jen!

You can read more about Jen’s design process in this interview for Faceout Books.

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Published April 5, 2012

The Grass Harp designed by Megan Wilson

Another beautiful Truman Capote cover by Megan Wilson (photograph by Louise Rosskam).

Have a great long weekend.

 

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Published April 4, 2012

Chip Kidd: Designing books is no laughing matter. OK, it is.

Chip Kidd’s talk / stand-up routine on book design at TED 2012:

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Published April 4, 2012

David Pearson, Insights 2012 Design Lecture

Designer David Pearson recently gave a lecture at the Walker Arts Center as part of the Insights 2012 Design Lecture Series:

My interview with David is here.

(via Ace Jet 170)

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Published April 4, 2012

Midweek Miscellany

Comics critic Paul Gravett profiles cartoonist and illustrator Luke Pearson. Coincidently, Pearson has created an amazing cover for a new Penguin edition of Lucky Jim by Kingsley Amis (pictured above).

Desirable Comparisons — Part three of Mark Medley’s series on House of Anansi for The National Post:

“We want it to appear as a very serious, big, ambitious book,” Bland says. “Which is hard to do in a way that doesn’t look like other big books.”

He shows [Pasha] Malla some text-heavy covers that bring to mind the likes of David Foster Wallace, Jonathan Franzen and Jonathan Lethem.

“For Pasha, for various reasons that aren’t mine to say, these are not desirable comparisons,” Bland says. “For us, they’re very desirable comparisons.”

Thousands of folk songs and interviews recorded by Alan Lomax are now available for free online.

See also: NPR ‘Alan Lomax’s Massive Archive Goes Online‘

Neue Haas Grotesk — Christian Schwartz has restored the classic Swiss sans serif typeface for the digital era. There’s a history of Neue Haas Grotesk / Helvetica here.

The Books in My Head — The Quill and Quire profile Canadian independent comics publisher Drawn & Quarterly:

Part of what sets D&Q apart is its focus on high-quality design, incorporating elements like glossy embossing on covers. “We want to treat the comic as the nicest object possible,” says [creative director Tom] Devlin.

While Devlin says he collaborates with authors on design, D&Q’s willingness to cede creative control has given the company a reputation as something of an artist’s haven. Seth says he prefers to work independently, providing the publisher with camera-ready artwork for computer production. “They almost never interfere with my design plans,” he says. “I would not be the designer I am today without D&Q allowing me to make the books I see in my head.”

(Full disclosure: As mentioned in the story, D+Q are distributed in Canada by my employer Raincoast Books)

And finally…

With a retrospective at the Oakland Museum of California and the publication of The Art of Daniel Clowes: Modern Cartoonist, Carol Kino profiles Daniel Clowes for The New York Times:

“I never thought of myself as a museum artist who’s doing work for the wall,” he said. “For me the book is the final result.” He assumes that most people who see his work at the museum won’t know who he is. “But if they have some connection to something they see,” he added, “and then they read the book, the more I’ll feel like the show was a success.”

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Published April 1, 2012

The Book of the Future by Grant Snider

Lava lamps, egg chairs, and “and outfits that would look great in a B-52s music video”… Grant Snider’s vision of the book of the future for The New York Times Sunday Book Review!

 

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