obsessions & anything in between
By now, some of you would have guessed that I’m a Penguin geek. My collection of Great Ideas (of which some are not displayed here) is not complete but I guess enough to prove the value these books have to me. Do check out their amazing website.
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Here you go; Idea magazine, for March 2007, volume 55, issue 2, no. 321. The green sticker is actually the price tag. Features the Works of Jan Tschichold from 1902 - 1974. With essays by Christopter Burke (who also authored Active Literature, another Tschichold book focusing on earlier works), Robin Kinross, John D. Berry, Jean-François Porchez on a little bit of insights on Sabon Next, etc. It also features his Penguin years, which is pretty insightful and serves as a good addition to geeks who dig the Penguin design history (read Penguin by Design by Phil Baines for more insights).
The Gill Sans (left) & Uhertype (right) spread:
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The “In’ tray on my desk is full of stuff. Means I should be pretty stress up by now with all that work that’s coming in. But the stuff below made me pretty excited:
Taken from one of the six amazing stories on We tell stories by Penguin. (Theres a PDF download to it!) Read more about these elsewhere here & here.
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Last two weeks, a shipment of really cool books came into the office. I wonder why I didn’t spend a single cent on any of the books… But I feel a little guilty though. Always had that hidden motive/desire to collect as many design books as possible but I lost that interest lately. Perhaps, I put it on hold for a while to keep my other options wider.
Those days, I would grab any Phaidon design books almost without even looking at the price tag. Books by Princeton Architectural Press become instant classics on my shelf. Most of my design heros monographs come from Booth Clibborn while Hyphen Press feeds me with really serious heavy reading. Books published by Laurence King have also been among the prominent ones on the bookshelf.
As a student, I’ve always refer to these books as a guide on what design is and about. Also used them as visual references at times. Definitely allowed them to inspire me a lot during that time. They also played a very important role in shaping all my current design thoughts.
The only two books that I might purchase for now is Things I have learned in my life so far & Jonathan Barnbrooks new design monograph. I have also considered Micheal Bierut’s book, Maira Kalman’s, Rick Poynor’s Designing Pornotopia and anything by Jessica Helford.
But most of my money for the books went to the below:
The thing is I have no regrets on any of the above. In fact, I feel even much more inspired by these things compared to looking at design books. Or reading Emigre magazines from cover to cover. I find myself refreshed after that crazy trip to Phuket with three amigos (will try to post pictures later, I didn’t bring a camera with me).
I learned to look at things in a more global way. Absorb in foreign culture, knowledge and lifestyle in a much faster phrase compared to staring at a book. I find things like this educating as well. By just pushing yourself a little to the edge, you see the much wider horizon. Plus, its really an enjoying thing to do; traveling. I guess my next trip might be maybe even sooner than I think it will be.
So I guess that proves that trying to fill up your environment with design is not really a fun thing to do at times.
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Other than enjoy doing what I do for a living, I have do enjoy playing the guitar. And I do love a great guitar setup with all sorts of effects to create a really sweet & nice guitar tone. Like how Tom Morella making his guitar sound like a harmonica out of his setup or Steve Vai’s crazy laughing guitar stunts via his setup.
Over the years, the following is my setup:
Things come and go but I have added the following since:
In looking for pedals, I always consider the following:
To get the stuff you want, you got to know the trick of the trade. Some stores will give a better price, some through blogs, some forums, contacts, junk shops, etc. For starters, here are some cool sites to check:
Some really cool boutique pedals can be seen as below:
The all new Steve Vai signature series pedal, The Jemini!
The value of these things not only depend on their tone but also the country of origin, the year of which it was made, the brand and finally looks. You can check out some setups on guitargeek.com. Plus plenty other support forums for guitar effects pedals.
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Yay! Stefan Sagmeister came up with a new book. To be released on March 1, 2008. 248 pages of what Stefan has learned so far. That’s a lot lessons you know.
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@ FiFFteen in Goa, 2006 
