Pelican book covers from the 1970s.
The always-fascinating Things Magazine has posted the Pelican Project, a visual archive of Pelican paperbacks from the 1930s to the 80s. Breathe in the stark clarity of geometric layouts, Helvetica variations, and ample white space.
The designs are definitely "from an era," but that era was also really interesting, a time when brainy little monographs flew off the shelves at independent bookstores, when information was shared and consumed en masse via organic materials, pressed vegetation, before we turned our economy over to the pixel and set fire to the past.
Follow the discussion over at Biblioklept.
Uh...I know that this is "Tomorrowland," but are you Tomorrowlanders really that futuristic. Some of us (in the flaming past) still read, uh "pressed vegetation."
Posted by: ed ibn ed | January 31, 2008 at 11:31 AM
great post! - pressed vegetation. hmm...are these books vegan?
Posted by: joshtank | January 31, 2008 at 12:38 PM
Tomorrowlanders read books, too. Books rock. But there's a bittersweet realization that the ledgers, tracts and statements of the future will likely emerge in virtual -- not vegetable -- form.
Posted by: bob tomorrowland | January 31, 2008 at 03:17 PM
i have to concur with the other commenters - pressed vegetation...i like that.
Posted by: kate ortiz | January 31, 2008 at 08:59 PM
http://www.ephemerasociety.org/?typepad
ugh, bob, the ephemera society's site needs your help. cccccluttttterrrrrrr.
Posted by: ephemeral | February 01, 2008 at 11:54 AM