● Studio Build (E17)
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It seems a long time ago since Adrian (Shaughnessy) came to our studio to interview Nicola & I for a book about studios. We then took some pictures of the studio (see above), sent some work samples over & approved the copy. It's nice to see that the new imprint has finally launched. Unit Editions, the new publishing house set up by Adrian Shaughnessy (Shaughnessy Works) & Tony Brook (Spin) has now opened it's doors with a website and manifesto. Studio Culture is the first title (available September 2009), this from their site –
"When we looked for a subject to launch the new imprint, we noticed that although nearly every topic in the graphic design cosmos had a book devoted to it, the humble design studio seemed strangely neglected.
It’s a bizarre omission. Without studios there would be no graphic design. It’s the designer’s natural habitat. The place we spend most of our time. Not only that, but the desire to own and run a studio is part of the graphic designer’s DNA: it’s a rare designer who hasn’t contemplated setting up his or her own studio. Even amongst studio owners there is a perpetual hunger to know how ‘others do it.’
Not only is the studio a neglected subject in graphic design commentary and literature, but it’s even rarer to hear designers talk publicly about the ways in which they run and develop their studios. The graphic design studio, its culture and its history, is a well-kept secret.
Until now, that is".
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We'd like to wish Adrian & Tony all the best of luck with Unit Editions, and look forward to seeing what they produce.

Full size here.
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Full size here.
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I really recommend you view these at actual size, amazing.
Images from the NASA book – 'Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts'.
July 20, 2009, marks the 40th anniversary of the first human landing on the moon by Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins of Apollo 11. A direct result of President John F. Kennedy's mandate to land a man on the moon by the end of the 1960s. The achievements of the Apollo missions have since become a benchmark in the annals of human experience. Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts is a visual celebration of the most heralded space flights in history and a record of one of the most significant episodes in the history of photography.

Need.

Poems of space
Edited by Maurice Riordan and Jocelyn Bell Burnell
October 2008
£8.50 + p&p 240 pp
ISBN 978 1 903080 10 8
Poets have long been stargazers, moved by the strange infinities of the universe to translate them into metaphor and song. For Dark Matter, the third in the Gulbenkian Foundation’s trilogy of poetry and science anthologies, leading poets were commissioned to create new work inspired by their discussions with eminent space scientists. Their meditations on the light and dark matters of the skies have been challenged and shaped by their encounter with the critical investigations of astrophysics, whether it’s John Kinsella reflecting on the light echo of supernova 1987A, Antjie Krog recreating the symmetry of the HH212 gas jet or Paul Muldoon’s jaunty take on the expanding universe. The commissioned works are complemented by the editors’ selection of well-known and lesser-known poems from across the ages: John Donne and Emily Dickinson share the stratosphere with Philip Larkin and Adrienne Rich in their explorations of the spaces beyond our world, their ability to make sense of these and to create art from the unknown.