The Missed Connections illustrated blog by Sophie Blackall is finding lots of followers. In fact, there’s even a short video about the blog made by Babelgum. Blackall reads Craigslist’s Missed Connections and posts her pictorial vision of these fleeting moments along with the text from the ads themselves. They can be sweet, funny, and at times just plain strange. Her illustration style, with its delicate lines, soft colors, and editorial quietness, lends itself beautifully to this project, and usually adds intrigue and mystery to the described scenario—often one of impossible romance.

Maira Kalman’s blog for The New York Times, called And the Pursuit of Happiness, is based on moments from her own life. She visually narrates her adventures, quotidian moments, and grand realizations. These monthly posts are often funny, peculiar, personal, and inspiring, not unlike her illustrated book, The Principles of Uncertainty.

My new favorite blog, Letters of Note, features actual found letters, postcards, telegrams, faxes, and memos impeccably curated by Shaun Usher. These correspondences are selected because of their fascinating content and history, not for celebrities and gossip. There are letters from soldiers that reveal amazing stories (I’ve been brought to tears). A letter to Jesse Owens from the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People pleads with him not to participate in the 1936 Olympic Games. It’s amazing to get different accounts of history in this firsthand sort of way. It’s also enthralling from a design perspective to see these artifacts uncropped and legible (a transcript also follows each one).

Last week we wrote about how Anthropologie catalogs feature a rich level of storytelling with their design, through photography and playful layouts. It’s not unusual to experience a larger story reading a collection of separate posts on curated, single-author, or theme blogs, whether it’s intentional or not. And if fashion catalogs can tell stories, most certainly illustration (and found-material) blogs can, too.

Suzanne M. LaGasa
Designer

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A colleague and I took a little field trip for the last hour of our day last Friday to catch the Avedon show at the SFMOMA before it goes away at the end of this month. What can I say? It’s divine. The whole show is really fantastic—HUGE prints of fascinating faces, including many very famous folks. But by far my favorite room was the very first one you walk into at the beginning of the show, which features a great selection of his early fashion work. You walk into the room and you’re facing a print—taller than you are—of the iconic image “Dovima with the Elephants.”

All images by Richard Avedon on view at SFMOMA

Now, as it happens, a poster of this image hung in the dining room of my childhood home the whole time I was growing up. So to see it in person, gigantic and glowing in that way really sumptuous black and white prints do, was such a treat—one of those images that’s seared into your brain and then you get a chance to see it in a whole new way—the comfort of the deeply familiar combined with the shock of the new. Terrific.

There were a ton of other great fashion images in that room as well—ones of Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton and a lot of other amazing 50s and 60s models. Here are a few that were my faves:

But maybe my most favorite of all was this one:

The print was teeny tiny compared to all the other huge prints—maybe 8 inches square. I just love this image of Avedon and Twiggy dancing together! It shows so well his gift for capturing motion, and it makes a shooting process that’s generally regarded as tedious look like so much fun!

And if this post has whetted your appetite for great black and white fashion photography, you might try this:

Or this:

And coming next year we’ll have a new edition of legendary fashion maven Diana Vreeland’s classic compilation of fashion and fashion-inspiring shots, Allure, with a brand new foreword by none other than Marc Jacobs himself! I am beyond excited.

Bridget Watson Payne
Associate Editor, Art + Design

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If there’s anything that those of us in publishing can appreciate, it’s a good story. Over the years, Anthropologie has proven itself to be a master storyteller, particularly through their catalog. For me, receiving an Anthropologie catalog in the mail is like receiving the next installment of a very engaging story. I’m never sure exactly what format the story will take, where it will take place, and what fairytale will flutter out of its pages, but I can hardly wait for the next one to arrive.

What I’ve always appreciated about these catalogs is their willingness to push the creative boundaries of a typically quick-to-the-recycling-bin medium. While certainly in the business of selling fashion and housewares, Anthropologie also understands the significance of story as commodity. Think of that apple tart you bought because it smells like Fall and childhood trips to the orchard. Or the song you downloaded because it’s the song that was playing when you received your first kiss. Anthropologie’s catalogs are evocative and romantic, and take the recipient to a place that exists in one’s dreams. A place where wild spotted mushrooms grow from floorboards, where fabled characters step into knee-high leather boots you, too, can wear.

