Dave Eggers launched Timothy McSweeney's Quarterly Concern from his Brooklyn apartment in 1998. When the the McSweeney's archive was acquired by the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas a mere 15 years later the McSweeney's community had become one of the seminal hubs of literary culture in the 21st century. In addition to the highest quality writing each publication conveys a deep appreciation for design and craft making their publications instantly recognizable and consistently appealing. The archive documents the "evolution of a startup quarterly literary journal into a highly influential small publishing house and creator of several serials, including Timothy McSweeney's...
The Book Architecture of Thomas Ehgartner
It took 8,000 books for Thomas Ehgartner to complete his 2006 installation "Meaning minus truth conditions"at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. Completed for his senior project the piece also included two computer-generated voices that recited content from Wikipedia and Project Gutenberg. For Ehgartner the current state of information overload that permeates much of our waking life becomes the foundation for creating a "limited archive from a infinite whole." and check out his follow up to the above, a facade built with chopped books! View more of Ehgartner's portfolio at ARTDOXA
The Digital Side of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Reading at a Table. Pablo Picasso, 1934 When word gets out the Metropolitan Museum of Art, one of the most significant repositories of art in the world, releases 400,000 images into the digital wild it's hard not to go have a look to see what bookish goodness awaits. Our first trip brings us a hardy selection of work from Durer to Picasso. Stay tuned for more gems from the collection and our hats are off to the powers that be for releasing such a treasure trove of material. Enjoy! [caption id="attachment_4876" align="aligncenter" width="534"] "Alberti Dvreri pictoris et architecti praestantissimi De vrbibvs..."...
New series of board books for kids brings the real world home
Move over Old Macdonald and that rabbit that lives in that green room eating bowls of mush and make room on the shelf for some books from Need to Know Publishing, a new venture started by three dads to help explain the contemporary grown-up world to kids. The first three books off the press deal with coffee, The King and cancer, which just happens to be the second leading cause of death in the US. As the publisher states: Teaching a young child about the ducklings, chicks, and calves that all live together in the barn is fine,...
The History of Publisher Logos
Marketing Assistant Alia Almeida of World Book Night US came up with this handy guide to the evolving iconic logos of the lords of publishing. Notice the new Penguin Random House logo designed by Pentagram and recently unleashed to the world.