We are excited to see the Japanese artist Yusuke Oono include a festive version in his 360° book project.

The detailed scene unfolds to depict seasonal characters such as reindeers and fir tree as the axis - all fabricated solely through laser-cutting. Oono uses 3D CAD programs - usually reserved for architectural and product design - to create a landscape as if it were a cray model and slices them by rotating the plane. Through this method each plane becomes a layer of the story, transforming 2D surfaces to a rich visual sculpture, says Design Boom.

When books become art.

Berlin based Dutch artist/photographer Anouk Kruithof’s love of books led her to create her latest piece The Wall of Books, a colour coordinated installation containing 4000 books.

Finding the books in cheap bookshops or at paper recycling centres where she felt they were becoming rotten, meaningless and lost, Kruithof’s aim was to stop the disappearance of books. In each exhibition The Wall of Books gets installed in a different order, changing appearance and thus becoming a new piece of art. 

The colours and sizes of these books determine the rhythm of the rising wall in form of a physical installation as well as a video-loop, which is strong and insatiable at the same time.

The artist is often inspired by inventing art from figments of the past. 

All images © Anouk Kruithof

We like vegetables here, and we like illustration too. This fine book – The Vegetable Garden – from publishers Taschen reproduces 19th Century French vegetable catalogue images from Vilmorin-Andrieux & Cie in glorious colour and detail. 

At the height of its international renown, the company published its splendid Album Vilmorin. Les Plantes potagères (The Vegetable Garden, 1850–1895) featuring 46 magnificent color plates. The Vilmorins employed some 15 painters to create this work of agro-botanic iconography; most had trained as artist-naturalists at the Jardin des Plantes, the former Royal Gardens, including Elisa Champin, who painted a large number of the finest plates. These illustrations—reproduced here with exquisite care and accuracy—transcend mere artistic interest, beautiful as they are; they are also a valuable resource for anyone researching cultivarietal evolution, and old varieties of fruits and vegetables.

See more images on It’s Nice That (where we spotted it) or at Taschen’s own site. Mmmm… legumes.

We like this: Book Spine Poetry. From the curators of the always interesting Brain Pickings, the ‘poems’ are created by reading through the combined titles of books when stacked on top of one another. Something anyone can try at home (assuming you have some books).

Type Matters. We couldn’t agree more, and really like the look of this book by Jim Williams for Merrell Publishers. Based on a series of handout sheets for students that the former designer and typographer-turned lecturer produced whilst working at Staffordshire University, Type Matters is an excellent primer in the art and practice of typography for anyone interested in developing or honing their skills. Simply and beautifully laid out and focusing on illustrative examples throughout, the book has the feel of a vintage reference book, complete with a natty black faux leather cover.

We think it should appeal to all but the most experienced or snobby design-heads, and will be the first to admit to wanting a copy!

We like it when one good thing leads to another. This eye-catching Zodiac book cover (top image) from 1937 of ‘The Lyrics and Shorter Poems of William Shakespeare’ demanded to be rescued from the shelves of our local charity shop, simply so we could share it here.

In trying to find out a little more about the publishers, we then discovered a fantastic book cover blog on tumblr called ‘DustJacketLust’, whose eyeballed book image we also show (below).

The publishers of our charity shop find were Chatto & Windus, a company which started as a bookseller-publisher in 1855 and who published many notable writers and classic works throughout the 20th Century, eventually becoming part of the Random House Group in 1987. Chatto & Windus are still publishing today, although in our opinion their book covers now have less charm.

Artist Guy Laramee makes mountains out of piles of old books, his idea is that “Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains.” –They look rather impressive too. 

Here’s some more about it from the artist himself:

“My work, in 3D as well as in painting, originates from the very idea that ultimate knowledge could very well be an erosion instead of an accumulation. The title of one of my pieces is “ All Ideas Look Alike”. Contemporary art seems to have forgotten that there is an exterior to the intellect. I want to examine thinking, not only “what” we think, but “that” we think.
So I carve landscapes out of books and I paint romantic landscapes. Mountains of disused knowledge return to what they really are: mountains. They erode a bit more and they become hills. Then they flatten and become fields where apparently nothing is happening. Piles of obsolete encyclopedias return to that which does not need to say anything, that which simply IS. Fogs and clouds erase everything we know, everything we think we are.”

“The secret to creative success lies not in knowing the right answers, but in knowing how to ask the right questions” according to Stefan Bucher, author of 344 Questions: The Creative Person’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to Insight, Survival, and Artistic Fulfillment.

Comprising a series of visual questionnaires and flowcharts, the book is designed to help you determine your aims, objectives and possible routes (or barriers) to creative happiness, with contributions from other über creatives including Stefan Sagmeister, Marian Bantjes, Doyald Young, and Jakob Trollbäck.

Following on from our previous post, David Gentleman is one of the many excellent artists who features in the Antique Collector’s Club ‘Design’ series. Gentleman’s Lithoraphic illustration work has been a feature of British life for the last half a century, from iconic Penguin book covers to a huge mural at Charing Cross Station, stamps, work for the National Trust and even political posters. Inspirational stuff.