If you're wondering what I do when I'm not collecting visual junk...see the package I designed for Bush Condoms. Created by the same folks that brought us the Bush Cards and the Slanted Bush Cards - Second Term decks, Bush Condoms aim to make this election season a lot of fun. Check 'em out!

Labels: 2008 election, Bush, fascist

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If you've ever been crate-digging and stumbled upon an LP or 7-inch with Jim Flora's cover art, you most likely bought it regardless of the music the record contained. At least, that's been my experience. These covers are truly works of art and often outshine the music therein. Long the stuff of record geeks' collections, Flora's art has managed to slowly infiltrate the public's consciousness largely by the efforts of one man. Irwin Chusid, a long-time WFMU DJ and Jim Flora archivist coined the term "Outsider Music" and was responsible for bringing to light such important, but previously overlooked artists as Esquivel, The Langley Schools Music Project and Raymond Scott just to name a few. The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora is the second book on the artist by Chusid, who is by now considered the authority on the subject and even co-maintains the official Jim Flora blog. As the title suggests, Flora's normally playful graphic style is taken for a more sinister ride in the works featured in this book, which also includes several unpublished sketches and paintings. The Curiously Sinister Art of Jim Flora is an absolute must-have for both music and art lovers, fine or otherwise. And if you are going to be in the Seattle area now through October 24th, be sure to catch the exhibition of the same name currently on view at the Fantagraphics Book Store to see many of these works first hand.

Labels: album covers, Art, Drawing, Jim Flora, music

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I've now received as gifts both the paperback and hardcover versions of 45 RPM: A Visual History of the Seven-Inch Record, an interesting and amusing survey of 45 RPM record sleeves from the 1950s through the 1990s. And while my preference is (obviously) for label art, I can't help but to pull these books out from time to time and flip through the actual-size reproductions of such visually interesting covers as the Plastic Ono Band's "Give Peace a Chance" donning a photo of one of Yoko Ono's installations or a Jackie Gleason "Lonesome Echo" single with a custom Salvador Dali painting on the cover or the Rat Fink-inspired Man... or Astro-Man? seven-inch. Quite possibly the main selling point for me is the index in the back of the book that lists all of the meta data on each record including, whenever possible, designer and illustrator. Turns out I have a couple of Burt Goldblatts in my collection.

Labels: 45rpm, 7-inch, album covers, ephemera, music, records, vinyl

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Once again, digging through my library I find a book I meant to write about a while ago but got passed over: Reinventing the Wheel, by designer, critic and Paul Rand biographer Jessica Helfand, is a wonderful reference of pre-HTML, interactive information design. Whether they were meant to assist in determining the crop yields of hybrid corn or to help identify the branch and rank of a person in military attire, the information wheels (or volvelles as they're formally known) featured in Helfand's book so often demonstrate the perfect balance of form and function that so many of us strive to achieve in even our simplest of design projects. Circular designs in general (see: 45 RPM record labels) present unique design and typographic challenges. But Reinventing the Wheel's examples weren't merely round canvases that needed to be adorned with type and color, they were born out of the necessity to solve sometimes complex data-mining tasks with a simple twist of a disc. If you've ever taken apart an info wheel and seen the absolute anarchy hidden beneath the upper, slotted disc, you probably already appreciate the technical skill and grace required to simply make it work. This invaluable book is as much a collection of what's been done as what is possible.

Labels: graphic design, Jessica Helfand, volvelles

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