The Handy Book of Artistic Printing (& Giveaway)

Princeton Architectural Press never ceases to amaze me with their new book releases. For instance, The Handy Book of Artistic Printing, by Doug Clouse and Angela Voulangas, is a book dedicated to the wonderful world of artsy embellishments. In fact, the book’s subtitle is “A Collection of Letterpress Examples with Specimens of Type, Ornament, Corner Fills, Borders, Twisters, Wrinklers, and other Freaks of Fancy”.

The authors explore the style’s origins in the British Aesthetic Movement and analyze its distinctive features: idiosyncratic color harmonies, eclectic choice of type and ornament, compartmentalized compositional strategies. They also present a landmark portfolio of letterpress printing samples, drawn from some of the most important public and private print archives. More than 150 examples of period ephemera, printers’ own tour de force promotional pieces, and specimens of type and ornament are reproduced, many for the very first time since their initial circulation more than a century ago.

The Handy Book of Artistic Printing celebrates a previously berated and today largely forgotten episode of design history—one of increasing interest in light of the recent embrace of ornament by some leading contemporary designers. This book will be of value to graphic designers, but also to fine artists, visual merchandisers, and collectors of ephemera everywhere.

I’m going to give one copy away to a lucky reader!

Rules: Comment on this post. One comment per person. Contest runs from July 13, 2009 – July 17, 2009. We will choose a winner at random.

Check out more great titles at papress.com.

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Jaime Derringer, Founder of Design Milk, is a Jersey girl living in SoCal. She dreams about funky, artistic jewelry + having enough free time to enjoy some of her favorite things – running, reading, making music, and drawing.

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