Art of Imagination

I'm a sucker for a good visual reference book. When I saw Art of Imagination on the shelf at the store the other week, I couldn't help but put it in my hands. Of course as soon as I lifted the 10 pound(!) book, I figured it had to be good. So I set it on the ground and sifted through the 768 pages containing the 1300 posters and covers and realized that I simply had to have it. I was extremely pleased (giddy is more like it) when I saw the $20 price tag (marked-down from $40). Really, this book should be going for $60.

From the book description:

"Since the beginning of his existence, man has used imagination to create magical worlds that would transport him beyond the borders of reality. Art of Imagination is a trilogy consisting of the award winning Illustrated History series: Science Fiction of the 20th Century (Year 2000 Hugo Award Winner), Horror of the 20th Century (Bram Stoker Award nominee), and Fantasy of the 20th Century creating the ultimate collection. It was in the twentieth century that book, magazine, and poster artists reached new pinnacles of creativity in depicting the unknown. This collection of works by artists and designers of movie posters, books, and magazines provides a hearty feast for the eyes of the enchanted reader. These artisans and their works are the subject of this new must-have book for not only collectors of memorabilia, but for every person who has longed to step into his or her imaginary world, be it one of fantasy, flight, or fear -- if only for a moment."

And given the size of the book, it's a long moment. It's on Amazon right now for $13, but I think after S&H the price will end up closer to what I paid for it locally. If you're into sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genre references, this is a book you'll want to have. Here is only a small sample of the spreads:

Freaky Friday 02

The black and white issue... almost

It's been a busy week so there weren't any updates in the last few days, however I have been making small notes over the week so that this issue of Freaky Friday would have some content.

-- | Font fetish | --


Incognito and Requiem have some new competition for being some of my favorite fonts. Affair has just been released by Veer and hot-diggity it looks mighty tempting.

-- | DRAWing on the range | --


Mac56 of Ranger Bastards (site currently down) from Indonesia has posted a few sweet-looking illustrations on the Graphics.com forums. He uses CorelDRAW of all things. You can view his first posting here, and his follow-up posting here. Lots of good stuff.

-- | Gelukkige Verjaardag! | --


Today is Peter Bruhn's birthday. Peter is the man in the one-man swedish type foundry known as Fountain. Fountain produces some top-notch quality fonts for a very economical price, and you can tell that he loves what he does whether it's owning (and showing off) an original signed type speciman book from Frederic Goudy or creating a funky font after returning from a concert, it's great stuff. (Fountain is another foundry that is distributing one of those typefaces I lust over, Incognito, designed by Gábor Kóthay.)

-- | Calendar niceties | --


In case you're tired of your current calendar already, FontShop has a great little thing that they do. Each month they put out a calendar that you can print out yourself (at 11x17), as well as a desktop, featuring some of their more popular typefaces.

-- | Caps & No Caps | --


For those who are familiar with Upper & Lowercase Magazine, you may be interested in hearing that U&lc is not only not being printed anymore (their last issue was published in the summer of 1999), but U&lc Online also no longer has its own domain. If you've been looking for it, you can now find U&lc Online on International Typeface Corporation's (ITC) website.

The nature of the type world keeps changing. And any online publication is, by definition, about change. U&lc Online began life as an online companion to U&lc, ITC’s award-winning magazine; from here on in, it will begin a new life, in a new format, as ITC’s online voice. Expect the unexpected.

Incidentally, if you're looking for an archive of the printed issues, you can purchase a hardcover book of selected covers, stories, and illustrations called U&lc: Influencing Design & Typography from Veer's Merch store.

-- | Design is Business | --


I love it when graphic design gets exposure in the "civilian" world, and even more so when it gets recognized in the business world. BusinessWeek Online as a neat little write up on the influence of Milton Glaser's work in the world of New York, as well as a little background history on the man himself.

My only complaint regarding the article:

At a recent book signing, says Elizabeth Lupton, a curator at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, young people crowded around Glaser, wanting "to touch genius." Yet Glaser can't claim to truly speak their language. He loves computers but worries that they narrow creativity, which thrives on ambiguity, fuzziness, and the borders between ideas. Computers, he explains, are all about clarity and defined boundaries. Even now, boundaries beckon to Glaser to come and break them down.

Okay, it's Ellen Lupton, not Elizabeth Lupton.

Freaky Friday 01

Design Observer has Observed, Speak Up has their editions of Quipsologies, and Be A Design Group has their Be Aware installments. So I figured it was a great format to take inspiration from and catch all the random things that pop up during the week but don't necessarily warrant a full post by themselves.

