Bring the world with you

I think I might be one of the few that still enjoys the shoulder pad cliché, but this Anne-Sofie Back commission for Fred Perry’s sixth installment of the Blank Canvas series is hard to deny. Great silhouettes.

Back draws her inspiration from products and issues that make her feel uncomfortable. The reverse shoulder pad, a design feature that runs through all of the collection, is a manifestation of that inspiration and is also found in Back’s catwalk collections. The reversed pads in the garments create a sloping shoulder, the opposite of the 80’s fashion cliché of power dressing.

To read and see more, click here.
Via This Heart’s On Fire

Via Young Blood.

Straight from the Monkey’s Paw, I picked up some books on hold. A fifth print of An Aperture Monograph by Diane Arbus, a first-edition paperback of McLuhan’s The Medium is the Massage (though not his best work), and a nice book of poems by Paul Verlaine.

Eva also lent me two back issues of the Vancouver-based, really-well-done art magazine, Pyramid Power.

Pleasant synchronicity in design noted within…

In a perfect world, what would be doing today, if I could? After a nice lunch, I would probably be scoping out this Bless sample sale, with pieces ranging from all their collections, N°01 – 34. Of course, I would also have to be able to afford it – I’m pretty sure those fur wigs don’t come cheap.

Sale ends today, November 15 at 14 Rue Portefoin, 75003, Paris.

Via Hint Mag

I didn’t take this picture, but this is very much how this tee shirt is hanging on my wall.

Via ANP Quarterly

Via Gnarlitude

Here’s an interesting excerpt of AA Bronson’s take on art book publishing, as told in a 500 Words article with Art Forum:

[B]ook and art-book designers have been influenced a great deal by artists’ books, so we’re getting used to seeing mainstream catalogues that are quite unusual. The format of the book has become much looser over the past five to ten years. But more than that, I think there’s been a generational shift. For example, here at Printed Matter, two-thirds of the people who shop are under thirty-five. The norm at book fairs is that everyone’s over fifty—when you go to a book fair and look around, it’s all old people. When you come to the NY Art Book Fair, you see a huge population of young people. I think that bodes very well for the publishing and art worlds in general. But it also says something about young people themselves—they have a level of interest in books that nobody was quite aware of before.

And here’s Art Fag City, which happened to profile the same quote.

Maybe this is something more for you, Andre, but I wouldn’t mind picking up one of these for myself:

As one of the most influential and inspirational graphic designers of the twentieth century, Paul Rand defined modern American graphic design. His iconic logo designs for IBM, UPS, and the ABC television network distilled the essences of modernity for his corporate patrons.

This latest volume of the popular Conversations with Students series presents Rand’s last interview, recorded at Arizona State University one year before his death in 1996. Beginners and seasoned design professionals alike will be informed by Rand’s words and thoughts on varied topics ranging from design philosophy to design education.

Available at Magic Pony.