Great American Dinosaurs
My latest work for Artist Books: A coptic bound piece dedicated to American Muscle Cars. The title page reads:
Great American Dinosaurs
The Muscle Cars of the 60’s and early 70’s were defined by their large engines, affordable price tag, and unmistakable style. They are, in many ways, a representation of America’s Golden Years: inefficient, yet nonetheless beautiful pieces of design and history. Times have rapidly changed, gas prices are an average of 32 times what they were in the 60’s, and these beautiful cars are becoming increasingly hard to find and expensive to maintain. As we grow exponentially closer to a time where fossil fuels are completely unaffordable, these artworks will become extinct.
This book is dedicated to the unique beauty of Muscle Cars and the designers who worked so passionately on them.
The book is 17 individual, single folio signatures with 11 sewing stations along the spine. It took me approximately one million years to bind and it tore in two small places, but overall I am satisfied with the result.
The cover was my first attempt at embossing something and I sort of wung it. I had the letterforms laser-cut from some bookboard and saved all of the negatives and counters. Then, I glued the remaining piece and counterforms on to another piece of book board, wrapped the whole thing in leather from the thrift store, and pressed it after placing the letterforms back in their respective spots on top of the leather. I think it worked out pretty nicely, though the embossed bits may be just a bit too deep. Something to keep in mind for next time.
Hit the “jump” for some more pictures! (CHECK OUT MY BLOG LINGO YO)
(images from www.swaqvalley.com)
Friday, March 13, 2009
12 Comments
America
Book Arts
Coptic Binding
Design
Dinosaurs
Handmade
Lasercutter
Leather
Muscle Cars
the embossing is great. I think the exaggerated embossing fits with the subject matter. it’s more manly.
“wung” lol.
@Kourtney – Spell check insists it’s not a word, but you and I know better.
i really like the extra-deep embossing on this. really works.
That book is pretty thick—is it all the way filled spreads like the ones you took pictures of?
@Colin – Every other spread is a simple layout with the name of the car on the next spread. Basically, when unbound it is 17 folios with a spread like the ones shown in the middle and the name of the car on the front.
Hey Andy, I think you should take a crack at designing the Indian Rupee symbol.
http://dixonfoma.blogspot.com/2009/03/designing-rupee.html
@Dixon: That sounds really interesting, and what a great opportunity to design something that could become timeless. However, I cannot seem to find anywhere to actually submit ideas, do you know where/how I can enter?
I think this is the right form. It’s from the Ministry of Finance of the Government of India.
http://img.labnol.org/files/currency-symbol.pdf
hey andy where didi u get the embossing done
@Jaer: I did the embossing myself with a laser cutter and book press. You can read a brief description of how I did it in the post!
Awesome! Love the Embossing on it. Looks boss.