Sm;)e

This makes me smile. Mona Lisa is seen through the eyes of 6 and 7 year-olds and a few grown-ups. Another great project from illustrator Marion Deuchers, with animation by studio aka in the UK. The book makes me happy too. 

Some of my favorite Mona Lisa smiles. More can be seen here. 

See a whole crowd of Mona's here.

The Eskimo Book

The Eskimo, a 15-page scrapbook, has long been sold off on Etsy, but I find the book so endearing I wanted to include it here. There is no name or age given, but it is said to be made as a class project in the 1930s, rendered with construction paper, crayon, pencil, and ink. A close look at the hand-cut letters on the cover reveals some clever production handwork, as it appears this young student folded some of the symmetrical letters (The H, E and O) in half before cutting them out. I'm not sure what the intention of the four cornerpieces were, however the choice of the muted color palette perfectly suits a book on the Eskimo, as in theory, these monochromatic colors typify the landscape of the frozen North. I think the standout image of the entire book is by far, the 3-legged black polar bear silouette. It's a stunning design—almost postmodern in concept with it's simplicity—though my guess it was copied from a photo. None-the-less, it was very perceptive to willingly illustrate a polar bear in black on white, which is contrary to our very notion of one, but it works beautifully. I hope the teacher gave this kid an A+ on this book. It is well-deserved.

To see more kids book art, checkout the former Letterology links on The Story of Paper and the original AutoFaceBook.

The Story of Paper

As promised, I present the companion book to "The History of Printing", featured in my previous post; "The Story of Paper" written by a young Joe Obzina in room 5A at John Hay School in Seattle. There is no date on this book, however I believe it to be from the same era as the book on printing which was 1930. What leads me to think this is the last chapter  where Joe includes a list of 27 pulp and paper mills in the State of Washington in 1928. This charming book was another estate sale find from several years ago, found in stacks of well, paper.
     The binding of this book is a Japanese "stab binding", and coincidentally it uses the same grey binding cloth on the spine as the Printing book did. The other similarity between the two books is the cut construction paper lettering for the cover design and a simple silouette of a silkworm which is instrumental in the making of Japanese papers. They both match the sewing thread and the interior endsheets. The book measures 7.5 x 9 inches, making it just a bit larger than the other. 

The title page is simple and plain, and lacks any sort of typographical hierarchy or ornament. Joe was not an adventurous book designer.

The history of paper coincides with the history of writing, which Joe gives only slight mention in his first chapter on "Ancient Writing Materials".

Joe is actually a much better writer and speller than young Albert was, but could take a lesson from him on illustration and layout.

The tipped-in "School" and "Special Paper" samples are a wonderful addition. Following these are lists of 36 different "Kinds of Paper" and 52 different "Uses of Paper", from Blotters to Parasols.
 

Side Note: Pardon the recent Letterology makeover here, but I inadvertently pushed the wrong button the other day and there is no quick fix. I tried googling "Why doesn't Google understand the definition of the word 'Revert'", but got not reply. Time for that big move over to Wordpress soon! 

Building Letters

From Ombu Architecture via Open Culture. Reminds me vaguely of a wonderful architectural alphabet designed by my former student, Shinya Iwaki back in 2009 for an experimental typography class. Except his alphabet was based upon actual buildings which resemble the actual letters from A to Z. Worth a revisit!

      

Shin researched and illustrated each building based upon the original architectural designs, and drew them all to scale. He arranged them in alphabetical order and created a poster with credits for each building. He also letterpress printed his Cityscape alphabet in an edition of 100 as a set of 26 individual cards. Wishing now he would release a second edition...

 

19th C Cold Type

Time for another episode of winterized cold type of the snow-capped kind. 'Tis the season afterall. The lovely rustic typographic greeting above, dripping with icicles, is brought to you by the Diamond Ink Company of Pittsburg. Okay, I lie...it is page 186 of the 1870 Harpel's Typograph Book of Specimens, published by Oscar Harpel of Cincinnati OH. Harpel was partially responsible for influencing a great number of printers in the artistic printing movement at the time his book was published. The other direct influence according to George Joyner, author of the 1895 Fine Printing: Its Inception, Development, and Practice, was "the introduction of highly finished coated paper capable of producing amazingly detailed and exquisitely colored work that rose to a level of fine art". In the spirit of giving this holiday season, I give you the clickable links to both of these fine books. Happy reading!

A colorful trade card from the Magee Furnace Company, courtesy of the excellent Sheaff Ephemera Archive gaslight album. No date listed, but estimating 1890s perhaps. Below is a particularly handsome trade card from 1888 promoting Columbia bicycles. It is as found on eBay last month from this seller, but original link is no longer valid.

Sorry, but the metal sign for Kemp's Ice Cream just above, sold on eBay in September for $180. It's not 19th C, but it is old enough to avoid global warming issues. The book cover below is from an 1888 edition of A Snow Baby published by Ernest Nister, in the UK, courtesy The International Children's Digital Library where you can read the entire text for free.

Another book cover from The International Children's Digital Library. The Poet & the Brook, published in London for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Check out the nice cap P on Poet made from a cattail reed. Not so sure about the dead goose however. Below is a cropped image I took of a beautiful songsheet cover from Kevin Lynch's collection. This Snowed In Galop commemorates an 1872 three week snowbound train passage in Wyoming. Probably not a big hit, but you can't judge a galop by its beautiful cover. Or can you? Based upon the design, it probably sold quite well.
     Many more materials on cold type can be found in last year's post here.

2012 Student Book Designs, Part 2

Above: Design of Frank Herbert's book, Dune by Brie Elam.

Above: Design of Charles Portis' book, True Grit by Claire Parkin.

Above: Design of Edwin Abbott Abbott's (A.Square) book, Flatland by Kevin Cutler.

Above: Design of Norton Juster's book, The Phantom Tollbooth by Neil Palmer.

Above: Design of Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography by Ryan Anderson. 

Above: Design of E.M. Forester's book, A Room With a View by Jessica Boos.
If you would like to see previous posts of 2012 Student Book Designs, stop in here and here. There are plenty more book links to previous student work from there. Well, that puts a wrap on another year of school and of my student's book design work from my Typography 3 class. I am done, school is nearly out and Summer is almost here. Ahhh Summer...Can't wait to have time to read a good book.