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Archive for the ‘Books’ Category

I’ve been inspired by the lovely blog by Marie Perkins called Print Pattern.  It’s an amazing collection of everything that is in print and that is patterned.  A wonderful place for inspiration too!  And best of all, you can have her book to read over and over again. 

Book: Print and Pattern

Book Description: Pattern is everywhere. Years of minimalism have been superseded by a riot of color and shape, whether on walls, fabrics, clothes, or signage. Print & Pattern is a visual celebration of contemporary surface design.

Compiled by the creator of the cult blog of the same name (http://printpattern.blogspot.com/), this book documents the work of the best surface designers from around the world and features products that have been embellished with a surface print or pattern, including graphics, cards, gift wrap, stationery, textiles, ceramics, badges, stickers, and wallpaper.

As well as successful commercial designs, the book also showcases previously unseen pattern designs from designers’ portfolios. Accessible but with a cool edge, the book will appeal to surface designers, graphic designers, designer-makers and craftspeople, illustrators, and fashion and textile designers.

A sneak peak inside…

{Image credits: Print & Pattern book}

I stumbled upon this unique website call The Selby a few months back and I remembered they were putting together a new book {The Selby Is in Your Place (Hardcover)} and wanted to check it out.  I found a page full of sneak peak pictures and of course I was intrigued with the photos of Karl Lagerfeld’s studio photos in Paris.  What a treat!

Book Description: The Selby Is in Your Place was conceived when fashion and interiors photographer Todd Selby began taking portraits of dynamic and creative people—authors, musicians, artists, and designers—in their home environments and posting them on his web site. Nosy by nature, he wanted to see how personal style was reflected in private spaces. Lucky for us, he found his answer in the color-rich and eclectic quarters of a diverse group of subjects, including Simon Doonan and Jonathan Adler, Faris Rotter, Andre Walker, and Olivier Zahm, in New York, Los Angeles, Paris, Tokyo, Sydney, and London. Each profile is accompanied by Selby’s watercolor portraits of the subjects and objects from their homes, and illustrated questionnaires, which Selby asks each sitter to fill out. This book consists of over thirty profiles, many of which have never-before-seen, selected exclusively for the book. The result is a collection of unique spaces bursting with energy and personality that together create a colorful hodgepodge of inspirational interiors.

About the Author: Todd Selby is an interiors, fashion, and portrait photographer and painter. His photographs can be regularly seen in British Vogue, Vogue Hommes International, Dazed and Confused, Another Magazine, Nylon, New York Magazine, and the London Sunday Times.
Lesley Arfin is the New York-based author of Dear Diary and the former editor of Missbehave magazine.

I can’t remember how I found this artist online, but I saved a link to Rex Ray’s book and looked further and found a talented artist. This is really my style of art, I have a hard time finding exactly what type of art I do like and I’m so tickled pink to have found this artist.

Check out his biography I found on his website, it’s pretty impressive!

Rex Ray is a San Francisco based fine artist, whose collages, paintings and design work have been exhibited at galleries and museums, including the The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, University Art Museum in Berkeley, San Jose Museum of Modern Art, The Crocker Museum in Sacramento, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, Cheryl Haines Gallery, Gallery 16, and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions.

He is also a celebrated graphic designer. He has created work for Apple, Dreamworks, Sony Music, Warner Brothers, City Lights Publishers, Matador Records, Serpent’s Tail, The New Museum of Contemporary Art, Rizzoli, Powerhouse, Mute Records and Crown Books. His package designs for David Bowie, as well as for Joe Satriani, Diamanda Galás, Matmos, and Deee-Lite, have earned him an international reputation for his innovation in type and with original photographs, drawings, and collage. He has designed over 100 historic Bill Graham Presents rock and roll tour posters, including ones for The Rolling Stones, Patti Smith, REM, Bjork, U2, and Radiohead.   

Video

I found this video where Rex Ray explains how he started and glimpses into his process.

Book

I can’t wait to get my hands on his book Rex Ray: Art + Design and peruse slowly page by page the beautiful artwork.

Book Description: Rex Ray’s highly collectible artwork is coveted in design as well as art circles. His color-bursting, curvaceous art graces the walls of high-design hotels, world-class museums, and hip restaurants, yet remains, as acclaimed author Douglas Coupland puts it in his foreword, ‘unslick, but superslick at the same time.’ Abstract and handcrafted, with a retro-futuristic mid-century feel, Rex Ray’s meditations on fluid forms are a rare combination of sophistication and decorative appeal. The first monograph to survey his multi-faceted work in various media including paper cutouts, mixed-media collages, paintings, digital prints, and the highly admired graphic design and music packaging that launched his visual career Rex Ray is a veritable trove of his sleek yet playful aesthetic.

And this is just the beginning… there is so much more to explore… Read the rest of this entry »