CSS Colors

Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_colors

The super talented and attractive Anthony Mattox discovered this wonderful table of CSS color names you can use in your stylesheet! Some of these are freakin’ ridiculous. I knew you could use “Black” and “Red” and what not in CSS, but I never would have guessed that “MediumSpringGreen” or, Anthony’s favorite, “PapayaWhip” would work. I think “Peru” is the best; what’s your favorite?

Ampersand Book

My latest book for Laurie Snyder’s Artist’s Books class. Yeeeeaaaahhhhhhh it’s a little typical-graphic-design-student-project-ey, but I do not care. I went through all 900+ fonts on my computer and selected what I find to be some of the most interesting, beautiful, or historically significant ampersands. Paired with their designer and in chronological order, all the way from Bembo in 1495 to Jos Buivenga’s FREE Delicious, designed just last year. They were transferred from laser prints with wintergreen oil onto tan Rives BFK, and bound accordion fold style with some sourced leather covers (I hope to write an article about sourcing leather soon).

This was my first time working with leather or oil transfers, and both processes were very rewarding. I love the texture created by the transfer, and the leather was a lot easier to work with and acquire affordably than I anticipated. I think I will be doing more work with both of them in the future.

Detail shots in the unabridged post.

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Thievery Corporation Poster

Poster for Thievery Corporation at Rams Head Live this upcoming Friday. I decided, as I tend to, that even though I have no experience screen printing on my own and this is my first print in more than one color, that I would try and screen print an edition of these. The results were expensive and disappointing. I got a few prints where the distressed/grunge look is actually kind of cool, but on most of the 25 its just really sad and unfortunate.

Press Name

Laurie Snyder, professor of my Artist’s Books class, has encouraged us to create a “press name”, basically a pseudonym we put on each of our pieces. I think I am going to use this as an opportunity to make a stamp, something which I have wanted to do for awhile now. I had a little fun playing with my name “Andy” and this beautiful Baskerville italic ampersand. I think this thing is totally ridiculous and silly, but an elegant form nonetheless. It will make a nice, semi-anonymous sign off to each of my books I think.

Those who matter…

“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”

Dr. Seuss

Experimental Numerals

While paying tremendous amounts of attention today in “The History of Existentialism,” I doodled out this non-lining, mostly sans-serif set of numerals on some Kierkegaard. I am quite fond of the little guys. Does anyone know of a font with a numeral set that lines like this?

Product Review: Bessey D-BKWH Quick-Change Folding Utility Knife

It has recently occurred to me that one of the biggest reasons I am a Book Arts Concentrator may be as an excuse to own a slew of nice, bookmaking tools. Though I have used many a utility knife in my day and borrowed a few from my father, I had never bought my own. So, realizing that a proper book makers kit needed one, I set about shopping around to find a good knife I can keep with me, hopefully forever. I settled on the Bessey D-BKWH Quick-Change Folding Utility Knife, with the hard wood handle of course. I figured I would post up some large, detailed images of it and write a quick review to help anyone who may be shopping around in the utility knife department. (more…)

Raphael Saadiq: Neo-Motown, Smile Inducing Music for the Warm Weather

Raphael Saadiq, Cosmopolite 2009. Foto: NRK P3.

I suppose one cannot technically be “Motown” without being signed to the Motown label (now rolled into Universal), but singer, songwriter, and producer Charley Wiggins (a.k.a. Raphael Saadiq) has a fantastic sound I associate with Motown legends like The Temptations, Diana Ross, The Four Tops, and the Supremes. Though his latest album, The Way I See It, came out just last year, its upbeat nature, use of horns and tambourines, and infectious vocals remind me of my favorite oldies station from back home. He has been grabbing a gratuitous percentage of my music playing these last few weeks as spring breaks in Baltimore, and I highly recommend his album to any and all music lovers out there.

Photo Credit

Thoughts (DRAFT)

This is my one-week-book from last week’s Artist’s Books class; I am only posting it now because I lost it the day of class last week and only just found it again! We had to make a simple, pamphlet-bound book from one 11×17 sheet of paper printed on both sides. When it came time to do this, I had been thinking a lot about relationships, and the truly unbelievable things people say when they are entrenched in them. The contents of this book is an email I wrote, but never sent, to my first “girlfriend” during freshman year of high school. (Thanks for archiving every little thing, Gmail!) For me, this book is about sharing everything about myself. I always preach honesty, and I think it is probably the single most important thing to me. Honesty is easy when you aren’t ashamed of anything, but the contents of this book is something I am truly embarassed I ever thought/wrote. I figure if I can be honest about these things to anybody and everybody, I am upholding my end of the honesty bargain. (more…)

My Tools

This is my latest project for my Artist’s Books class. The assignment was to bind together atleast 8 of something at a single point. Usually, this style of binding ends up functioning like a booklet of paint swatches, fanning out to be read. My book is all about the tools I use to create; it is both a reaction to my being the only male in my book arts class and people who assume design is synonymous with digital.

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