New Magazine: Casual Days 0.1 Travelers

First issues are always exciting. Just read about this one yesterday (via Danica van de Velde). "Casual Days" is made by Casual Poet Culture, a small creative office based in Singapore, founded by Rebecca Toh who also hosts a weekly radio show. The bilingual (English/Chinese) print magazine is about "meaningful everyday experience". Or more precisely: "Each issue explores a specific issue related to everyday life and features a carefully-put-together line-up of inspiring individuals from various creative fields, including artists, designers, writers, photographers, idea-makers, style-setters, film directors, curators, illustrators, store-owners and our own friends." Among them for instance Kenny Leck, co-owner of the independent bookstore BooksActually (look here, it's such a cute little shop!) and Katie Merchant (Seoul Special).
To buy a copy of the "Travelers" issue online, click here. They will launch an online store soon!
Do you know this, when you discover more and more interesting things on a site and can't stop jumping from one post to another? This is what just happened to me on their wonderful blog. I'm still not finished with it.

(Images and video: Casual Days)

Aaron Stewart: Me And My Friends

I'm a bit late with this one. Just stumbled upon "Me And My Friends" by Little Aaron browsing the Human Empire bookshop. Designer and animation director Aaron Stewart reanimated his past with "the friendly critters" he had always wanted to be surrounded by in his childhood. Aaron grew up in the Kodakcolor 1970s as you can see. "Luckily I was surrounded by the best friends I've ever had." Follow Aaron and his friends on Plaid Oranges. You have to love them all, they are the best.

(Little Aaron: Me And My Friends, Pictoplasma Publishing)

(Video: PictoplasmaTV)

Anke Feuchtenberger and Nick Bantock

When I visit friends I love to ask for their books. Here are two classics that have been recommended to me recently and unfortunately I have to return them soon: The first one was published in 1999 and is called "Die Biographie der Frau Trockenthal". It contains 37 compelling theatre posters by one of Germany's leading comic illustrators, artist and professor Anke Feuchtenberger. Please visit the Reprodukt website for more of her books. 
With Italian artist Stefano Ricci she founded the MamiVerlag some years ago, a small publisher with well selected books and animated films. Look here for their newest publication: a children's book titled "Die Holländische Schachtel".

The second one, famous "Griffin & Sabine" (in German "Briefe und Postkarten der Liebe", Wolfgang Krüger Verlag), is a real treasure. It is the bestselling illustrated novel by Vancouver based author and illustrator Nick Bantock, who invites us to take part in the strange and extraordinary correspondance between postcard artist Griffin in England and stamp designer Sabine living on Sicmon Islands, South Pacific. If you've always wanted to read someone else's mail, here you can even open the envelopes ;) Look at the stunning artwork on each page! "Griffin & Sabine", originally published in 1991 by Chronicle Books, was continued: Check out the trilogy's second and third volume as well as The Morning Star Trilogy.

 

 

More about Nick Bantock.

Taschen: Advertising from the Mad Men Era

I'm a fan of the Mad Men series and so I love this one to be published by Taschen in March. It's so chauvinistic and clever. To see Don Draper's world in one book (actually it's a two volume hardcover) might be great: all the best of American print advertising at the height of American consumerism and capitalism in the 1950s and 1960s. Tons of cars, booze and cigarettes are waiting for us!

 

 

 

(Images: Taschen: Jim Heimann, Steven Heller: Mid-Century Ads. Advertising from the Mad Men Era, Multilingual Edition, 2 vol., 720 pages. You can preorder it here.)

Street Art: XOOOOX

XOOOOX makes himself scarce. No one seems to know him (or she). Though his street art came to prominence on the international art market. As long as street art is preservable. This book, edited by author and photographer Benjamin Wolbergs, will be released in March by Gestalten and it's the artist's first monograph. "It focuses mainly on his portraits of female models that he prefers to stencil or wheat-paste onto surfaces of older buildings scarred by the passage of time. The contrast between the strikingly beautiful women and the crumbling walls is a fundamental aspect of his creative vision." He also reinterprets logos such as Chanel and Hermés or he transforms the H&M logo into the letters HIV as a statement against the leveling effect of global clothing brands.

