Books Received: Spring 2009

Thanks for continuing to post these books you're received.
I always see fascinating stuff that my local shops don't carry.

tastumi's drifting life and the humbug collection are quite good, not the usual "look at me and my nerdy behavior and i am a pervert too" graphic novels that are the taste of the day.

as for the design books, this crop looks pretty weak. the "design like you give a damn", though damn old, is a good one. the geigy book seems interesting and may be worth a look.

my vote for worst of them all is the acd young guns, which is out already. that book never ceases to amaze in terms of the rubbish it lauds every year.

I have O'Donnell's Sketchbook. Aside from being a wonderful trove of sketchbook pages from some great designers, there's a lot in it about the value of sketching by hand and thinking before going to the computer. The cover's nice, too. Sketchbook covers and spot varnish.

What a sumtuous stack!
If I were to be given the post of a solitary month, on a solitary porch, or a table at a tall window, just to read, I think I'd choose Paola Antonelli's Japanese Design to head my list. It seems one can read or work. Doing both properly requires enforced confinement and little need for sleep.

Anybody get the Geigy book? I remember those fantastic Graphis layouts in the 60's

paola antonelli, wasn't she the one who ignited the rat typography debate a while back? by the way, that is still disgusting. if she was the one behind the 'japan design' book, i'd steer clear of that for sure.

might sound lame, I know...

...but I'm crazy about the Jeff Koons retrospective published by Taschen - the poor edition, really can't afford the signed and deluxe one. Of course, it's visually wonderful, but the texts are also really interesting, I'm surprised by the quality of the whole thing.

can't wait to get Chris Marker's La Jetée!

Swine influenza is an acute pig, infectious respiratory diseases. Characterized by sudden, coughing, difficulty in breathing, fever and rapid vesting.

Swiss pharmaceutical packaging is the highest human achievement in the visual arts.

Dan and Andre gave me a copy of Never Sleep. They are brilliant and so is their book. It's utterly inspiring and entertaining.

Designing Sustainable Packaging is another book that I have read and recommend highly.

Jeffery Fisher's Birds is just beautiful.

Thankyou for posting my book 'Chicken: Low Art, High Calorie' which celebrates a vivid and humorous vernacular design culture of fast food signage,

I hope you like it!