This one's for Vintage...

.......

Another from the Knopf list

And- because you asked, here it how it's done:

PImage img;
PImage img2;

// Size of each cell in the grid
int cellSize = 15;
// Number of columns and rows in our system
int cols, rows;
// Variable for capture device


void setup() {
size(370, 550, P2D);
//frameRate(30);
cols = width / cellSize;
rows = height / cellSize;
colorMode(RGB, 255, 255, 255, 100);
smooth();

// load an image

img = loadImage("skull.jpg");
img2 = loadImage("peanut.jpg");
img2.resize(8, 0);
background(0);
}


void draw() {
loadPixels();

// Not bothering to clear background
// background(0);

// Begin loop for columns
for (int i = 0; i < cols; i++) {
// Begin loop for rows
for (int j = 0; j < rows; j++) {

// Where are we, pixel-wise?
int x = i*cellSize;
int y = j*cellSize;
int loc = (img.width - x - 1) + y*img.width; // Reversing x to mirror the image

float r = red(img.pixels[loc]);
float g = green(img.pixels[loc]);
float b = blue(img.pixels[loc]);
// Make a new color with an alpha component
color c = color(r, g, b, 15);

// Code for drawing a single rect
// Using translate in order for rotation to work properly
pushMatrix();
translate(x+cellSize/2, y+cellSize/2);
// Rotation formula based on brightness
//rotate((2 * PI * brightness(c) / 255.0));
rectMode(CENTER);
//fill(c);
noStroke();
// Rects are larger than the cell for some overlap
//rect(0, 0, cellSize+6, cellSize+6);
//rect(0, 0, 10, 30);
//triangle(0, 0, -15, 15, 15, 15);
tint(c);
image(img2, 0, 0);
popMatrix();
}
}
}


void mousePressed()
{
save("nutted.tif");
.......

Z? Je suis desole...

.......

Joe Monty has an Album

Joe Montgomery is more than just great book jackets

.....

Stigmatized

.....................................

The Conurbation of Grimsby

The indefatigable Peter Terzian interviews David Pearson over at PRINT

Pearson is a footie fan (aren't we all), and his club is Grimsby Town FC (poor sod), described thusly by Wikipedia: "The club is located at Blundell Park in the seaside town of Cleethorpes, part of the conurbation of Grimsby on the Humber estuary."

It's directly between the Slithy Toves and the Tumtum trees.

.......................

Some more from last Knopf list

All of these are, happily, either just back from the printer, or on their way to the printer. In any case, all, thank the lord, approved...


Writings from the late architecture critic Herbert Muschamp. Glossy lam.





Stories. Photo by the brilliant Gala Collette, also featured in the photo. To you puctuation-Nazis out there: the reason there is no period after the author name, is that I was told to lose it. Let's pretend it's hiding behind Gala.




Printed on uncoated stock. The black oil is a black foil-stamp.




A Roberto Calasso arriving at last...




A new Nicholas Fox Weber...




Biography of the great art impresario and gallery owner Leo Castelli...


Two titles on War and Dreams...



By the author of WIZARD OF THE CROW. I was asked to give it the same kind of collage treatment...


A roman a clef, about Fellini- The title as subtitle...

For you sticklers of verisimilitude, here was a reject:

Russian poetry (in collaboration with the great Leanne Shapton)...


Bio of Churchill- an actual photo of Sir Winston watching an RAF fighter plane. In case you thought there was some Photoshoppin goin on...



Stories. A bear, a bike, what more do you need to know?



A history of the magazine CONFIDENTIAL.



A freaking brilliant novel from the bona fide genius Peter Carey. Printed on a laid stock. the gold is foil, baby.


And this one came in too:



And this one...


And finally, these- which were reprinted differently from their 2002 form (who sez there are no second acts?). The distressed paper has been removed and they now have pristine backgrounds.




That's some of them, more coming soon. And soon I can move on to Fall 2010.
.............................................................

There's a judgin' goin on...
More over at
Black Jacket Mechanical

.............

John. Gall. Has. A. Blog.
.........................

BLACK JACK

The Black Jack Competition is now here!

................

More Vinyl Approvéd

.............................................................

Financial Times of London

A nice piece in The Financial Times on the jacket for Laurie Sheck's A Monster's Notes

.............................................................

Well, the response to the Black Jack contest (see below) has been overwhelming. So overwhelming in fact that I have launched a mini-blog (Ben Pieratt deserves all the credit for the name)

BLACK JACKET MECHANICAL


All updates to the contest will hereby be posted on this companion blog- so check it for updates.

Two important facts:

1. The contest will close Monday the 7th of September.

2, And....the IMMENSELY TALENTED Barbara DeWilde and Helen Yentus have agreed to be judges (as well as Ioannis Mentzas, the Editor-in-chief of Vertical Press).

So check the above link for further news...


.............................................................

Want BLACK JACK? The full set? For free?

Ok people- here's the deal: There are a lot of Black Jacks. A whole lot. Many, many volumes. Which is good- because Tezuka's Black Jack constitutes the greatest achievement in manga ever committed to paper. Seriously.

Choosing the colors for these many volumes has been a little spot of pure joy in the life of an otherwise beleaguered designer. I am a simple man (I know) and choosing the colors for this design (of which I am proud) brings me great satisfaction every time. But... I thought it might be fun to open up this process to the readership in order to see if any of you have any radical ideas vis a vis color: what colors look good together, what colors pop, what colors ring your own peculiar bell etc. So dust off your color theory books or just fly by the seats of your collective pants. Anyone, as they say, can be a winner.

