Story Of Books

Simon Harsent on D&AD Award winner “Melt”, poetry and the ad narrative

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 »

Bertil Nilsson launches Undisclosed photobook

By Zarina Holmes Bertil Nilsson‘s Undisclosed is a series of monochromatic portraiture of circus performers. Nilsson published the photobook under his own independent press, Canalside Books. In Undisclosed: Images of the Contemporary Circus Artists, Nilsson’s nude performers are elegantly portrayed. The book captures not only the sensuality, but also the essence and dynamism of the … Continue reading »

Content with curation and hybrid books: The British Library pioneers the preservation of digital knowledge

By Zarina Holmes REPORT: “Whatever is to become of books?” at London Design Festival 2011. “We are not seeing the world as flat anymore. We are seeing it virtually. The hypertext makes a big difference.” Dr Aquiles Alencar Brayner, Digital Curator of The British Library presents fresh findings on our fast-evolving book reading habit at … Continue reading »

Meet The Comics Grid, an online journal of comics scholarship

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 »

Photofilm: Memory Loss by poet Hamish Low, with photography by Janet Greco

Sojournposse Photofilm at London Design Festival: Every year, we celebrate the festival with a photofilm, to honour the two disciplines we look to for inspiration: poetry and documentary photography. Poet Hamish Low has composed poems for two of our events. This year, he ponders on the moments that fleet by, those captured in pages or … Continue reading »

The page is no longer a cage: Mag+ ushers in a new era of rich content storytelling for tablet magazines

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 »

One Minute With: Homer, a nod to the Gutenberg press

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 »

Five Minutes With: Fiona Swarbrick, National Union of Journalists Books and Magazine

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 »

Five Minutes With: Emilia Spitz and Linda Uruchurtu, The Ballet Bag

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 »

Five Minutes With: Paul Duguid, Adjunct Professor, School of Information, UC Berkeley

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 »

Five Minutes With: Daniela Rosner, Design Researcher, UC Berkeley

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 »

Five Minutes With: Zarina Holmes, Creative Director, Sojournposse

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 »

Five Minutes With: Angus Phillips, Director, Oxford International Centre for Publishing Studies

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 »

Five Minutes With: Juliano Spyer, Digital Bricoleur, MSc Digital Anthropology, UCL

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 »

Five Minutes With: Matt Johnston, The Photobook Club

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 »