Dialect Survey in the USA

This is intriguing -- check out the maps.

How do you pronounce Mary/merry/marry? All three are the same:

AIGA 50 Covers 2003

There's a nice bunch of covers for viewing here on the AIGA website (from their annual 50 Books / 50 Covers show). This one Knopf cover (designer: Gabriele Wilson) strikes me as especially beautiful:

Massive Change

I see Bruce Mau is a guest on NPR's The Connection today. He talks about his current exhibit at the Vancouver Art Gallery. You can listen to the audio archive here. Bruce's website is here.

Catherine Zask (again)

“Up until then, I’d been cutting into four because of the four layers, the four letters of Rome. But as a matter of fact, what interests me is the letter’s stroke, its beat. Thus for R, three beats. A line, a loop, a line. I take an R. I slice it into three beats. I stick them onto three pages. I finally come up with a tension, something like a breath. Three pieces that are clearly connected, and their split brings about a kind of chopped breath. Slicing beats with a cutter is radical." C. Zask

APEC Chile 2004

Clever logo, don't you think? It's really lovely in its simplicity. Some of the best solutions look obvious when you see them. But ah, to come up with them in the first place!

"Flip: Chinese Contemporary Book Design"

Book design an artistic undertaking

"When one talks about book presentation today, it is not simply a concern about binding and layout, but the consideration of a unified work in which form and content complement each other. It is, in the simplest term, an artistic undertaking. Book designers play important roles in the production of a book."

Alpha Dog in Little Rock

Wonkette posted this pic of Bush trying to squeeze through the door ahead of Clinton. The dog owner's Dominance Quiz can be taken here.

Paula Scher

There's a great video clip (quicktime) at the Adobe website. She's brilliant. (Thanks to Oliver for pointing me to this!)

pixelcreation.fr

Too bad my French isn't better! This looks like a wonderful resource: an extensive list of the biggest names in graphic design along with bios, links & images. The work of Catherine Zask blows me away.

Funny ad

This is very well done. An ad for Danier leather.

Memento Mori: "Remember that You Will Die"

"In the 19th and early 20th century it was very common to take photos of a deceased loved one. Because it was rather expensive this was often the only photo ever taken. You can see with how much care and with how much love the departed was treated before this last memento was made."

James Wolcott

Okay okay, I know this has nothing to do with books or type, but I really enjoy visiting James Wolcott's blog. He's a witty guy and I'm usually impressed with his irreverent perspective on things. I actually discovered him by watching a C-Span conversation about political books (of which there's been an astounding amount in the past year, no? Are they all selling for a buck after the election?).

YouWorkForThem

Can anyone beat YouWorkForThem when it comes to selling books online? I've yet to buy a book through them (mostly because I'm in Canada and find it easier to purchase from Amazon.ca) but boy oh boy they do present things nicely. Excellent selection too -- not just every design book that comes along but only those worthy of their quality standards. Nijhof + Lee fits into this category as well (though their presentation isn't nearly as nice) (and I have bought quite a few books from them!).

Duke University Press

As far as university presses go, I gotta say that the Duke identity/brand is one of my favourites. Something about letterspaced Franklin that does it to me every time.

Any other favourites out there? I'm sure someone will mention Yale.

Just a test

Just a test to see how this is working.