Book of the Day Posted Oct 23, 2021

Book of the Day > Soled Out: The Golden Age of Sneaker Advertising

● Purchase ● A riotous, 720-page celebration of sneakers and sporting legends, as told through the medium of vintage print advertising
 
More than a decade in the making, Soled Out is the definitive – and only – collection of sneaker advertisements from the footwear industry’s golden age. Lovingly written and compiled by Simon ‘Woody’ Wood, founder of the legendary Sneaker Freaker magazine, this colossal volume combines nearly 900 vintage images with a punchy narrative full of insider stories and historical revelations.
 
Featuring superstar athletes and cultural icons such as Andre Agassi, Paula Abdul, Bo Jackson, Bugs Bunny, Michael Jordan, MC Hammer, and Shaquille O’Neal, every page is laced with classic sneaker models, unforgettable graphics, and outrageous trash talk. Sit back and enjoy the spectacular scenery ahead as Soled Out powers through a 720-page marathon celebration of the rubber, leather, and mesh we wear on our feet.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 21, 2021

Book of the Day > Hayao Miyazaki

● Purchase ● A richly illustrated journey through the extraordinary cinematic worlds of beloved filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki
 
For over four decades, Hayao Miyazaki has been enchanting audiences of all ages. His animated films, often featuring children navigating unfamiliar and challenging worlds, offer timeless explorations of youth and what it means to grow up. Celebrated and admired around the globe for his artistic vision, craftsmanship and deeply humanistic values, Miyazaki has influenced generations of artists. The universal appeal of his evocative natural settings and complex characters, many among them strong girls and young women, cuts across cultural boundaries.
 
This book is published on the occasion of the 2021 inaugural exhibition at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, in collaboration with Studio Ghibli in Tokyo. It accompanies the first ever retrospective dedicated to the legendary filmmaker in North America and introduces hundreds of original production materials, including artworks never before seen outside of Studio Ghibli’s archives. Concept sketches, character designs, storyboards, layouts, backgrounds and production cels from his early career through all 11 of his feature films, including My Neighbor Totoro (1988), Kiki’s Delivery Service (1989), Princess Mononoke (1997), Spirited Away (2001) and Howl’s Moving Castle (2004), offer insight into Miyazaki’s creative process and masterful animation techniques.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 21, 2021

Book of the Day > Matthew Wong: Blue View

● Purchase ● Nocturnes and interiors in the key of blue from the acclaimed painter Matthew Wong
 
Over the course of his brief career, Matthew Wong was celebrated for his paintings evoking diverse historical references ranging from Chinese scroll painting to Van Gogh and Vuillard. His colorful, dappled vignettes of imaginary landscapes and half-remembered interiors have the uncanny ability to, in his words, “activate nostalgia, both personal and collective.”
 
This first museum publication features more than 60 of Wong’s deeply evocative blue paintings, of intimate interior scenes and luscious nocturnal landscapes, from his Blue Series made between 2017 and 2019.
 
Wong’s Blue Series paintings are notable for their saturated and richly varied blue palette and pervasive sense of melancholy, enhanced by solitary figures. The striking compositions reflect Wong’s technique of flattening the depth of space between the foreground and background with deft combinations of wet and dry brushwork. From monumental oils on canvas to smaller gouache and watercolor paintings, this body of work reveals Wong’s intimate and intense meditations on blue that is, as essayist Nancy Spector writes, “as much a mood as it is a color.”
 
With an introduction by Julian Cox, essays by Spector and Winnie Wong, and a chronology, this publication brings together scholarly voices to provide fresh insight and perspective on Wong’s work and his short-lived but exceptionally brilliant career.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 19, 2021

Book of the Day > Art of Soundtrack Covers 2022

● Purchase ● The 365 most legendary film music classics in one calendar. Daily feast for the eyes, ears and film inspiration.
 
Vinyl records and record stores are currently experiencing a revival, and so the artfully designed covers of the past decades are coming back to consciousness, presenting real music and design history in an inspiring way.
 
Now the world’s first tear-off calendar with 365 vinyl covers from the last five decades will be published in the fourth issue. Including famous and less known artists of all genres, true classics but also scurrilities. In addition to the daily music inspirations and eye candies, all responsible cover photographers, illustrators and art directors are mentioned. A must have for all vinyl lovers and design nerds!
 
And the blast: with the printed SPOTIFY Codes, you can "listen" to any album anywhere and immediately.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 19, 2021

Book of the Day > Art of Vinyl Covers 2022

● Purchase ● The fifth edition of the popular tear-off calendar with 365 vinyl covers for 2022
 
Vinyl records and record stores are currently experiencing a revival, and so the artfully designed covers of the past decades are coming back to consciousness, presenting real music and design history in an inspiring way.
 
Now the world’s first tear-off calendar with 365 vinyl covers from the last five decades will be published in the fourth issue. Including famous and less known artists of all genres, true classics but also scurrilities. In addition to the daily music inspirations and eye candies, all responsible cover photographers, illustrators and art directors are mentioned. A must have for all vinyl lovers and design nerds!
 
And the blast: with the printed SPOTIFY Codes, you can "listen" to any album anywhere and immediately. 
Book of the Day Posted Oct 16, 2021

Book of the Day > Codex Seraphinianus: 40th Anniversary Edition

● Purchase ● Published to coincide with the 40th anniversary of its original publication, this special edition of the beloved, best-selling cult classic features a new design, new cover illustration, and 15 never-before-seen drawings.
 
