The Electric Information Age Book

The paperback book has a somewhat bad reputation. It conjures the image of romance novels, cheap bargain buys and sub-par writing. The Electric Information Age Book by 'Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels challenges this stereotype.  A well designed book can do wonders in reinvigorating the love of books. So often, books are designed in a safe way. Standard typefaces, standard margins, standard size and orientation. What I enjoy about his book is that it breaks away from the book publishing mold. I think words can be easy to be boring with as a designer. They commonly read left to right, they are horizontal in orientation and stay around 10 point size. Schnapp and Michael's book takes advantages of angles, dynamic layout and variation. 

With the digital age and the computer, we expect a level of interactivity with our media. We want to control it, adjust it, and to have a relationship with it. This book plays to this idea in that it portrays its message in a way that mimics electronic media. Arguably, digital media is much more playful and fun when it comes to publishing information. The book still needs to catch up to this type of movement and energy; but I think that with the attention from determined designers like Schnapp and Michaels, the book has the potential to evolve to tailor to our digital preferences. As a graphic designer with a passion for the written word, I sincerely hope that the physical book gets a push that makes it relevant to the digital-inclined but stays true to its glorious roots. In a transition time such as ours, it is all about evolution and upgrading; building upon what has been standard. 

The Digital Take Over...

Greetings, Come In. The Electric Information Age Book is refreshing when it comes to the design of paperback. The authors truly allowed design to have a role in the editing and production of the book. They took the conventional idea of a book and gave it life through typography, color, highlights, font and pictures. Each page of this book is no longer the stagnant repetitive format each page is different and unique allowing the reader to want to be engaged in the physical text. This way of formatting is totally appropriate for the subject of “The Electric Information Age”.

The decade between the mid 1960’s and mid 1970’s was an emerging boundary shift in the way we receive information. Books, Magazines, Newspaper, Television, Music and Film were going through a transitional phase of digital taking over paper. Now that we are reliving that cycle again for the fight between the digital/electric and paper more and more books have to find a way to reinvent themselves. Although any book can just give into the digital world, the fight to remain a physical book is an honorable task.

More and more bookstores are going out of business allowing for this boom in digital reading to trump the physical book industry. Nook’s, Kindel’s, and IPads are slowly deteriorating the written translation of information through its digital platform. The Electric Information Age Book and the other books from Project Projects are reinventing the way that we connect with tangible books through its openness of allowing design to play a role in its production.

THE BOOK -- turn the page -- IS AN EXTENSION OF THE EYE

When stripes of MAGENTA and CYAN catch your eyes upon seeing the cover, you know it’s a well-designed book—“In short, to forge the new verbal-visual vernacular.”

This book is essentially just that.

Written and designed by Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels, The Electric Information Age Book explores how contemporary thinkers like McLuhan, Agel and Fiore formed a “visual vernacular” in communicating to the masses during the Information Age.

As design students in a Publicizing Creative Works course at Parsons The New School for Design, this is the perfect book of how the two worlds—information and design—collided, to which blogs like these are even made possible.
PS. Props to the dude who put the new layout together. Looks a lot better!

Anyways, asides from all the historical facts and information, I was personally inspired by the amount of creative juice these thinkers had during the 60’s and 70’s. They always experimented “for something completely different…” and they sure did a hell of a good job.

The most inspiring part of this book to me is the 1970 graphic masterpiece done by Agel and Fiore, collaborating with Buckminster Fuller, I Seem to Be a Verb: Environment and Man’s Future. Inspirational quotes for creative people with big ideas, plus an old man who looks just like the dancing old grandpa from the Six Flags commercials—how could you possibly not be inspired?

- Nina Choe

Now tell me they don't look alike :)

 



Also, you guys should check out: http://fuckyeahbookarts.tumblr.com/

The Book and its diminishing role in society.

The 1960s and 70s was an integral time towards the shift into a more electronically processed informative age. The Electric Information Age Book chronicles this time period by highlighting several occurrences that would forever shape the scope of book arts. As publication companies continued to die out, electronic companies began to slowly take over. However with many of the events occurring over 40 years ago, how has technology shifted even further?

