Chronicle Books Blog

Today at Chronicle we’re celebrating our love of a different kind of paper: your friend, The Ballot.

It’s incredibly important to vote. It’s also pretty easy, and our friends at Paul Frank are making it even easier. First, make sure to register!

Through October 20th, Paul Frank Stores and HeadCount are going to make signing up easier than ever by registering voters on-site. In addition, HeadCount staff will be on hand to discuss the voting process. (As a special bonus: Everyone who signs up gets 20% off most items in the store and 10% of the stores proceeds will go back to HeadCount, a non-partisan group. All college students with a valid ID get 30% off. Spend $50 or more and receive a special, limited edition T-shirt celebrating the 2008 election and voter participation.)

Then, once you are registered, here’s the play-by-play of what you need to do:

1. Decide who/what you would like to vote for.

2. Go to your voting station.

3. Show your ID to prove you exist.

4. Wait in line for your turn.

5. Open the curtain (if your polling station has curtains).

6. Close the curtain.

7. Look at the ballot.

8. Remember who/what you wanted to vote for.

9. Mark or punch the spot next to your vote.

10. Congratulate your civic-minded self with some kind of frozen dessert.

Click below to download and print out a poster and spread the word!

Christina Amini
Editor

Not all inspiration comes from within. In fact, the more art, design, and crafts I see, the more jazzed I feel to make and create. In addition to my local galleries and independent bookstores, friends, and colleagues, I keep going back to a handful of online sites for inspiration. Like a nosy neighbor, I’m curious about, er, my creative community.

Little Red Riding Hood, by Amy Earles (jointed paper doll set/print with 10 silver brads) via Etsy

For instance, Rare Device, a store/gallery in San Francisco, curated by artist Lisa Congdon, has a great rotation of artist shows, like the current Sleep Walk: New Work by Amy Earles and cool books and rare design products, like a notebook from Portugal, of bound paper napkins! Through their site I can checkout new shows, and on their blog I can read about Lisa’s cool findings and creative endeavors.

Disrepair by Zachary Rossman via Park Life

Or take the gallery/store Park Life. It’s in a neighborhood far from mine, but their website allows me to dive in and dive out of their constant rotation of inspiring art shows. And like Rare Device, their blog is great about giving exposure to exciting artists and alerting people of other neat art shows going on in the city.

My First Piano Print by Christina Vantzou via Little Paper Planes

Little Paper Planes, an online gallery and marketplace for artists, just had their first art show in a physical location, at the Tinlark Gallery in Hollywood. I’d love to get out there if I could, but for now I dig checking out their new artists or “old” regulars with new work. And I love reading the blog and reading about other artists, art shows and even stuff like the new California Academy of Sciences!

Photo by cjmeinke on Flickr via Etsy

Some people may scoff at the idea of “online community,” but I find the creative, art, design, and craft online communities to be inspiring, kind, and helpful. The more my web community grows, the more I want to get out there, explore, and see. Creativity breeds creativity no matter where you can get it.

Check out Etsy’s Community Building hub. And there seems to be a Flickr creative community for all your crafty loves: gocco, printmaking, collage, art books, and more.

My first attempt to print gocco by ninainvorm via Flickr

There are a bunch of other sites worth mentioning (though I can’t possibly mention them all). Some of my favorites are: Design Sponge, Apartment Therapy, Jen Bekman, Fecal Face, and Poppy Talk. Please comment with your favorites. I hear Brooklyn, Chicago, Philly, and Portland are creative hot spots on fire!

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

Do you ever have that thing where suddenly everyone you meet is talking about the same thing? It might be hippos or plastic cameras or trucker hats, but suddenly something-or-other is on everyone’s minds. Well, I had that this past week with the idea of the Making of a Photobook.

First, last week, a co-worker and I went to the Photography Book Now symposium. Blurb.com—the service that helps people self-produce their own books of photography—put on this seminar to help its users learn more about what goes into making a great photo book. It happened at Bimbos 365 Club, which leant a rather slinky vibe to an otherwise primarily educational event where book designers, editors, and professional photographers spoke about their part in the making of a book. It was pretty interesting to hear those different jobs dissected and described in detail—because, of course, when you’re working at something you rarely take the time to stop and articulate what it is exactly that you are doing, or how you do what you do—what skills and tricks and crazy weird ways of thinking go into this thing you call “work” and which, in our case, the rest of the world called “books.”

Then, this week, the September issue of Photo District News landed on my desk. And what does it contain but a longish article about how photography projects evolve from the proposal stage to become finished books. And one of the case-studies they dig into on this topic is our very own book Planet Shanghai. There are great interview excerpts with the photographer Justin Guariglia and our until-very-recently-very-own Alan Rapp, the book’s editor, about the process by which this book went from a gleam in a photographer’s eye to a delish little number between two covers.

And speaking of PDN, their website also just posted a great feature about our forthcoming book Right.

And, what the heck, since I’ve clearly veered down the road into shameless self-promotion here today, I’m just going to go whole hog. We’re just pleased as punch that Chronicle was recently nominated for a Lucie award for Photography Book Publisher of the Year for our book Manual Alvarez Bravo: Photopoetry. The Lucies are kind of like the Oscars of the photo world, with a big shmancy ceremony at the Lincoln Center in New York, so this is a pretty neat thing, and we feel special.

Whew! As a person who grew up in one of those self-deprecating families, all of this tooting of one’s own proverbial horn is making me a little lightheaded. I think I will go attend a meeting and maybe eat some rather humbling crackers or something now. You all have a lovely weekend.

Bridget Watson Payne
Assistant Editor

Stencil Sneak Peak

Stencil101…..it’s almost here!!

Shameless plug for one of my favorite books this fall: Stencil101 hits shelves in one short month, so I wanted to get your eyes peeled. (You can pre-order your own copy right here.) Our book comes with 25 die cut stencils, everything from a Super8 camera, a boom box, and turntables to fanciful sparrows, a birch tree, and deer. The author Ed Roth sells tons more designs on his Stencil1 site. We literally only have three copies in the office so I can’t tear any stencils out to make something yet, but I will post pics here as soon as we get some more and I can tear in.

Ed posted this photo on his blog, which is an awesome place to get stenciling inspiration and tutorials like this video Ed made on how to embellish a tote bag, t-shirt, and card all with one stencil.

Check out more Handbound posts.

Kate Prouty
Craft Editor

We’re so excited about our hot fall season’s cookbook releases and wanted to highlight some of our recent bestsellers as well. From Top Chef: The Cookbook to Heirloom Beans and The NFL Game Day Cookbook, we’ve published some pretty darned distinctive titles this year. We’ve also been expanding our gifty, non-traditional formats when it comes to all things food and drink, so take a look at some of the cool decks (The Tagine Deck, The Tea Deck) and kits (Pretty Pantry Gifts), and even games (Foodie Fight!) we’ve got to offer. Gift giving is easy, and really really reasonably priced, for the foodies and food porn lovers in your life if you take advantage of this special, once a year promotion.

We’re also offering up a little prize pack to five lucky winners that respond! Just leave a comment below with your favorite fall dish. Winners will be randomly chosen on October 1st.

Pretty Pantry Gifts
Grill Every Day
Puff–plus some Dufour frozen puff pastry!
A beautiful Chronicle Books tote bag, designed by Jason Munn.

Happy delicious shopping!

And to keep up with what’s going on in Chronicle’s kitchen, receive recipes, view excerpts, and enter to win giveaways, don’t forget to sign up for our Cookbooks e-newsletter.

Peter Perez
Senior Marketing Manager