Litographs: Classic Books as Typographic Prints Supporting Global Literacy

Literature and art converge to combat book famine and bibliowaste.

A modern paradox: While the developing world is experiencing the worst “book famine” in decades, an estimated 40% of books printed in the “developed world” go to waste, eventually destroyed by the publishers themselves. Having a tremendous soft spot for art and design projects inspired by literary classics, I love everything about Danny Fein’s Litographs project, which addresses this paradox through beautiful prints by a team of artists, made of upcycled classic texts, many in the public domain. The books remain fully legible in the final print. Thanks to a partnership with the International Book Bank, every print sold sends a book to a community in need.

The Moby-Dick litograph is the loveliest take on the Melville classic since Matt Kish’s page-by-page illustrations.

'Think not, is my eleventh commandment; and sleep when you can, is my twelfth.'

This 24 x 36 inch print (full view at top, close-up zoom at bottom) includes approximately the first third of Moby Dick. The 18 x 24 inch print includes approximately the first sixth of the book.

For a fine complement to the wonderful Beholding Holden artwork, a knock-out litograph of The Catcher in the Rye:

'What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.'

This 24 x 36 inch print (full view at top, close-up zoom at bottom) includes the full text of The Catcher in the Rye. The 18 x 24 inch print includes approximately the first half of the book.

As a lover of all things Alice in Wonderland, the Alice litograph makes my heart sing.

'If everybody minded their own business, the world would go around a great deal faster than it does.'

This 24 x 36 inch print (full view at top, close-up zoom at bottom) includes the full text of both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. The 18 x 24 inch print includes the full text of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Though it’s hard to outshine Stefanie Posavec’s Writing Without Words project based on the Jack Kerouac classic, this On The Road litograph is quite lovely:

'I was surprised, as always, be how easy the act of leaving was, and how good it felt. The world was suddenly rich with possibility.'

This 24 x 36 inch print (full view at top, close-up zoom at bottom) includes the full text of On the Road. The 18 x 24 inch print includes approximately the first half of the book.

'...for the shield may be as important for victory, as the sword or spear.'

This 24 x 36 inch print (full view at top, close-up zoom at bottom) includes approximately the first third of On the Origin of Species. The 18 x 24 inch print includes approximately the first sixth of the book.

All the litographs are available in color as well as black-and-white, and you can see the full full collection on the project site.

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A Typographic Literary Map of San Francisco, in a Puzzle

From Kerouac to Steinbeck by way of The Mission.

This week, I’m in San Francisco for the fantastic Pop Up Magazine, and what better time to dust off a thematic old favorite with a new twist? As a lover of maps in general and literary geography in particular, I was thrilled to learn that John McMurtrie’s fantastic 2009 typographic map of San Francisco literary geography, illustration by artist Ian Huebert, is now available as a jigsaw puzzle. And not just any jigsaw puzzle — a laser-cut wooden jigsaw puzzle.

With 152 pieces and several dozen authors, including Brain Pickings favorites Jack Kerouac, Mark Twain, Philip K. Dick, and John Steinbeck, the cartographic-typographic puzzle is a beautifully designed treat for the lit geek in your life, or in your heart.

The complete list of authors and works:

• Alice Adams (Second Chances, 1988)
• Isabel Allende (Daughter of Fortune, 1999)
• Maya Angelou (I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, 1969)
• Gertrude Atherton (The House of Lee, 1940)
• Albert Benard de Russailh (Last Adventure, 1851)
• Ambrose Bierce (The Death of Halpin Frayser, 1891)
• Herb Caen (Herb Caen’s San Francisco, 1957)
• Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, 1968)
• Dave Eggers (A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, 2000)
• Lawrence Ferlinghetti (Dog, 1958)
• Allen Ginsberg (Sunflower Sutra, 1956)
• Andrew Sean Greer (The Confessions of Max Tivoli, 2004)
• Dashiell Hammett (The Maltese Falcon, 1930)
• Robert Hass (Bookbuying in the Tenderloin, 1967)
• Bob Kaufman (No More Jazz at Alcatraz)
• Maxine Hong Kingston (China Men, 1980)
• Jack Kerouac (On the Road, 1957)
• Gus Lee (China Boy, 1991)
• Armistead Maupin (Tales of the City, 1978)
• Czeslaw Milosz (Visions From San Francisco Bay, 1975)
• Alejandro Murguia (The Medicine of Memory, 2002)
• Frank Norris (McTeague, 1899)
• Thomas Pynchon (The Crying of Lot 49, 1968)
• Ishmael Reed (Earthquake Blues, 1988)
• William Saroyan (The Living and the Dead, 1936)
• John Steinbeck (Travels with Charley in Search of America, 1961)
• George Sterling (The Cool, Grey City of Love, 1920)
• Robert Louis Stevenson (Arriving in San Francisco, 1879)
• Amy Tan (The Joy Luck Club, 1989)
• Michelle Tea (Valencia, 2000)
• Hunter S. Thompson (The Great Shark Hunt, 1964)
• Mark Twain (Early Rising, As Regards Excursions to the Cliff House, 1864)
• Sean Wilsey (Oh the Glory of It All, 2005)

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Inside the Sketchbooks of the World’s Greatest Type Designers

A voyeuristic look at the underbelly of the art-science of typography.

From prolific design writer Steven Heller (previously) and collaborator Lita Talarico comes a fine new addition to both the 10 finest books on typography and our favorite peeks inside the notebooks of great creators: Typography Sketchbooks is like a visual window into the minds of the world’s most exciting type designers and, in turn, into the intricate art-science of typography itself — a medium both creative and practical that has to walk the tightrope between centuries-old tradition and bleeding-edge innovation with equal parts grace and agility in an era of changing reading habits and design expectations.

An understanding of content and context is essential, but, typographically speaking — that is, in terms of the letterforms — beauty, however defined, is key. The beauty of precision; the beauty of expression; the beauty of how one letter conjoins with others on either side of it and above and below; the beauty of how it looks on the page or screen.” ~ Steven Heller

The hefty tome, weighing in at over 3 pounds and 350 pages, features work by more than 100 designers — including icons like Paul Shaw, Matthew Carter, and Erik Spiekermann, and Brain Pickings favorites Doyald Young, Maira Kalman, and Milton Glaser — each profiled in a micro-essay alongside the work. (Though I have to say I was surprised to find Marian Bantjes, whose I Wonder remains one of my 10 all-time favorite books about typography, absent from the book.)

Heller and Talarico’s exquisite selection reveals two key archetypes of type designer: the designer as artist, using letterforms as a medium of self-expression and creative experimentation, and the designer as scientist, applying precision and technical acumen to create stunning yet utilitarian type commodities.

There are two kinds of type maker (though many more kinds of type user, which is another story). One is the precisionist or functional designer who creates typefaces for quotidian public consumption. The other is the gadfly or expressionist designer who makes — or, rather, illustrates — letters in any shape or form: legible or illegible, it doesn’t matter, as long as it emotes.” ~ Steven Heller

Typography Sketchbooks is a follow-up to Heller and Talarico’s 2010 Graphic: Inside the Sketchbooks of the World’s Great Graphic Designers, one of the five finest glimpses of creators’ private notebooks.

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