In the current age of Internet and Digital Media, the book's current role in society is no longer one in which they are mandatory to survive. Currently the general public does not engage in reading physical books. Also contributing to this is that for many classes books are read online. This is to save costs, as well as time. However this has led to the decreased engagement the book now has with its reader. Books are now given small opportunities in order to engage the reader in a way that they would actually continue reading the book. Without a few strong opening chapters, there is no strong indicator for a reader that this book would be worth his time. Now with the current influx of information, our time must be further partitioned in order to decide which books would be worth our time. Book clubs, NY Times Bestsellers and general word of mouth help contribute to give suggestions for books, however I believe that books must be re-marketed in order for them to regain a commonplace in today's society.

–Michael Leng

Shoptiques

Shopping online and boutiques are both old concepts, so what is so different about Shoptique? Boutiques sell cloths and accessories that are not massed produced and usually only service the area they are in and Shoptique is an online store that gathers items from all sorts of boutiques, it allows you to shop like a local, shops are organized by neighborhood so you can pull up inventories from neighborhoods in Manhattan or Brooklyn, for instance the style choices for Park Slope would be quite different from the ones in Manhattan upper east side. From there, you can filter by color, price, size and style, you can even browse across other cities such as West Hollywood. It is also interesting because the website allows shoppers to know which boutique near them have what they want, so they website and boutiques are like partners.

The new way of shopping online could become more personal and feel almost like a personal shopper online, no matter what your style is but it can also defeat the purpose of the uniqueness of style from each neighborhood by categorizing them and making them seem generic, and isn’t shopping in boutiques part of the whole experience?

Stylish Cases your iPad

With it’s sleek and compact design the iPad has replaced notebooks and laptops all together and has became the most popular techie accessory at the moment. Designers have taken note, using every sort of material and texture, from felt, rubber, pebbled leather to all sorts of animal skins to create durable and stylish cases for the gadget-to-get. Sure some of these cases may cost more than the actual iPad itself…but you’re technically getting two uses out of it because they can be used as a clutch too! Here are some of my picks for the most glamorous iPad cases.

1. Intrecciato Hi-Tech iPad Case $630 – Bottega Veneta is most well known for their signature intrecciato bags which are made by artisans with the finest leather woven into the intrecciato patern to make the material stronger and definitely durable for the iPad.

2. Miu Miu $380 – I am drawn to its glossy leather and gold plated hardware.

3. Emilio Pucci $850 – Python, brights and neon, all the Spring 2012 trends in one.

4. Kate Spade $85 – The exterior is sleek in black and white but the inside has tons of pockets and compartments and is ideal for a student.

5. Proenza Schouler $685 – I present to you the PS1 iPad Case, if you are a fan of the much coveted PS1 bags these would be the perfect example of a case that is interchangeable to a clutch, and the front flap pocket is functional as well.

Happy Shopping!

Social Media

Social media is no longer just for the privileged but has become extremely accessible and it allows everyone to be apart of a public sphere and for information to be exchanged in an instant. It unites people from all different spectrums, ofcourse information becomes less reliable but it also allows more perspectives, in a consumerism society, marketers can get to know more about their target consumers through social media and learn about their changing behaviors.

The line between social media and real life has became so blurred, how we form an identity online can almost reflect how we really are in real life, therefore one should still be cautious as to what they decide to allow exposed to social media, it is a personal choice as to whether one wants to present oneself in a professional way or to a more personal level. Some users are getting so personal with social media a new trend called “vlogging” has become a really popular trend where people are now recording themselves and allowing everyone with internet access to view instead of just writing. In social media what has been put out can be easily traced even if it is not recent, just like the new facebook timeline, one’s past history can remain floating around in this intangible space.

Can more graphically rich books make them less obsolete?

The Electric Information Age Book by Jeffrey T. Schnapp and Adam Michaels explores a time in publishing, between the mid-60’s and mid-70’s, known as the electric information age. During this time, mediums such as television and radio were taking over and the concept of books was becoming obsolete. As a result, young designers and editors, such as Steven Heller, started exploring ways of merging this new electric information age into books by making texts more visual and ‘graphic rich’. The book is a detailed account of all these different tools book designers used at the time to make them look more visual interesting, such the use of typographic hierarchy, graphics and photography.