-- | Cultivating signage | --


Cultivator Advertising in Denver has done a really nifty thing here using various sign typography for an ad campaign for Ink Coffee. There were five done, and the one pictured above is my favorite. This reminds of the Ed Fella book Letters on America.

-- | Zag that way | --


Marty Neumeier has a new book following his Brand Gap book (which is really good, by the way), called Zag. It looks like Zag is done in the same "whiteboard format" as Brand Gap, which breaks down most all of his points in an easy-to-follow and extremely easy to understand succinct format. (Link from Mr. Surtees.)

-- | Debbie matters | --
Who doesn't love Ms. Millman? I've been following her for a few years now, and have to say I'm more than flattered that she's added me to her "Things I Like" side-list on her blog. Don't forget to catch her "Design Matters" broadcast today at 2 p.m. Central. Today her guest is Gael Towey, Creative Director of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia.

-- | Sweet swag | --
Yesterday my second deck of playing cards that I ordered from GigPosters finally came in. Nice merch!

-- | Friendly fire | --


Richard Friend has been doing some very impressive experiments with his illustrations lately. He's been posting some on Jim Lee's blog, but you can find most of them on his own artshake blog. (Warning: not all his sketches would be considered "work safe.")

Is it real, or is it a model?

The answer is yes, that's a photo of real people on a real campground (thanks to my wife, my sister and her fiancé). This is a technique called "tilt-shifting" that's normally done with the lens of a camera. This came about as a way to solve the problem of having converging lines of buildings and objects in photos (much like the one, two, or three-point perspective often used for illustrations). However, as a by-product, using this technique also makes any birds-eye perspective of a landscape appear as a highly detailed model.

There's a Swiss photgrapher in California by the name of Gérard Pétremand who has some phenomenal examples of this technique. There's also Olivo Barbieri who has made a name for himself in doing the same thing.

One can purchase a lens from Canon for about $1,000. Their lenses will render this technique for any camera that it will fit. I picked up on Nori Ravi's review of the Canon TS-E 90mm f/2.8 Tilt Shift Lens that allowed her to take some exceptional pictures of flowers. However, if you're on a budget there's a $100 option from Lensbabies that would probably work pretty well too. Yet you can do it much less expensively if you're a do-it-yourselfer and feel like doing some hardware hacking.

The last and probably cheapest option (if you already own Photoshop) is, well, using Photoshop. At the beginning of this year, a growing community on boingboing and flickr showcase their own experiments. Some of them are down-right good.

The Photoshop tutorial is surprisingly easy. I had it figured out pretty quickly. As someone who dabbles in photography on the side (way on the side), I feel that this presents a new perspective (pardon the pun) and injects a new sense of creativity in my hobby.

Happy Birthday Saul

Today is the birthday of Saul Bass, born in 1920 in New York City.

He was a prolific designer whose work spanned movie titles and movie posters, to identity design and a corporate identification system for the largest company in the world (at the time, and now bastardizing his design). His work has influenced countless designers and the debate continues (read the comments) whether or not he is the best designer of the 20th century. It's possible that seldom know that he also directed a movie in 1974. In 1981 he was awarded as an AIGA medalist.

He passed away in 1996.

Crosby by Adams in STEP

I have no idea how I missed this on the newsstands earlier this year, but I got incredibly lucky that Hasting's keeps their old issues out. The January/February 2006 issue of STEP magazine has a pretty good interview on Bart Crosby by Sean Adams.

"I think designers should pursue the breadth of their own interests and talents. While I specialize in identification and branding, I’ve also designed interiors, packaging, videos, tennis racquets, clothing, sports and television venues, paper stocks, and furniture. Some people specialize because it gives them the ability to concentrate on and refine a single discipline, or so that they can capitalize on a single, repeatable process. A lot of design thinking and design processes are transferable from discipline to discipline. I happen to be cursed with a mind that’s in constant motion and I’m personally interested in doing a variety of things."

-Bart Crosby

If you missed the printed issue, you can always read the online version of the interview.

There's also a fantastic informational background on Crosby as an AIGA medalist.

Inequality Matters

The AIGA has made available the poster gallery for the Inequality Matters campaign.

"Halving extreme poverty by 2015 is doable but will not happen unless government and civil society act to close the ever-widening disparity—between countries and within countries. Spread the word by distributing the posters."

Such a great cause yet only about 70 AIGA members across the U.S. created posters for it. There were a ton more posters submitted for the Get Out the Vote campaign. I don't know if it's simply because of the difference in the level of exposure for each of the campaigns, or if the majority of us are only concerned in making things better in our own homes and not for the family across the street as well.

Download the posters, print them, and hang them up all over town. Get the word out.