Posts in Books

Here are a couple of great high res scans from Sarcoptiform’s excellent Flickr stream. Emilienne and Emmanuelle are apparently French books from 1968. I can’t find any more information on them.

The title face looks like Clarendon to me; one of the better uses I’ve seen, particularly on the Emmanuelle cover. And that black background would make a great texture for all sorts of applications. Sharpen > Desaturate, Levels > Select Color Range, or just use in blending mode.

Update: According to Blo in the comments: “Emmanuelle and Emilienne were erotic best sellers, and Emmanuelle was also a film. 10x18cm is the size of the pocket book. It was and still is a collection of novel paperback.”

Via Sarcoptiform

Biology Today was a college biology text book in the 70’s and early 80’s. A Journey Round My Skull has posted some high res scans from the 1972 edition. Beautiful stuff, suitable for textures or printing at these resolutions.

Biology Today via on A Journey Round My Skull

Book Show is an exhibition of artworks, objects and structures that address the physical form of the book thats curated by James Langdon and Gavin Wade.

I’ve always wanted to take a stab at curating the aesthetics of a book, everything from canvas covers to different color pages, so when I saw these books the gears in my head started turning, anyone need any help on that front?

Three Covers 001  |  Source: Joe Krall via Designspiration

Design Observer posted a little behind-the-scenes of Marian Bantjes’ new book cover design. Bantjes walks you through her sketches and path to the eventual solution. An amazing peek into her process. Haven’t read the book yet, but it’s on the way. Some more info here.

Really simple, clean typography fits this publication well. 3 Minutes is from the non-profit organization Designers Against Human Rights Abuse.

Contributors to the project include Bibliotheque, Brighten the Corners, Stefan Gandl (NeubauBerlin), Alex Haigh (Thinkdust / HypeforType), Nick Hard (Research Studios), Jeff Knowles (Research Studios), Abbott Miller (Pentagram), Si Scott, Paul Skerm and last but not least Un.titled.

Display is a curated collection of important modern, mid 20th century graphic design books, periodicals, advertisements and ephemera. Documenting, preserving and providing public access to these original materials will raise the profile of Graphic Design as a source of educational, historical and scholarly analysis for teachers, students, designers and independent researchers. [link]

This is one of those sites I’m hesitant to blog about because I’m afraid you all will go there and buy all the books before I can. Of course Display is more than just a store: their collection is a terrific source of inspiration and history. I’m really impressed with how thoughtfully put together the whole site is; extremely well curated. Seriously you must visit this site — I am having a terrible time picking images for this post because they are all amazing.

I came upon these pictures from the Princeton 1966 yearbook while tracking down a copy of Take Ivy. These shots are reminiscent of those in Hayashida’s book, but they are actually from a year later and were just published in the school yearbook. I went to prep school and I did not look this cool.

What I love about these shots is the feeling of potential that is conveyed. I feel like important things are being discussed; movers and shakers are in the making. It appears impossible to not achieve ultimate focus in this academic environment.

via The Trad

These book covers are part of the Infamous Press book cover concept collection. Designed by Morton Iveland.

via Minimalissimo.

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