Ace Jet 170

Wood on Paper

 

Last week our rep from Robert Horne Paper came in. A nice chap, he did his best to sell their products to us, some of which we specify anyway. Mostly he was showing us Munken papers, Robert Horne now being the main agent for them. Munken papers are nice. During the chat, he asked if we ever use GF Smith paper and I laughed. "Well, yes, of course", I said. "A lot of our papers are very similar", said he and I laughed again. "But GF Smith swatches are so good and your's, forgive me for saying, are sooooo bad". They are really awful: on the whole we've found them to be inconsistently designed, missing fundamental information and (these are things aimed at designers, so it's almost criminal that they) are distinctly unattractive.

GF Smith swatches are, on the other had (I was compelled to point out); beautiful, informative, comprehensive and easy-to-use.

He skirted the issue and I might have been more persistent had I not spotted something tucked at the bottom of his pile of samples. "That's lovely", I said pointing. Wood on Wood came out about 5 or 6 years ago and was mailed out directly from Arctic Papers, when Howard Smith were representing them in the UK. I remember it distinctly because it was a stand-out piece. 

    

Designed in Sweden by Happy Forsman & Bodenfors (who do lovely work), the book is amazingly simple. Each sheet of paper has a particular wood grain image printed either side and is incredibly convincing, giving the impression that the book is made from super-thin slices of wood. On their website, F&B explain:

"The Wood on Wood book makes us realize anew that paper is thinly-sliced wood and uncoated paper retains a hint of wood's rough properties to give printed images a deeper dimension. In designing Wood on Wood Happy went the additional step of using pencil lettering to add an authentic whiff of the woodshop to the book design."

That last point was one of the details that really did it for me, With the exception of the brand on the back cover, the book is devoid of typesetting; featuring only hand/pencil rendered lettering. And even that brand is treated nicely, printed dark brown and embossed into the sheet, it feels like it's been burnt into wood.

Overall, it's a beautiful piece which, importantly, works; showing the characteristics of the paper with exceptional simplicity and clarity. Perhaps you've got a copy, I don't remember it being particularly rare or precious, but if you've not seen it, you never know, it may well be sitting on a shelf in your studio somewhere, covered in dust. Go and have a look.

 

Astro-vehicularities

    

More images from the New Illustrated Library of Science and Invention on Flickr. 

This time: Astronomy and Land Transportation.

Hopeless drunk will work to stay that way!!!!?

  

Oh how I love it when an unexpected package arrives. And when it's got a Pentagram address in the corner the pulse rate quickens. I feel very privileged. Signs is the 39th edition of the Pentagram Papers, this time conceived and designed by DJ Stout. You can read all about it on the Pentablog.

         

Distant Memories

  

I know, I shouldn't knock it. Getting anything published in my world is pretty cool. It can be surprisingly useful too. A considerable number of years ago I had a notion I wanted to work in New York and with a little help from two periodicals of the day that had printed my name alongside some bits of work I was (amazingly) awarded a visa. Not your usual common-or-garden visa either; one for "an artist of outstanding ability" or something like that. Don't ask me how I managed it but I did and having work in print helped.

So, like I said, I shouldn't knock it. And in fact, even though it's been a long time coming, the new book about blogs has turned out well. Only problem is, and I know from Twitter that at least a few bloggers have also acknowledged this, it's taken so long and the blogosphere moves so fast that the book seems somewhat contrary to the nature of the blog, highlighting a flaw in the idea of publishing a book about blogs. The grabs on my spread, for example, are almost exactly two years old and some bloggers have completely re-skinned their pages (a number of times) since the call for entries.

But I really shouldn't knock it. It's still very flattering to appear in print. Even if you're in amongst another 200, it really is still nice and at least for me, Ace Jet's not changed that much and the entries featured are good ones. That Neon entry is one of my favourites and those big Clarendon letters are still up on the restaurant around the corner from us and that atlas is still brought out regularly at home to show the boys which cloud formations are floating about.

So no, I'm not knocking it. I'm in print. Cool. Whoo Hoo!

3D_HR

One or two people have asked for hi-res scans of some 3D geometry so there's some on Flickr now. I'll try and add more. What's great is that, with the right lenses, the 3D effect even works onscreen.

The Return of Pop (up) Art

  

This is the other Marvel pop-up book I bought a few weeks ago. Like the X-Men book it's content centres on the origins of the characters and details their individual talents. The Fantastic Four's story goes something like this: 

Pipe-smoking genius and astronaut Dr Reed Richards is pissed-off with one-time friend and purse string holder Ben Grimm because Grimm thinks, clever though Richards is and visionary though his planned space expedition is, he's ignoring the potential hazards of cosmic rays, so threatens to cut funding for the Doctor's ambitious Starship project.