The book itself is also an example of ‘photographic-textual conversation’, and while these innovative implements make the text more visually interesting, does it really change the message sent? It makes it easier to read and more fun to read, but does this aspect of a graphically rich medium really make books less obsolete? Isn’t the reason why books are becoming more and more scarce because other mediums such as laptops and tablets provide a more interactive experience? While these tools like variation in type, alignment, colour and graphic definitely help attract a wider audience; they probably target readers with design backgrounds, rather than your average paperback novel reader. 


- Shanila Daswani

Verbal + Visual

“The Electronic Information Age Book” written and designed by Jeffrey Schnapp and Adam Michaels, declares itself an “experimental paperback.” The authors seek to break the boundary between form and content through unconventional modes of representing narratives.

Steven Heller recounts in the introduction that in the past books of this nature have not been so welcome in the world of literature. A critic of the New York Times once named Marshall McLuhan’s (a man of tremendous inspiration to the authors of the book) work as “frenzied” and “busy.” In 1967, when the book was published, this may have been exactly right; society didn’t run the way it does today. In the 21^st Century, however, people are buzzing with information, and are declaring they do not have time to read anymore [from a 2007 study by the National Endowment for the Arts, readership among adults fell to 57%, and this was before the E-book boom!] So, for the text to match the action of its readers could be the answer to the dwindling pastime.

As one who is constantly falling prey to the surrounding world of technology and information, Adam Michael’s design studio, Project Projects, seems completely appropriate for this century. His interfaces combine the activity of not only reading, but also viewing images, art and text in a more graphic layout. The method also allows for complex ideas to be more heartily described and transcribed through images, and diagrams. Its like combining YouTube, Pinterest, Tumblr, and a book into one. Well, they have my attention, for now at least.

-Amelia Stein

Living Online

Recently I have been struggling to find a space where a small group of artists can display their work as a collective exhibition. This has led me to think more carefully about real estate for artworks.

One option is to document these works online. Online gallery spaces are becoming increasingly legitimized. However, one must think of the Internet as a giant database for practically everything that exists. As I look around my room right now, everything that I own (electronics, furniture, books, movies, etc.) can also be found online. This characteristic of the Internet that we take for granted has made it less important for us to actually experience things first hand. And with that, we have lost the sense of spontaneity in our lives. If I miss a movie in theaters, I can watch it online at any given moment. If I miss an art event, I can research and re-watch it online. Such luxuries, although convenient, cannot be compared to first hand experience. Yet today, experiencing something in person and online are not all that much different.

Going back to my own dilemma, this is precisely why I do not want to document my work online. Whether I like it or not, it will be blogged about, or tweeted about, or will go on Youtube. However, this online identity must only serve as supplementary information to the physical object. 

Social TV

One of America's premiere cable channels, BRAVO, has incorporated social media into the viewer's experience for a quite a while. Effective two weeks ago, they have officially made the hit-show Bethenny Ever After, starring Bethenny Frankel an interactive experience for to the audience to communicate directly with Bethenny as they watch her life pan out on the silver screen. Viewers simply use a BRAVO hashtag and Bethenny has the ability to pick and choose which responses she addresses. While watching, the dialogue appears on the bottom of the screen. This type of experience adds a whole new level to Reality TV. Bethenny is an entrepreneur in Manhattan formerly known for her role on The Real Housewives of New York. This season of Bethenny Ever After chronicles her success after selling her infamous Skinny Girl Cocktail to Beam Global for over $100 million last year. We all know BRAVO likes drama and when things get tense, it gives Bethenny a new way to provide more depth to the experience for the viewers benefit. Reality shows don't often provide enough back-story or address the situation in it's entirety. This incorporation of twitter into the TV-viewing experience allows the audience to have a personal experience with the star of the show and ultimately improve their understanding of whats going on. Reality TV opens up the lives of certain individuals for the audience to actually connect with. Making this experience even more personal will probably do a lot for the show's fan-base and ratings. I would love to see this type of social media integration in other popular BRAVO shows. 

