Poster review

I finally whittled down my selection for the year’s best film posters for Creative Review. It involved a lot of shortlisting, mind-changing, agonising, caffeinating and dragging my wife into the room so I could ask her inane questions about the comparative qualities of Emmas Stone, but I got there eventually.

McQuades

A stroll through Nicole and Mike McQuade’s portfolio is always a joy. Their unused collages for the Criterion Collection’s 4K release of Citizen Kane is a particular favourite. (The final, more typographic design is also lovely btw.)

Boooks

It’s that time of year when “stop asking for books, you have too many books, look at all these piles of bloody books” echoes around our house. My excuse for all this tsundoku stacking: it’s professional research! After all, my job is just … book. Plus I have an untested but absolutely correct theory that books pay for themselves by acting as insulation and thus reducing your heating bill.

Anyway, just like everybody else in your inbox, I’m festively rolling out the affiliate links and sharing a few of my favourite reads/stacks from this year (plus a couple I don’t have my hands on yet but absolutely need to find space for … maybe I should ask Santa for bookshelves). Leave this email open near a loved one to make sure one/some/all find their way into your stocking.

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Marc Alcock

Marc Alcock is a British photographer based in San Francisco. I love this shot, discovered via one of my regular trawls through the visual wonderland that is Artsy, but his book California Topiary also looks great, capturing the curious flora-architecture of his adopted home.

The Creator

I urge you to see Gareth Edwards’ spectacular The Creator at once. Do not wait for it to stream; this absolutely deserves the biggest, loudest screen available (despite being shot on a relatively humble Sony FX3). Once you’ve seen it and your retinas have recovered, go treat yourself to Titan Books’ The Art of The Creator.

Nuts

Most intrigued by Richard Turley’s new magazine-lookbook-thing, Nuts. It’s a delightfully large chunk of black and white stuff, like an old-fashioned zine made on the fanciest photocopier imaginable. I feel compelled to cut it up and turn it into lots of something else. Available from magCulture.

Some books

Some bookish links:

  • I got my grubby mitts on Theo Inglis’ new book The Graphic Design Bible, and it looks like an essential addition to the studio reference library, sitting happily alongside his brilliant Mid-Century Modern Graphic Design.

  • Given that they publish the excellent The Age of Collage books, I was a little confused by the title of Gestalten’s Collage … which isn’t about collage. Still, it looks great – showcasing outstanding female-presenting photographers who have been shortlisted or nominated for the Prix Pictet, the leading global award in photography and sustainability. The cover, with a picture by Italian photographer Yvonne de Rosa, is particularly striking.

  • “Janet Halverson’s jacket is not violent. And it’s not exactly ugly. It’s just … pathetic. And weak. And awful – and I can’t look away. I also can’t bring myself to spend time with it. I find it so upsetting. It is … amazing.” – another cracking post from The Book Cover Review, Michael Russem on the weirdly brilliant 1968 cover for Jeffrey Frank’s The Creep.

  • Dropping to my knees and doing my best Charlton Heston at the sight of Jamie Keenan’s cover for Greg Jackson’s The Dimensions of a Cave. Now there’s a cover meeting I wish I was around for.

Micaela Alcaino on Ai

Micaela Alcaino looks at AI's influence on cover design, the future of book publishing and how to utilise these new tools in a healthy way. I’m totally against using this technology as a replacement for genuine human creativity, but there are certainly aspects of it that can be useful – for example, the whole “let’s expand the Mona Lisa’s background!” thing is, on its own, crass and absurd, but I’ve found gentle deployment of that type of effect is an absolute godsend for getting into the bleed without losing the edges of the art.

Dominic Turner

Although it pains me that my budget doesn’t allow me to buy up their entire stock, following Photobook Junkies on Threads is currently my favourite way to discover new/old photographers. For example, yesterday they mentioned Dominic Turner’s new collection False Friends and goodness me it looks beautiful. Scrolling through a selection of the images on Turner’s site, the closest comparison I can make is that episode of Twin Peaks season three; eery images seemingly floating to the surface of some oily darkness.

Songs of Silence

I refuse to believe that next month’s Songs of Silence is Vince Clarke’s debut solo album. That can’t be right, can it? For the album, Clarke set himself two rules: first, that the sounds he generated for the album would come solely from Eurorack, and second, that each track would be based around one note, maintaining a single key throughout. Lead single The Lamentations of Jeremiah, sounds like Arvo Pärt meets Trent Reznor, which is quite something. The album artwork and video by Turkish photographer Ebro Yildiz are suitably stark. Also worth a look: interviewing Clarke for The Quietus.

Wizards vs Ai

Interesting/infuriating (delete as applicable) interview with Indie Game Studios’ publisher Travis Worthington about the use of generative AI art. Respect to Polygon’s Charlie Hall for not accepting easy answers and questioning the multiple layers of legal/moral/economic complexity.

One detail that raises question marks for me: Wizards of the Coast have stated that artists are no longer allowed to use AI in the creation of work for Dungeons and Dragons products. I’ve heard this from publishers I work for too, and although it’s a commendable stance to take, where is the line? What computational processes are considered to be Bad AI? All creative software (or, if you’re using any imagery taken with a modern camera, firmware) uses it to some degree, even if it’s just a for a bit of colour-correction or cloud-tweaking. I just don’t see how any such policy could possibly be enforced.

The whole subject seems straightforward, but then the more you scrutinise it the more you realise there are no clear definitions, no hard edges, it’s all a big mess and oh god the machines have been making self-portraits this whole time.

Grace

Still finding my footing, rhythm, what-have-you on Threads. You know what they say, when in doubt, start a thread of Grace Jones photos! One of those artistes whose modelling career is almost as significant as their musical one (see also: Björk, Kylie) – I particularly love this 1979 portrait by Richard Bernstein. I’ve tried instigating a Follow Friday thing too, much like our ancestors did back in the day.

Kylie x Farrow

In lieu of a monograph that absolutely needs to exist, I regularly crawl Farrow Design’s instagram account. Struggling to think of a designer/studio that has played a more prominent part in my musical or professional life. Great to see the original polaroid that featured on the cover of her fabulous 1999 photo book: “Her fan club members were asked to send in memorabilia which we then photographed. One day she walked in and put on a wristband from a fan and we decided on the spot that we had our cover, Kylie’s arm life size.”

Kathryn Harrison

One thing I’m enjoying about Threads is the opportunity to start with a fresh slate, a new avenue for exploring what’s interesting me right now – namely photography. For the last couple of days, this has mostly involved poring over booooooom’s archive and discovering fantastic work like this selection from Floridian Kathryn Harrison.

Richard Wells

Love these calligraphy-ink portraits of Twin Peaks portraits by Richard Wells, especially this one of Lil the Dancer, aka actor Kimberly Ann Cole. I have no recollection of this character (I watched the the whole thing once, years ago, nothing really stuck), but she looks like the next of our conveyor-belt Prime Ministers. For someone who is pretty ambivalent about the work of David Lynch, I do seem to post about him a lot … may be in need of a reappraisal.