Fueled by her devotion to her future husband and knowing full well that Grimm has a crush on her, Richard's fiancee Susan Storm emotionally blackmails Ben into playing ball by questioning his nerve/manhood - a downright dirty trick if you ask me and particularly galling because: a) It turns out Grimm was right to be concerned, and b) Post-cosmic ray mutation, Grimm really gets the shitty end of the cosmic ugly stick. 

No wonder, afterwards, he wants to clobber Richards - the post-adverse-incident bendy bastard. What's surprising is how quickly Grimm gets over Reed's blunder and the frazzled four quickly realise their new freakish forms can be put to good use, helping mankind. 

But first: names. And it's Susan's dumb but loyal brother - who only tagged along on the ill-fated spin around space because he had nothing better to do but landed arguably the most useful and certainly the coolest power - who piped up first with his superhero name: The Human Torch. Big Sis followed up with her H G Wells rip-off Invisible Woman. Self-depreciating Grimm settled for The Thing which couldn't be more ambiguous and is probably a reflection on just how livid he was at the time and how choosing a silly name for his new monstrous form seemed unimportant compared to the fact that he was now hideously lumpy and orange. 

But how ultra-pissed-off all three must have been when Richards finally chipped in with his own super-smug name, Mr Fantastic. Not least because "fantastic" he was not - he was just more pliable that he used to be. Which is ironic because it was his inflexibility and stubbornness that got the team into this mutated-mess. 

If you ask me, Richards immediately recognised that invisibility, flaminess and brutish strength were all way cooler than being, basically, Stretch Armstrong, so tricked the others into subservience by adopting a leaders name. A travesty...but an interesting lesson in branding.

   

Pop (up) Art

   

I was never into the comic book/graphic novel thing. Friends were when I was younger: Steve, who took over from me as studio junior in my first job, was into all the Frank Miller stuff. Super cool and interesting but my mind was on typographical matters. Ten years later it was Mike, my lodger. A superb illustrator but a house-mate from hell; he attempted to indoctrinate me in the super-hero way but again, I was thinking about other things (like how I could get rid of him).

So I'm no aficionado by any stretch of the imagination and have no idea if this X-Men pop-up book would be considered by such to be worthy of interest. All I know is that, on face value, it appears to be ace: Nicely produced with admirable attention to detail; nifty, irregular polygonal shape; ingenious pop-up constructions; and respectful use of original artwork, it would seem. Bought it in England last week for three quid.

The Return of Descriptive Geometry with 3D Figures

 

Feeling all diagramatic today, what with the Nicholas Felton talk being this evening. So in honour of his visit it seemed appropriate to post this.

Way back at the very beginning of Ace Jet, in the very first post in fact, I mentioned this Hungarian book, published in 1962 and written/illustrated by Imre Pál. Now it's not going to be my habit to re-post stuff but I was looking through this recently and it occurred to me that I hadn't really done it justice. Still my most prized find, it cost just a few quid at a car book sale but it's absolutely packed with amazing images. Pop on the 3D glasses, still in the pocket at the back, and all manner of geometric dynamism jumps off the page, like some kind of drug-crazed Suprematist art.

The introduction explains that descriptive geometry can teach us: (1) how to represent objects and spatial forms as well as how to imagine and visualise them in space, (2) how to use construction methods for the solution of space problems, and finally (3) that descriptive geometry develops a living, rich and at the same time real perspective ability, an ability to visualise.

More and better images on Flickr.

   

   

...a consistently high standard of problem solving...

 

Craig Oldham (remember Craig? He did this) has lent me his copy of Graphic design: visual comparisons by Fletcher/Forbes/Gill. Another of the Studio Vista series, this one's quite possibly the bestest with many ace examples from "back in the day" (as they say). Top names abound with Lois, Dorfsman, Gerstner, Rand, Bass, Lubalin, Schleger, BJ, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera all represented...

   

   

   

...and there's some essential, timeless wisdom from the "Ideas" School. And a photo of three handsome devils.

  

So, big thanks Craig! It'll be returned shortly.

The accidental

   

Writer Mike Reed unknowingly reminded me, earlier in the week, that writer Nick Asbury had very kindly sent me a copy of his brilliant and very funny little Corpoetics book a while back. CR readers may well remember the article in last November's issue about his re-mix poetry. You can find out more on Nick's website of course, and while you're there pop over to Asbury & Asbury for all sorts of interesting stuff and foundness.