(Image: please visit his website)

Man kann sich ein Werk des Künstlers auch an die Wand hängen, muss man aber nicht. Dazu passen jedoch ehrliche Sätze wie "Ich wünsche mir nur, von meiner Kunst leben zu können", gesagt zum Tagesspiegel im November 2008.
If you live in Berlin: Die Circleculture Gallery zeigt bis zum 29.2. Arbeiten von XOOOOX und anderen in der Alten Münze/Mitte!

(All images: Gestalten, here it goes to the shop)

Winter Days: Die Schneeburg by Lilo Fromm

Look, what the grandpa found from the past. It's a Leporello, which I loved when I was a child. I'm very happy to hold this little booklet in my hands again and to show it to my two boys (though pirates and dinosaurs are much more exciting). 

(Lilo Fromm: Die Schneeburg, Verlag Ernst Kaufmann, 1972)

Planeta Tangerina: New Book "Ir e Vir"

Ir e Vir (Come and Go): Here is a wonderful new book by Portuguese author Isabel Minhós Martins and illustrator Bernardo Carvalho, both founders of picture book publisher Planeta Tangerina.

Como a Terra: movemo-nos. Like the earth: We move. On foot, by boat, by plane. Like us many animals make hundreds of miles on earth. The different way they "travel" make us slow down and think ...

There are so many fine fine books on this Planeta Tangerina. I have to write another BIG post about them all ... Have a look at their blog and website. To browse their catalogue, click here.

 (Images: Planeta Tangerina)

Sukie: Rescued Paper

Sukie, that's Darrell and Julia Gibbs, based in Brighton, England. They make lovely books and printed textiles drawing inspiration from travelling, vintage books, nature and ephemera. All of their products are very colourful, innovative and functional.

(Images: Junior Magazine (there you can read the whole article) via Sukie and friends)

There are "Rescued Paper" notebooks made entirely from discarded paper, "Agenda Cityshape" books with glassine pockets, tear off business cards, postcards and stickers as well as sketch books with plain paper or printed pages. You find their beautiful prints on cushions, bags, pencil cases and handkerchiefs. To visit their shop, click here. Your order might be a little surprise package, because some books vary according to what paper is available at the time.

(Images: Sukie)

House Doctor: Book Boxes

No books today. These are storage boxes, no pages, sorry. 

I found this lovely boxes in the beautiful House Doctor catalogue 2012. You can browse it online here. The "Everyday" collection, presented each year in January, contains new products as well as popular products from the existing range. The successful Danish brand was formed in 1999 by two sisters and their brother, Rikke Juhl Jensen, Gitte Juhl Capel and Klaus Juhl Pedersen. To find a dealer in your neighbourhoud (they are mainly represented throughout Europe), try this.

(All images: House Doctor)

Turning Pages With Joseph Herscher

Williamsburg, Brooklyn based artist Joseph Herscher takes 19 steps to turn a page ... Joseph's hamster Chester was trained for a lead role in his latest Rube Goldberg Machine, called The Page Turner. He spent seven month on preparing this!!  “I didn’t know why. I didn’t have a plan. In the back of my head, I was thinking it would be really cool when my friends came over”, he said to The New York Times. With his friends came millions of YouTube viewers to watch his video. And the result IS worth seeing.

For more inventive creations, among them his Macchina Botanica at Venice Biennale 2011, please visit his website. 

Letters, numbers, nouns: Marion Bataille and Woop Studios

Photos are not enough for these (timeless) pop-up books by Marion Bataille. From one to ten and back again, simultaneously.

(10 by Marion Bataille, Editions Albin Michel) 

The three dimensional letters fold, swing, reflect, and spin to the music Roll On Mississippi by the Boswell Sisters. 

(ABC 3D by Marion Bataille, Editions Albon Michel and here)

And for all with a love of letters and words: Woop Studios, founded by Miraphora Mina, Eduardo Lima, Harriet Logan, and Mark Faulkner. "United by a love of graphic design, words and images they founded Woop to bring a unique and exciting angle to the fascinating world of collective nouns." Mira and Eduardo are the graphic designers of Harry Potter btw, believe me.

Book: A Zeal of Zebras, 56 pages, Chronicle Books (Oct 2011)

(Images: Woop Studios, the original limited edition prints are all available to purchase)

I came across Woop Studios via Design Geek who visited their work space lately.