Send me your ideas, and if I like your palette, and Vertical likes your palette, we will use it on a forthcoming volume of the Black Jack series and...(wait for it)...I will send you every single copy in the complete set. Yes, all the Black Jacks can be yours! (and maybe I can persuade the incredible folks at Vertical Books to throw in the three Dororos I designed as well? YES). Provisos below.

Here is the basic template. There are 5 colors to be decided upon- the four rectangles as well as the triangular flaps. The top rectangle, and center diamond are for art (to be determined later).

I am reserving the fluorescents for later use, so: nice try.

Can FEWER than five colors be used? Convince me.

Consider that, at most, these are printed 5c. Process color is preferred, but not mandatory.

The winner will get the first eight volumes up front, from me directly, and the remaining volumes when we are done printing them.

Yes, your co-design credit will go on that particular volume.

Send them to me at pmendelsund@randomhouse.com as jpgs.

I will post the best of the lot after I've received a sufficient number from you all.

Sound like fun? It does to me. Now go to it.

..............................................................


(Update) Oh, they are starting to come in now...I've gotten several. Keep them coming! Here's a nice one inspired by a reader's morning coffee (I'm not going to post them all until, as I said, a sufficient number come in. This is just an amuse bouche):

Finally- some have asked about supplying PMS colors, and others have worried about cross-platform color-shift, to which I say: "worry not the details!" You can sketch these comps with a magic marker if you so like; you can send a patchwork quilt; you can use Illustrator, Quark, Etch-a-sketch, Lego, Lite-brite or fingerpaint. I asked for jpgs, but you can send a pdf, a tiff, or anything else if you prefer. Printing details can always be worked out later.

PPS. As an editor once said to me: "Always exceed your mandate." Here is an example sent in recently: Flaps are different colors, boxes similar colors. Break. My. Rules. Keep em coming!!!!




..............................................................

Laurie Sheck Apologizes for Mai Lai

.............................................................

Does everyone know about this site but me?

A journey round my skull. Not mine, but
this guy's.



.............................................................

another LP approved...

.............................................................

New Vinyl

.............................................................

Chermayeff

A book, found in the gorgeous Cape Cod home of the Chermayeff family. I'm not sure the book's provenance, though it looks to be a catalog of designs for the Ballet Russe. A nice detail is the Chermayeff bookplate: "Address found in London telephone book." Thanks to the Konopasek-Shykind family for letting me browse.




.............................................................

Emerson

"There are days which occur in this climate ... wherein the world reaches its perfection, when the air, the heavenly bodies, and the earth make a harmony, as if Nature would indulge her offspring ... and everything that has life gives signs of satisfaction ... To have lived through all its sunny hours seems longevity enough ... At the gates of the forest, the surprised man of the world is forced to leave his city estimates of great and small, wise and foolish. The knapsack of custom falls off his back with the first step he makes into these precincts. Here is sanctity which shames our religions, and reality which discredit our heroes. Here we find Nature to be the circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance, and judges like a god all men that come to her."

Wi-fi makes the "Knapsack of custom" a bit harder to shrug off, but still ...

(I discovered a beautiful little edition of Ralph Waldo Emerson's Essays here in the house. It dates from the 1880's.)

................................................................

Books found in the vacation house

Classic George Salter design.

.............................................................

Some

This little book is a lovely Calvino-esque meditation on death. Each of the forty chapters posits an alternate afterlife; each post-life illuminates and underscores a different facet of our existence here on earth. The writing is whimsical and profound in equal measure. Pantheon decided to reissue it in hardcover. Here is the jacket I made on an extremely (four hours or so) short schedule. Go buy it- it's a wonderful read.



..............................................................

Killed

My collage, (inspired by the collage work of the talented Mr. John Gall), for a French LP...rejected! Dang. Although now I am addicted to having rubber cement under my fingernails (and it smells pretty rad too). There will be more.


.............................................................

Alaskan Eyes

.................................................................................................

The Things They Took with Them

What is Ruby planning I wonder?

.............................................................

STEAMTHING

I’ve been reading (re-reading, dog-earing, margin scribbling) the book THE WRECK OF THE HENRY CLAY which is a collection of wonderfully discursive posts from Caleb Crain's blog STEAMBOATS ARE RUINING EVERYTHING. On every other page there is an idea so compelling, an opinion so original, a reference so obscure that I am constantly itching to share it. Frankly, this is one of the most entertaining and informative books I’ve read all year. The posts range in subject matter from deckled edges in book production, to the causes of the rise in autism, to the correct word for describing a bat in flight ("wamble"), to Milan Kundera's possible communist collusion (of course the author, infuriatingly, speaks Czech as well as French), to tree climbing, to the seasonality of deer flatulence. Also included in the collection: a talk entitled "How is the Internet Changing Literary Style" which should be required reading for anyone who participates online in any capacity; an interview with the late and much missed David Foster Wallace in which our hero holds his own in a discussion of Cantorian set-theory and Platonism; and, what may be the most devastating piece of climate-change poetry I've ever read. Crain is one of those rare writers (rare in general, but even rarer online) who always seem to have la citation juste available to him, not because he is a proficient googler, but because he is so outrageously well-read and deep-thinking.

.....................................................

SUMMER COLD

Tamara is a Genius, or: Things that Show Up in My Mailbox

.............................................................

Hot Type

450 typographical "Tart Cards"
commissioned by Wallpaper










.............................................................

via stephhhd's photostream

.............................................................