Friday, July 31, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #160 / Kokoro

There is no design credit on this book but this design looks like it could be a Paul Rand, or someone shamelessly ripping off Rand's style. First printing 1957, fourth printing 1971.

Update to DBG #159

I was just looking at my set of "favorites" on Flickr and I realized it included the Pelican edition of the Group Encounters. It's from this set of Penguin and Pelican covers. I think I like this one just as much as the other, it has a serious Manson family vibe going on.

Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #158 / Birds






This is a classic Golden Guide. Birds was originally published in 1949, this one has 1956 as the latest copyright date, but judging from the cover design, I think this was actually published in the 60s or 70s. One of the hallmarks of Golden Guide illustration is that they usually depict animals with some element of the environment in which they are found.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #157 / The Meaning of the Creative Act

This book was originally published in 1916, this edition came out in 1962. No design credit.

Monday, July 27, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #156 / Logic and Sexual Morality

This cover was designed by Henrion, I wasn't familiar with the name but a quick search reveals him to be "a pioneer of corporate identity in Britain." In any case, it is a great Pelican cover. Published in 1965.

I'm always interested when a book has a lot of underlining in it, this book is funny that way, it's heavily underlined up until the middle and then the marks disappear completely. The page below is the best, every single line of the summary of part one of the book is underlined. I would have just drawn a bracket to indicate that all the text was important.

Sunday, July 26, 2009

Saturday was a Strange Day

Yesterday was a strange day for weather, the morning was nice and sunny but in the afternoon we experienced a series of powerful bursts of rainfall. One of them was accompanied by strong wind gusts that knocked over trees and drove the rain horizontally into the side of the house. Apart from the weather the high point of my day was finding a taxidermy Canada Goose at a garage sale for only $20. It is a bit ragged but still fairly majestic. I'm going to hang it high up in our foyer where it can fly above the taxidermy Bobcat, duck and crocodile.

Temporarily hanging in the studio


Wind damage in Front Park

Rain falling off the front porch roof

Rain over Fort Erie, Canada

Daily Book Graphics #155 / Post-Historic Man

This is another weekend garage sale acquisition. The book was originally published in 1950, this paperback edition in 1957. Unfortunately, there is no design credit to be found.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #154 / Not A Christian

I found a lot of great covers at garage sales today. This one is by John + Mary Condon, I previously posted their work in DBG#3 (another Bertrand Russell cover), DBG#16 and DBG#9.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #153 / Dairy Recipes


For best results use Dairylea milk and milk products in your favorite recipes

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #152 / Orthography



The original owner of this book wrote their name in it in 1846, I can't quite make out the name, but they appear to have lived in Concord, NY which is south of Buffalo at the bottom of Erie county.

This is the oldest book yet featured on this blog. Wright's Orthography was first published in 1842, his edition was published in 1846. There are several pages of testimonials praising the previous edition in the back of this one. I bought it (at a garage sale for $3.) because of the typography on the cover, the curved arrow is my favorite bit. If you don't know what orthography is, click here.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #151 / Sophie Calle


This is the cover for the catalogue of Sophie Calle's show M'as-Tu Vue, which ran at the Pompidou Centre from November 2003 to March 2004. The 400 and something page catalogue is a pretty amazing piece of design and print production, there are multiple paper stocks, odd shaped pages, etc. Design: Atalante/Paris, Xavier Barral, Thomas Legrand, Claude-Olivier Four, Maya Masson.

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #150 / Space Race III






This book was first published in 1951 with a second edition in 1958. Of the three books in my three day tribute to the moon landing, this book is the most primitive. You can tell from the illustrations that they had no idea what American space craft would ultimately look like. There is a science fiction feel to the depictions.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #149 / Space Race II






This book was published in 1960 with a revised edition in 1962. It's main focus it the preparation for space travel as at the time of the publication of the revision John Glenn had just become the first American in space. This is one of those stamp/sticker books where kids would put certain illustrations in place. Is there a name for that genre? The illustration of the hallucinating astronaut is the best the part.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #148 / Space Race I


end papers






Since the 40th anniversary of the moon landing is tomorrow, I'm going to do three days of space race related posts. The above illustrations are from Man's Reach into Space, published in 1959 and updated in 1964. The book spends a lot of time on the history of flight leading up to space travel and the effects of flight on the human body.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #147 / Body Language II

This post is a bit of a follow up to DBG #125, it's the 80's edition of Body Language by Julius Fast. They clearly wanted to update the look of the first cover. I'm disappointed that they failed to find an 80s equivalent of the inflatable chair on the original.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Daily Book Graphics #146 / Recipes


I bought a stack of 1950's recipe booklets recently, these are the most interesting ones. I don't think husbands have weigh-ins for their wives like they used to.

I like the pattern that makes up his suit.