Functionality

My goal as a designer is to be an innovator and to create conventional spaces that have multiple functions. I love designing residential spaces and I love architects that have a similar logic when designing. Studio Dror designed a house called the Eco House that exemplifies functionality at its best. The main feature of this Eco House is its retractable roof, the roof moves from its conventional pitched orientation to a sleek horizontal top which functions as a way to filter the low winter sun and the high summer sun rays. This contemporary design also allows for a filtration of summer breeze to circulate through out the space from the video you can see the design also includes a pool and indoor outdoor lounge areas with great entertainment yard space.

The New Office

Since most “9-to-5” employees spend 40+ hours a week at the office, you bet they ought to make it homey. That’s why companies have been switching things up at the workplace—physically, I mean. These days, you’ll find less cubicles that confine people into their own little box, and more open tables intended for interaction and collaboration. Space and surroundings can definitely make a great impact on you, so having a pleasant working environment is necessary. A great example of this is at the Edun office, where I currently intern. Compared to the towering cubicles in my previous internship at Escada, Edun creates an open environment with a warm homey feel. 

“Today’s office needs to inspire, motivate, and stimulate its inhabitants; encourage collaboration within and across departments; and enhance the collective abilities of its staff—and it must do all of this in a way that satisfies all roles within the organization,” explains Kelly Bacon, director of business development at TPG Architecture, a New York-based architecture and design firm specializing in workplace design.

Skype offices

Edun offices

Check out more photos of Edun's NYC office here:
http://inhabitat.com/nyc/edun’s-loft-like-new-york-showroom-offices-are-awash-with-reclaimed-materials/

- Nina

Wearable Communication

The buzz surrounding Bard Graduate Center’s current exhibition, Hats: An Anthology by Stephen Jones, is still ringing strong, even after seven months.  The other day I received a call from one of my (less fashion-minded) friends, recommending that I see this exhibit.  Why is this information significant, you may ask?  My friend lives in Florida.  

As word of this relatively small gallery spreads even beyond the realm of the city’s local news, I think it is interesting to question the root of its massive popularity.  I, for one, was immediately entranced by this collection when I attended back in September, but as someone who has specialized in millinery design, my opinion is more than slightly biased.  Why is the public, the majority of whom doesn’t wear hats, much less spend their free time making them, so drawn to this exhibit?

While the reasons are definitely varied, I think the essential attraction of this exhibit pertains to the philosophy of innovative fashion. While the hats within this show are anything but accessible, exquisite in their design and detail, viewers are led to relate to the work through the path of literal wearability.  An unspoken potential for interaction accompanies the knowledge that these pieces are not meant to remain on a wall or in a glass case, but to interact with the world through the wearer—through you.  Even if you have no desire to place one of these sculptures on your head, the direct line of communication from art, to fashion, to wearer, and finally to world is undeniable.  It’s certainly an interesting medium to consider.

Face to Face vs Digital Socializing

On April 3^rd, Skype unveiled its latest $12 million advertising campaign under the headlines “It’s time for Skype” which takes a stab at both Facebook and Twitter as social networking devices that live solely live digitally, and promotes its own ‘face to face’ digital form of keeping in touch.

Currently, as a student of the Design and Management world, and an intern with in the Advertising industry, issues around ethics and competition become part of the daily vernacular, but what happens when these produced stories leak the truth? Has our digital social behavior begun to dictate our nature within the tangible public sphere?

We live in a world that functions in multiple dimensions- digitally and tangibly. But what concerns me is that is this world transforming beyond our conscious understanding as a solely digital public sphere, is it on its way to or even- has it already transformed? 

In my Design Development class last year, I worked with my team to develop a solution- a third space that existed between the digital and tangible world of social interactions but it received mixed reactions from the class. Considering that tools like MeetUp haven't grown to the standards that Facebook and Twitter have set, is the concept too far fetched to grow from a classroom, or has our social spheres morphed into their next eras? 

-Maryam H.