Page 1: Great Expectations

Great Expectations has always been one of my favourite novels by Dickens, so I couldn't resist posting about this interesting experiment, even at the expense of posting about books again!

In the words of GraphicDesign&: 

"Page1: Great Expectations is an unusual typographic experiment designed to explore the relationship between graphic design, typography and the reading of a page. Crafted to engage the culturally curious, Page 1: Great Expectations collects the responses of 70 international graphic designers when posed with the same brief – to design and lay out the first page of Great Expectations by Charles Dickens, a text chosen in part because it directly references lettering as Pip searches for clues about his family from the letterforms inscribed on their tombstone."

Some of the contributors are APFEL, Experimental Jetset, Studio Frith, Spin and the extremely talented and skilled Phil Baines. 

And yes...it will soon be mine!

*all images by GraphicDesign& from their website

Kapow!

Visual Editions have just (this Monday) announced the upcoming release of their latest book Kapow! a novel by Adam Thirwell, since copies are not for sale yet I haven't had the pleasure of reading it so I'm just copying this extract form Visual Editions site:

"A clever, funny, and bitingly critical cultural commentary, it uses spinning digressions to tell the stories of a group of interconnected characters in London and Egypt, each transformed by the idea of revolution. Kapow! asks readers to open and unfold pages, to follow text leaking in and out of paragraphs, while progressively becoming part of and lost within the narrator’s giddy digressions."

I'm sure the narrative will be excellent and the experience of unveiling the content of such an intricate layout unique, can't wait to get my copy! The book has been designed by Studio Frith.

*all images by David Sykes via Visual Edition's website.

Doing it for the kids

Some lovely nursery rhymes posters by Sub-studio I specially like the retro look of the illustrations and the simplicity of the two colour approach, moving away from the habitual over-use of saturated colours in materials for children. I would very happily own one of these.

And, even though the style is completely different, these prints got me thinking of illustrators from when I was a child and I recalled the work of Pablo Ramirez (Linares, 1926 - Jaén, 1966). At the time I didn't know his name only that I quite enjoyed the books and illustrations. It is quite hard to find images of his work on the internet but he pretty much illustrated every single book I read as I was growing up. He was extremely prolific in his short life and I'm sure his work influenced the aesthetic values of various generations of children in Spain.

*top images by Sub-studio from their shop website