One of a series of four textbook covers. Bold, simple, picking up on the tool theme without going too far over the top.
Covers from 2013
Some recent cover design work...
Cover Designs in Decline?
Writing in the New Yorker, Tim Kreider explains why he thinks that high end book cover designs are in aesthetic decline. He suggests that the field is afflicted by a degree of conformity probably exacerbated by the Internet. "There’s clearly some brutally efficient Darwinian process at work here, because certain images—half-faces, napes, piers stretching into the water—spread like successful evolutionary adaptations and quickly become ubiquitous". He gives examples and harks back to the inventiveness and frequent weirdness of covers designed for pulp science fiction. Other culprits include the decreasing popularity of hand lettered titles (making something of a comeback, in my opinion). Children's and young adult titles are lauded as an exception to the general malaise.
Younity for Your Files
Younity offers an unusual twist on file synchronisation/cloud computing -- the service allows you to bring all of your online file and image storage accounts under the one umbrella. While not storing files online, it means you can access any of your files on any of your devices -- mobile, PC or tablet. Great for accessing music libraries, movies, all of your documents, etc. If a particular file resides only a PC, users will need to take care that the PC in question is on, or the file will be unavailable.
Standing Desks
Now that science agrees that sitting all day is a bad idea, chair-bound folks need alternatives. My own move to a standing desk involved stacking an IKEA coffee table atop my original desk, but others may desire something a little more stylish. Ergotron manufactures seriously minimalist workstations for ambulatory officeworkers. A colleague purchased one of their products and was happy with the functionality and build quality. Transitioning to all-day standing is difficult at first, but eventually gets easier, and any return to sitting feels quite strange.
A Boxful of Broken Things
Writer and teacher Rhys Tate has put together a very clean and attractive website to promote/explain his writing life. Has a friendly feel and plenty of free material to get a feeling for his prose.
FontForge
The urge to design typefaces is a universal one, not just the province of traditionally design oriented cultures. Some of the most interesting recent work is coming out of Latin America and Spain. The surge of interest in type design has led to increased demand for type design tools, many of which are relatively expensive. Font Forge is free and quite capable, and supports all of the major font formats. The author of the program is continually improving and updating the source code.
Old Pictures, Free at Last
Plenty of free pics online, but quality is far less common. For flashes of colour amidst the dross, try New Old Stock, Unsplash, British Library on Flickr, NASA on Flickr, the Rijksmuseum and the Google Art Project. Try also Agence Eureka and Bibliodyssey.
Fontology
fonts.com has put together an excellent resource for those interested in learning more about type design and typographers. An exacting, precise craft, high-level type design requires extreme attention to detail and the ability to slog through endless iterations, individual kerning pairs, multiple weights, extended character sets and nowadays, the promotion of one's work. The best type families combine beauty and workaday functionality, and if admired and appreciated, will often enjoy a life far longer those that of their creators.
Gaming Amazon Reviews
Self-interest and ingenuity combine to game almost any system, and Amazon's book review system is no different. Services exist to supply authors with paid reviews and hopefully bump them to a more visible position with Amazon's search algorithms. Amazon officially bans the practice, but it is difficult to see how such a ban could be effectively policed. On a more ad hoc basis, individual authors have been accused of ginning up support from family and friends and planting huge numbers of non-authentic reviews.
hat tip: Rhys Tate.
Using Videos to Promote Your Book
Author John Hickman has produced a video to accompany his book "Reluctant Hero". Well composed, with layering of audio effects and use of historical footage, this kind of promotional project is well worth considering. Video links are easily emailed and shared and give potential readers a quick and accessible summary.
John is also the author of "Tripping Over", discussed here.
Digital Book Marketing
An interesting piece dissecting the digital marketing challenges facing contemporary book publishers.
100 Year Starship
Geeks dreaming about space exploration, but not just pottering around in our own solar system. The big picture involves leaving our home star. Given the scale of the universe, that kind of travel requires exceptionally long-term thinking and planning. The Long Now fosters a similar kind of mindset, encouraging speculative thought and projects, including attempts to revive various species (Passenger Pigeons, for example) that have fallen beneath the wheels of human expansion.
Vintage Poster Bliss
For print-oriented graphic designers, posters are an opportunity to abandon restraint and strive for high impact. While still a lively area of contemporary practice, some of the most striking and memorable poster design graced walls many decades ago and is now in the public domain. This site has curated hundreds of very high quality vintage posters, most of them suitable for print. Every single one was created without the aid of computers and collectively they are a testament to very high levels of craftsmanship and imagination.
A Book to a Page
Much of our literary heritage is in the public domain by virtue of its age. Certain enterprising businesses mine this cultural resource for commercial gain. One particularly interesting example is All the World's a Page, where entire great works are printed on a single poster. From Don Quixote to Ulysses and Macbeth to Pride and Prejudice, armies of words are marshaled with great skill and typographic flair. Even at 1000mms in height, you will need keen eyesight or a magnifying glass to take it all in.
Hitting the Mark
To get an idea of the amount of time that goes into the design of a large font family, check out this promotional site. FF Mark is the result of a long-term collaboration between some of the brightest lights in modern European typography. The designers are intimately aware of typographic history and prepared to slog through the minutiae of sketching, adjusting and kerning thousands of characters in ten weights.
Amazon flows through Australia
Australian readers have been able to order books via Amazon for many years, but now the online retailing giant has opened an Australian portal. The store is only selling ebooks (Kindle only, naturally) and apps at present, but it will bring a welcome focus to Australian content, and can only benefit smaller publishers and independent authors.
Self Promotion: a Positive Outlook
Authors showing the way in promoting their own work:. Their tone is upbeat, content is good, and essentially in each case, they have something of substance to promote.
Rebel Mouse Makes Social Easy
If you're a presence on / contributor to various social networking services, (and not just to keep up with your friends), Rebel Mouse offers an easy and very powerful way of aggregating your voice into one location. Our effort took only a few minutes to set up and could be an effective communication tool with clients and potential business contacts. Designed by one of the principal architects of the Huffington Post, Rebel Mouse is getting some serious startup funding and adding feeds and features at some pace.
Paper Sizes
A handy reference to the often confusing world of paper sizes, both metric and US.