Friday, August 31, 2012

The Gospel>Marc Newson







 

Marc Newson's complete works to date

He has designed chairs, restaurants, boutiques, cars, planes, and even a spaceship. For Australian industrial designer Marc Newson, the sky is no limit. From mass-produced objects to limited edition furniture to fashion, Newson has blurred boundaries, mapped new territories, and made himself an international superstar.

This comprehensive tome leaves no stone unturned in cataloguing all of Newson’s works to date, from early pieces such as Lockheed Lounge (which holds the world record for the highest price paid for a piece of designer furniture, at over two million dollars) through designs of household objects and more recent, large scale projects such as the interior of Qantas’s A380 and the Aquariva boat.



Born in Sydney, Australia, Marc Newson (*1963) studied jewelry and sculpture at Sydney College of the Arts before moving to Tokyo where he designed his first production works for Idée. Subsequently based in Paris and London, where he lives and works, Newson quickly became one of the world's most accomplished and influential designers. Newson’s designs are present in most major permanent museum collections, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, London’s Design Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, and the Vitra Design Museum. Newson holds adjunct professorships in design at Sydney College of the Arts and Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and in the UK has been appointed "Royal Designer for Industry." In 2005, TIME Magazine listed him as one of the top 100 influential people in the world. In 2011, he was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) by Her Majesty the Queen.

Thursday, August 9, 2012

Vinyl Mania - Jazz LP covers from the 1940s to 1990s













This volume features a broad selection of jazz record covers, from the 1940s through the decline of LP production in the early 1990s. Each cover is accompanied by a fact sheet listing performer and album name, art director, photographer, illustrator, year, label, and more.

Special features for jazz lovers include a top-10 favorite records list by leading jazz DJs such as King Britt, Michael McFadden, Gilles Peterson, Andre Torres, and Rainer Trüby, as well as interviews with legendary jazz personalities Rudy Van Gelder (sound engineer who recorded for many labels such as Blue Note, Impulse!, and Prestige), Creed Taylor (founder of many labels and one of the best jazz producers ever, credited also for bringing bossa nova to the US and fusing it with jazz), Michael Cuscuna (Blue Note jazz producer and catalog researcher, responsible for its most successful re-editions), Bob Ciano (designer at the CTI Label, founded in the 70s by Creed Taylor, and one of the greatest cover designers ever), Fred Cohen, (the owner of New York's Jazz Record Center store with an encyclopedic knowledge of jazz music), and Ashley Kahn (writer, critic, and journalist for jazz whose books include A Love Supreme, Kind of Blue, and The House That Trane Built).

This new edition features 2 volumes in a slipcase.


The author:

Joaquim Paulo is a consultant for major labels and directs a number of radio stations in Portugal. He started collecting vinyl at 15, and flies to London, Paris, New York and São Paulo to enrich his collection of over 25,000 LPs. He lives and works in Lisbon and dedicates his free time to recovering old and rare recordings.

The editor:
Julius Wiedemann was born in Brazil, studied graphic design and marketing, and was an art editor for digital and design magazines in Tokyo. His many TASCHEN digital and media titles include Illustration Now!, Advertising Now, Logo Design, and Brand Identity Now!

(C) Taschen

The sights and sounds of American jazz







In 1960, photographer William Claxton and noted German musicologist Joachim Berendt traveled the United States hot on the trail of jazz music. The result of their collaboration was an amazing collection of photographs and recordings of legendary artists as well as unknown street musicians.

The book Jazzlife, the original fruit of their labors, has become a collector`s item that is highly treasured among jazz and photography fans. In 2003, TASCHEN began reassembling this important collection of material – along with many never-before-seen color images from those trips. They are brought together in this updated volume, which includes a foreword by Claxton tracing his travels with Berendt and his love affair with jazz music in general. Utilizing the benefits of today's digital technology, a restored audio CD from Joachim Berendt's original recordings has been produced and is included in this package. Jazz fans will be delighted to be able to take a jazz-trip through time, both seeing and hearing the music as Claxton and Berendt originally experienced it.

  • Featuring photographs of Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Muddy Waters, Gabor Szabo, Dave Brubeck, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Ella Fitzgerald, Miles Davis, Charlie Mingus, Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and many more
  • Includes bonus CD of digitally remastered recordings of music made during Berendt and Claxton's journey (originally released in 1960 as two records)
The photographer:
William Claxton (1927-2008) began his career shooting jazz record cover art. His iconic images of Chet Baker, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Billie Holiday and many others reflect his preeminence among photographers of jazz music. Claxton worked for many of the biggest publishers including Life, Paris Match, and Vogue magazines. His work has been shown in galleries around the world, and his photographic prints are now sought after by collectors of fine art photography. He passed away on October 11, 2008 in his hometown Los Angeles.

The author:
Joachim E. Berendt was a founding member of South West German Radio (Südwestfunk) and produced more than 250 records. In 1953, he first published Das Jazzbuch, which became the most successful history book on jazz worldwide. His collection of records, books, and jazz documents form the basis of the Jazzinstitut Darmstadt. Berendt died in an accident in 2000. His contributions to jazz are internationally recognized to this day.

Something Different: 52Aces






Here's a novel way of getting your hands on artwork. 52Aces is a limited-edition deck of cards in which the 52 tiny canvases (plus two jokers) were created by artists and illustrators from all over the world in their distinctive style. Some look like a regular playing card, others look tarot-y, while still others look like they belong in a gallery.