Featuring a handsome new package redesigned by the author himself, this edition is a must-have for fans and collectors of Luigi Serafini’s art. First published in 1981 in Milan by F.M. Ricci, the book has been hailed as one of the most unusual yet beautiful art books ever made. A visual encyclopedia of an unknown world written in an unknown language, it has fueled much debate over its meaning. Written for the information age and addressing the import of coding and decoding in genetics, literary criticism, and computer science, it has now fascinated and enchanted two generations.
 
While its message may be unclear, its appeal is obvious: it is a most exquisite artifact, blurring the line between art book and art object. This edition presents it in a new, unparalleled light complete with 15 new illustrations by the author. With the advent of new forms of communication, continuous streams of information, and social media, the Codex is more relevant and timely than ever.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 15, 2021

Book of the Day > Woman Made: Great Women Designers

● Purchase ● The most comprehensive, fully illustrated book on women designers ever published – a celebration of more than 200 women product designers from the early twentieth century to the present day
 
This glorious visual celebration of the most incredible and impactful design ever produced by women designers flips the script on what is historically considered a man’s world. Featuring more than 200 designers from more than 50 countries, including icons and trailblazers past and present such as Ray Eames, Eileen Gray, Florence Knoll, Ilse Crawford, Faye Toogood, Nathalie du Pasquier, it records and illuminates the fascinating and overlooked history of women preeminent in the field. With each designer represented by a key product and short text, this fascinating A-Z survey shines a vital spotlight on the most extraordinary objects made by women designers but, more importantly, offers a compelling primer on the best in the field of design demonstrating that design is not – and never has been – a man’s world.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 14, 2021

Book of the Day > Wes Lang: Everything

● Purchase ● A definitive and long overdue monograph revealing the extraordinarily prolific career of the American artist Wes Lang, whose frenetic and manic paintings bring together ideas and icons mined from a post-pop American landscape.
 
In the Wes Lang universe, recurring figures and symbols—horses, reapers, skulls, Native American chiefs, even nods to his favorite painters, country and jazz musicians—serve as emblems in one way or another for freedom and inspiration. References to the Tao Te Ching and the lectures of Ram Dass are scattered throughout the work, revealing a central ethos that underlies the artist’s complex iconography. The repetition of these sometimes paradoxical images and phrases, motifs and mantras, gives Lang’s work a ritualistic aspect seemingly at odds with his eclectic and spontaneous style.
 
Introduced with an exploratory essay by the critic Arty Nelson, the book draws on more than 25 years’ worth of material, from stark paintings on wood that formed the artist's first exhibition to richly layered oil paintings exhibited in Paris in 2020, and from unpublished pencil drawings to imagery made iconic by his enigmatic commercial collaborations. Oversized and with pull-out gatefold pages, the book is testament to the scope and richness of Lang's work: expansive in its iconography, deceptively intimate in its detail, and juxtaposing a textured, painterly style with a playful acceptance of the diversity of his own influences.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 13, 2021

Book of the Day > Auto Erotica

● Purchase ● A car book like no other, Auto Erotica offers a nostalgic look at vintage cars through the literature, leaflets and pamphlets that sold them to us
 
Over the course of its 240 pages, Auto Erotica covers the gamut of motoring in Britain during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s through rare ephemeral booklets full of unusual graphic ideas and concepts. Their fabulous photography, dazzling color charts, daring typography, strange foldouts and inspiring styles symbolize the automobile aspirations of generations of Britons.
 
Assembled by nostalgia enthusiast Jonny Trunk—author of The Music Library and Own Label—the book is also packed full of era-defining classic cars, from those we love to those we can’t remember. Expect fast Fords, the XJS, the TR8, MGs, Minis, Maxis, Renaults, Beemers, VWs, Vivas, Citroëns, DeLoreans and a whole lot more: amazing motorcars from the past, and even some from the future, as you've never seen them before.
Book of the Day Posted Oct 12, 2021

Book of the Day > Apocalypse Now: The Lost Photo Archive

● Purchase ● Hired in 1976 by Francis Ford Coppola as the still photographer for his masterpiece Apocalypse Now, Chas Gerretsen’s private archive of hundreds of photographs propels readers immediately into the chaos and drama surrounding one of the most important movies ever made.
 
Gerretsen was a renowned freelance photographer who had previously worked in Vietnam when he got the call from Coppola, who was looking for a combat photographer for a war movie. Given unprecedented access to the film’s stars, extras, crew, and legendary behind-the-scenes drama he spent six months in the Philippines, shooting thousands of images. Culled from that archive, these full-color photographs offer an intimate glimpse of the turmoil and excitement of a Hollywood spectacle rising out of the unpredictable climate of the Philippine rainforest. Capturing the star power of Marlon Brando, Martin Sheen, and Dennis Hopper, as well as the sprawling sets, he takes us into the beauty of the Southeast Asian jungle and shows us how its inhabitants were incorporated into the filming. Throughout the book, Gerretsen’s astute reflections of his experience on set are as fascinating as his photography. While Apocalypse Now remains one of the most critically acclaimed movies of all time, the making of the film is equally legendary. Nearly fifty years later, Gerretsen’s photographs remind us of Coppola’s artistic achievements and of a pivotal era in American cultural history.
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