We just launched this very lovely print by Jacqueline Kari Bos over at The Working Proof. It’s called Aurora and was based on sketches for an illustrated mini-book she recently came out with called “I Heart the Arctic”. The print is a two-color screenprint with white and copper inks. There are fifty prints in the edition but each one is really one of a kind, because the aurora borealis portion of each print has been watercolored by hand. Check out our interview with Jackie here.

15% of the gross sale of the Aurora print will be donated to Show Hope.

I kind of love this. The Baleine bookmark by Atypyk.

Alex Mathers dropped off a link to his illustration work and I am a big fan of these illustrations for a real estate project. I would love to see them expanded into an aerial view of an imaginary city.

We were sent a review copy of Oded Ezer’s book The Typographer‘s Guide to the Galaxy by Gestalten last year. I’m fairly new to Oded’s designs, but to survey his extensive body of work, as presented in the book, is amazing.

Typography goes beyond just letters on a page – it gives expression to a word. To me, Oded’s work even goes beyond that – his typographic work blurs the line between the science of typography and art. His words become sculptural, sometimes just in their 2D form, but other times they become literally 3-dimensional, taking on a life of their own.

Not being able to read Hebrew myself, I am even further removed from the reality of the words he works with, making them more foreign, beautiful and emotional. In the forward of the book, Paola Antonelli expresses this well:

“There is no better proof of the elegance of a typeface than obfuscating its content. And if, as is my case when it comes to Hebrew (or Korean, or Thai, or Arabic…), one does not understand anything at all, there is no need to even reverse the sheet; the experience becomes purely emotional and aesthetic. Ah, the delights of ignorance!”

The Typographer‘s Guide to the Galaxy is a beautiful, inspirational monograph. Besides just being visually stimulating, Gestalten included a series of essays about his work (by Paola Antonelli, Marian Bantjes, Yehuda Hofshi, Cinzia Ferrara, and Kitty Bolhöfer), as well as an interview with Oded himself, all of which provide insight into Oded’s design process and his collection of work.

I am not sure exactly how functional the Homo sapiens Kitchen Stone is, but it looks like a good idea to me. Part grinder, sharpener, chopper, and assorted other -er’s, the stone is a primitive tool that looks like something that early man really used. Designed by Marie Garnier.

I’m really excited to see this book when it comes out this fall. Curated by Julia Rothman Matt Lamothe and Jenny Volvovski, The Exquisite Book Project features the work of 100 artists, centered around the idea of Exquisite Corpse (a game that Sean and I are big fans of! Our Follow the Leader project was very loosely based on the concept). From Julia’s blog:

The book idea is loosely based on the game started by the Surrealists in the 1920’s called the Exquisite Corpse. Our version is played by 100 contemporary artists, illustrators, designers and comic artists.

Here is how our project is set up: There are ten groups of ten artists participating in the process. Each artist is contributing one page to the book. The first artist was given a few words to inspire their drawing. Each of the following artists saw only the page that immediately precedes their own. Each artist is using images (and optionally, words) to create their continuation to the story, and the inspiration for the next artist in line.

Besides continuing the story of the last artist, there is another, more visual, connection between the pages. Each artist has a horizon line in their image that starts on the left side of the page and ends on the right. Where the horizon line of the first artist’s page ends, is where it begins for the next artist. (The horizon line part has been very loose and it has been exciting to see how everyone interprets it.)

Shown from left to right: work by Mike Perry, Camilla Engman, Lab Partners, and Nick Dewar.

Welcome to 2010 everyone! We’ve been posting things for a few years now and want to know what you would like to see more of. Post a comment with your likes and/or dislikes and we’ll take it from there. We hope 2010 brings great things to all our readers and creatives featured here.

In the meantime, take a look at the amazing moments captured by the winners of the 2009 International Photography Contest, put on by National Geographic.