By Salina Christmas Vook enters the ebook fray; Amazon dodges UK tax; Nook tells London: shop online in the US; Mag+ design competition; more book covers delight; Spanish books go underground in Arizona; PayPal won’t service ‘obscene’ titles; Unicorn Cookbook and Cooking With Poo. And that’s a week (and more) in book news. Is it … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Google axes ebook affiliates and Android Market, then launches Google Play; Amazon to publishers: ‘Drop ebook prices or else’; Picador redesigns 12 classics; soft sell and hard-ons – web promo the Mills & Boon way. And that’s a Week In Book News. Mills & Boon lunchtime read sizzles “Sweat broke out on … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Jie Qi, designer and a mechanical engineering major at Massachussets Institute of Technology (MIT), US, researches on mechatronics, new media, physical computing and human-computer interaction. While researching with the High-Low Tech Group, she created the Electronic Popables, a pop-up book with electronic interactive elements. Q. What do you think will become of … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes. Literary research by Salina Christmas. The heart of a global warming sceptic would thaw out at the sight of Simon Harsent‘s award-winning portraiture of the diminishing Arctic icebergs. He speaks to Zarina Holmes about the D&AD 2010 winner, “Melt – Portrait of an iceberg”, and the recent WWF ad campaign which combines … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas REPORT: “Whatever is to become of books?” at London Design Festival 2011. The video presentation by Dr Ernesto Priego of the Comics Grid at our event, “Whatever is to become of books?”, last week was certainly unconventional. It took a while for us to realise that many of the effects used in … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes REPORT: “Whatever is to become of books?” at London Design Festival 2011. At the Inspiration Room event held at University College London on 17 September 2011, Creative Director of Bonnier Technology Group, Sam Syed, presented a storytelling platform for tablets that challenges the traditional notion of a page as the placeholder for … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas At the London Design Festival event, “Whatever is to become of books”, digital anthropologists Juliano Spyer and Cosimo Lupo showcased “Homer”, a book scanner constructed of everyday objects – a digital camera, a recycled box and a piece of glass from Poundland shop – powered by an open source software used by … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “The book industry had the foresight to proceed with a paid model rather than wander blindfold into the digital age as the newspaper industry did. Many media conglomerates are now shored up by the profits of their book publishing wing,” says Fiona Swarbrick, former editor … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes & Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Ebooks and Kindle, or ebook readers in general, will become ‘the new paperback’.” Emilia Spitz and Linda Uruchurtu, co-founders, The Ballet Bag, observe that despite the digital crossover, digitisation also has encouraged the return to typography and illustrations in book design, and … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Novels, romances to the fore, have taken the step from codex to ebook without a hitch.” Paul Duguid, author of “The Social Life of Information” and adjunct professor at the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley, on what’s to become of books. … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “I don’t see books disappearing. They will continue to evolve and transform.” Daniela Rosner is a design researcher interested in how new technologies figure into creative production. One of the projects she has been working on is ‘Fine Bookbinding’ which incorporates traditional binds and electronics … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Print will be collectible,” says Zarina Holmes, Creative Director of Sojournposse who envisioned the concept “digital storytelling …a digital campfire” for a multimedia event she directed in 2009. Trained in advertising, with a masters degree in Design from the alma mater of punk, Middlesex University, … Continue reading »
By Zarina Holmes Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Books are alive and well. The debate has moved on from the death of the book.” Angus Phillips is Director of Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies at Oxford Brookes University. He is also editor-in-chief of publishing journal, Logo, and author of the Future of … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “They have a book scanner at home and don’t even realise that”. Juliano Spyer, MSc Digital Anthropology, is one-half of the duo that will be presenting “Homer”, a prototype book scanner made of everyday objects and open source software at the event. Currently, he is … Continue reading »
By Salina Christmas Five Minutes Interview at London Design Festival: “Digital publishing will have an embedded element in the printed book”. Matt Johnston, photographer, educator, researcher and co-founder of The Photobook Club, predicts the future of the photobook. He also consults on social media and audience strategies in the UK and the US, for photographers … Continue reading »
