Doggie Bookshelf

I stumbled upon these very charming bookshelves/stools/sculptures by NEL, a Mexican design collective, and think they’re great (even if they arguably fall into the category of things that are one thing but look like something else).  They define playful, have some actual utility and are not insanely expensive — that’s a pretty unbeatable combination.  They’re available at proteak.com for not that much.

ceramic dog by NEL

Wooden dog by NEL

dogs at play

I’m significantly less into these bookshelves by NEL, mostly because they seem totally unuseful and likely to fall over — a pretty terrible combination.

Quetza bookshelf by NEL

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Book City Jackets are available at amazon.com.

Book City Jackets went to Fashion Week

Book City Jackets went to Fashion Week as part of the gift bag given out at Thuy‘s runway show on Sunday.  Here are some of my favorites (photos by Getty Images) :

Buttoned up, but with a twist (and slit).

Shimmery jodphurs?! Bold.

 

Striking but appropriate for any and every occasion, I think.

Thuy always has good pockets

My favorite dress - can't put my finger on exactly why, however.

Many thanks to Thuy and her team for the opportunity.

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Book City Jackets are available now at amazon.com.

Bookshelves that Blow Minds

I happened upon a blog called Bookshelf, which bills itself as the “home of interesting bookshelves, bookcases and things that look like them”, and was pretty blown away by the varietyof bookshelves that the world produces and that they manage to track down every week.  Here are a few bookshelves that caught my eye.

Schollhammer

 

Starts normal but grows with your book collection.  Plus, the covered books remind me of Book City Jackets.

Skylla

 Things that are one thing but look something else usually bother me but I’ll let this one slide since there’s a strong connection between what this object looks like (a book) and what it is (a bookshelf).

Jay Heo

Simple and austere is a winner every time.

T shelf

The only thing I like more than simple austerity is modularity.

Not only does this website have lots of photos to drool over, but it’s the “satellite site to Shedworking the lifestyle guide for shedworkers and those who work in shedlike atmospheres.”  Who knew?!

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Book City Jackets kraft paper bookcovers are available at amazon.com

BCJ Goes to Fashion Week

Next week is Fashion Week in New York and Book City Jackets is going to the Bryant Park tents!  Our “Bookshelf” set will be in the gift bags given out at Thuy‘s show on Sunday afternoon.  Photos coming soon . . . .

In the tents . . . .

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Spring ’09 Artists Collection coming soon.  Contact us for more information.

Book City Jackets, kraft paper bookcovers, are available at amazon.com

Other people’s covers — Happy birthday!

Happy birthday!  Send us some action shots . . . .

A birthday book

 

Happy birthday!

A Night at the Library

I spent Thursday night at the New York Public Library with Jessica from Soft, a coming-soon clothing line for children who are sensitive to the texture and feel of clothing. 

We were there for Design by the Book – a collaboration between NYPL and Design*Sponge in which five artists were asked to come to the library, find inspiration in  its stacks, create, um, something and have the entire process videotaped and presented to the world in four bite-sized episodes.  Episodes one, two and three, respectively, introduced the artists, showed them flipping through wacked out old books at the libary and checked in on their progress at their studios.  Last night’s episode, the finale, revealed what they came up with.

Story hour at the New York Public Library (photo: D*S)

The artists — a glassblower, a ceramicist, a printer, a pattern designer and a “maker” — created vases, zines, lighting fixtures, prints and patterns that are for sure worthy of such an impressive library.  What I enjoyed most of all about the event, though, was getting a glimpse during the videos and the Q&A session of the participants’ expertise in and passion for their various media.  I could have listened all night to Lorena Barrezueta, the ceramicist, talk about the technical challenges of casting a nearly seamless mold of a delicate paper shape.  And I could watch Rebecca Kutys churn out beautiful cards from her dangerous-looking, fast-moving and totally analogue printing press for hours.  It is clear that these are people who really know what they’re doing.

I’m always impressed by people who are passionate about what they do and who put the time into becoming really good at it.  This appreciation extends beyond the arts.  For instance, I much prefer Radio Lab over This American Life because Radio Lab features experts whereas This American Life features normal people.  It doesn’t really matter to me what someone is expert in, which may be why I was up until 2:00 A.M. on Saturday night watching a lecture comparing Abraham Lincoln to John Ashcroft (the summing up remarks at 1:25 are bananas).

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Book City Jackets available at amazon.com.

BCJ Goes International

It’s official: Book City Jackets has gone international.  We received our first overseas order today and it came from . . . Malaysia!  I don’t know how the buyer happened upon BCJ but I’m glad she did.

BCJ will be somewhere in Malaysia . . . .

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Book City Jackets available at amazon.com

Books by the foot, paper by the pound

BookDecor.com  is an online store that sells “designer leather-bound books” and takes the idea of creating an old-time-y library to a noteworthy extreme.  The idea is that Book Decor hunts down old leather-bound books, groups them in some coherent way — color, pattern, sun-faded-ness, and so on — and then sells the books by the foot to help people decorate their bookshelves and achieve a classic library look.

Book Decor's zen collection

 

Book Decor's jewel tone collection

I’m struck by the idea of these books being pure works of art, meant to be placed on a shelf and collectively admired — Book Decor’s books are printed in Danish so for almost all their customers there’s not even the possibility of reading, or even skimming, the books that line their shelves.  Given the intuition that you can understand a person based on his bookshelf, what can you make of a person who buys books in order to put them on his bookshelf?  (We’ll save for another day the question of whether people usually pick what they read with how it’ll eventually “read” on their bookshelf in mind . . . .)

I’d like to think that I wouldn’t think less of the person who decorates with Book Decor’s help.  I mean, I don’t think less of people who wear sneakers to the movies or flannel shirts to brunch.  (Do I . . . ?)  As I am generally accepting of people who use things for something other than their intended purpose in order to achieve a certain look, I don’t see how I can judge someone who uses Book Decor’s books badly.

Unless there’s  something about books — the fact that they contain ideas?  the fact that they require an investment of time? — that makes them different from other things that people don’t use as intended.  Thoughts?

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Book City Jackets available at amazon.com.

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