DEISGN MATTERS

I went to The Strand last night. For those of you who are not New Yorkers, The Strand is an amazing new and used bookstore with an enormous selection of art books for CHEAP! At least 10 dollars off. It beats my bookseller discount. I can't go in there without walking out with a pile of stuff, which is bad because I'm out of bookshelf space. Anyway, I've been wanting a particular photography book for years but it's been out of print. Well, there it was! IT's called STEAM STEEL & STARS. Photography by O. Winston Link. He photographed old trains from the 50s at night. Amazing stuff.

Here's my problem. The design is awful. The text part at the beginning contains a HUGE bold font that's sort of obnoxious. It takes away from the photographs. Of course, my camera is out of batteries and my ipod has been downloading for the past 2 hours! It's SO annoying. All I did is say "yes" to upload the new program for it and it is now putting up all the contents ALL OVER AGAIN. Frustrating! So I DID take photos of the inside of the book but I can't get them off of the ipod. I will when I get home from work tonight so I can show you all.

In the meantime, this is the cover and an interior. Despite the bad design, the photographs are great. I got it for ten bucks!

DESIGN MATTERS: GOOD OL' DESIGN

For the research for my latest book I ordered a book called Brave Tales of Real Dogs. I had no idea what it looked like. All I knew is that it MIGHT have SOMETHING about my subject and it was written in 1931. When I got the book I was disapointed with the book's content. It contained almost nothing that I needed. However, its design is wonderful. The purchase was well worth every penny. I will happily perch it on my bookshelf. The design is simple, elegant, and the drawings are quiet and wonderful. You need to get up close to them and smell the pages....