What makes the stories so strong are the bold creative visions and attention to detail. The photography shifts to fit the changing mood. The styling is art in itself, often transforming the simplest of materials into miniature lands, gypsy caravans, explosions of butterflies and grass. Scale shifts take you down the rabbit hole and into Wonderland. And like many a good story, there are new twists and turns in every telling, whether it be a change in trim or paper stock, an international cast of real people as models, favorite artists featured, or destinations miles off the usual tourist map.

In no other retail catalog I can think of would I see the Carl Sandburg quote, “Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.” In an Anthropologie world, they’re not only dancing, they’re throwing a masquerade ball.

Jennifer Tolo Pierce
Associate Design Director

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Another year, another impressive array of books and covers to marvel at. The turnout for the November 5 opening also impressed, especially since it was a “first Thursday” night when galleries typically debut new art shows.

On hand were designers, design educators and their students, painters, illustrators, musicians and assorted other bibliophilic types for a look-see at the AIGA 50/50 show. While most were of the local variety, there was a contingent from Cal State Chico and at least one attendee from Monterey. Who said the book is dead?

Here are some snapshots of what they saw.

Chronicle Books’ lobby transformed into book gallery

Letterpress-printed commemorative napkins and bookmarks, courtesy of Michelle Clair and designed by Laura Bagnato, Chroniclers both.

A curiosity piece from McSweeney’s: All Known Metal Bands. Really.

Look at me: Photographs from Mexico City

The ties that bind: exposed spine from MIT Press; multi-hued spine from Mark Batty. In the background, Chronicle’s own L Is for Lollygag.

Full metal jacket: printed pressed tin cover from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

That’s right. It’s books, too!

From fruit to nuts–and bookmarks.

Not the last word: yours truly takes to the soap, er, book box, on behalf of the book as we know it.

The penultimate word
I’m not one who seeks to have the last word. I do like to welcome our guests, however, and acknowledge those who worked to make the evening a success. To ensure that I do not have the final word, I include an e-mail from journalist friend Claire Sykes extolling the virtues of real books, as opposed to virtual ones. Claire writes:

“I have had no experience with e-books and am not at all drawn to them. Maybe someday that’ll change, but for now, I prefer the tactile feel of paper between my fingers, its texture and heft, and the sound it makes in that small shift of air as I gather up the corner of a page and turn it. I love the smell of a fresh, new book, my nose in the crease. I love how a book shows its use from my carrying it around in my bag, its cover worn from my touching it so much, its pages buckled from getting wet while reading in the tub. I love seeing the spines of all my books lined up one after the other on my bookshelves, the colors and typefaces as varied as the contents inside. I love just knowing they are there. I love returning to a book over and over again throughout the years, seeing underlined passages and notes in the margins, scrawled in my hand. I could go on, but you get the idea. Nothing will ever replace a real book.”

The AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers exhibition will remain open until November 20, 2009 in the lobby of the Chronicle Books building, 680 Second Street, San Francisco. Hours: 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday.

Michael Carabetta
Creative Director

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A few weeks back, I attended the Golden Gate Park Book Fair with my friends and co-workers, Geoff and Sandy, roaming the aisles in search of long lost treasures and inspiration.

Old paper goods, in general, make me swoon, but there were two things at the end of the day that truly left me awe-struck and longing to be part of the days when hand-crafted type and attention to detail were, as it seems, a given.

Around these parts, people know that I’m crazy for “pretty things,” and these books and their use of gold foil definitely fall into the “pretty things” category for me. They show such gorgeous attention to detail, and maximize the use of the foil to make some really eye-catching covers!

The second thing that I found so inspiring was the attention to detail in the spine designs.

With such a constrained space, sometimes designing spines can be a challenge, but seeing how successful these spines are in commanding your attention reminded me that a well-designed spine is as important as a well-designed cover.

If you are looking for some more inspiration, we are lucky enough to be hosting once again in the lobby of our office, the AIGA’s 50 books, 50 covers exhibition through November 20th.

See related post here.

Kristen Hewitt
Senior Designer

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