Viva la Deadlines

While watching a recent documentary about Yves Saint Laurent, his partner had a comment on deadlines. Something to the effect: I don't know what magic designers have but they always make the deadline.

Eight years in newspapers honed my deadline muscles and muses. But I wanted relief, so I turned to academia for—among other things—it's openness. But deadlines are part of design always and this month was an extraordinary one.

So just a note of gratitude to Pierre Bergé for not only acknowledging the power of a deadline, but for making me feel better when I needed it. Four major publications have returned from the press in the past week alone. I feel the weight of the world off my shoulders.

Maybe that's the magic. Design generates constant relief. Constant labor. Constant ticking. Constant joy.

Infinite City

Infinite City is one of those books it's practically impossible to write about, because it is too eloquent to be summarized. As Rebecca Solnit's title suggests, it simply cannot be contained. So accept these meager photographs as valentines to what has been the most enchanting read I've had in years. The most conceptually-pristine project of recent memory. The perfect integration of three passions of mine: writing, design and cartography. Each map in this atlas is juxtaposed in a manner that evokes more than their literal meanings.

Loveliest flourish of the whole book: not placing a period at the end of the essays. Rather, each essay ends with the glyph for infinity ∞

Making Faces

I just received my copy of Making Faces: Metal Type in the 21st Century. Making Faces is a documentary by Richard Kegler of P22 Type Foundry showcasing Jim Rimmer, master typographer, who passed away in January 2010. The DVD came with a lot of extras: a specimen book of Stern—the first (and perhaps only) font released simultaneously in metal and digitally; a chapbook of Rimmer's type designs (pictured above); a cast metal lower case 'k' from the Stern family (also pictured above); and a copy of Rimmer's font Loxley, made for an edition of Robin Hood.

In the spirit of connecting this to entry to my blog—metal type is a perfect watermark. It leaves an impression beyond the letter forms and the paper fibers. It's a watermark of type designers and their lives, of craftspeople and industry; a watermark of both time and history. Kegler's drive to capture Rimmer at work on film is a valentine in the nick of time.

Empire

New York City in October. An island between seasons; an ephemeral escape; a sublime dislocation.

Like my previous color palettes based upon travel, I use my iPhone camera; then the Pantone application to extract colors from those images; e-mail ASE (Adobe Swatch Exchange) files; and complete the project in InDesign when I return from my trip. The goal is to be open and receptive to what turns up; not to force the colors. Brownstone's are a surprising conglomeration of hues I wouldn't have selected as brick. Yet the Brooklyn bridge colors are precisely what I recall. Incidentally, the green patinas on old edifices and sculpture share a lot of attributes with the emanations from electronic signs and monitors.

My airplane reading material for this trip was Maira Kalman's illustrated edition of Strunk's The Elements of Style. I read it in anticipation of her new book And the Pursuit of Happiness. So with Maira in mind, I feel this palette could easily have come from her ineluctable and intuitive character studies. That's the thing about New York ... everyone's personality is in the foreground, but we must find something to focus on before we spin out of control. It allows you to see and appreciate everything for what it is, and then forces you to move on before you can understand it.

A Bible to Swear On

Fraktur Mon Amour is one of those book-as-art objects that just screams across whatever room it’s in. The patent black cover with pink edges instantly provokes curiosity. What a lovely valentine to calligraphy we have in this tome. Featuring more than 330 blackletter scripts—150 on a companion CD—Judith Schalansky has created a compendium as rich with history as the Holy Bible itself.