A printer’s nightmare - even the cover is expensive to produce… but a fantastic result - I really want a copy! I need a copy!!
Available from Roaring Brook Press, they don't have a web site yet so try Amazon or something.

Assembling approximately 400 figures from the world's leading figure creators, Full Vinyl presents an omnibus survey of this burgeoning field. Geared toward garage kits, character figures, subculture figures, limited editions, and extreme figures by master creators, this book satisfies the appetite of the figure aficionado with a continuous stream of figures and vast and comprehensive selection.

Full Vinyl covers mass-produced popular favorites (such as Homies), sub-culture figures, Anime-inspired figures (such as Bome), category-defining "thingies", Hong Kong luminaries (such as Eric So and Michael Lau), figures based on the work of hugely popular artists (such as Gary Baseman or Yoshitomo Nara), and artists that take figure making to the next level (such as Shinichi Yamashita).

Go buy it here

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The Obey campaign can be explained as an experiment in Phenomenology.

The first aim of Phenomenology is to reawaken a sense of wonder about one's environment.

The Obey campaign attempts to stimulate curiosity and bring people to question both the campaign and their relationship with their surroundings.

Because people are not used to seeing advertisements or propaganda for which the motive is not obvious, frequent and novel encounters with Obey propaganda provoke thought and possible frustration, nevertheless revitalizing the viewer's perception and attention to detail. The medium is the message.

www.obeygiant.com

Submissions for Grafuck: Book 3 are open. They are seeking the most inspiring, striking, smart, creative, brilliant erotic work from all fields. Grafuck: Book 3 will be published in full color, with images only.

You can email low resolution RGB spread images (5.25”H x 14.25”W @ 72 dpi) to love@grafuck.com by April 22nd for initial consideration. A maximum of 3 spreads are allowed. Selected contributors will be notified and asked to provide high resolution 300 dpi files.

http://www.grafuck.com/

Graphic Agitation 2 explores graphic protest in the digital age, in particular over the years since the Gulf War. The book deals with a range of protest imagery from hi-tech and low-tech to no-tech and is comprehensively illustrated with images ranging from lollipop wrappers to websites.

Graphic Agitation II: Social & Political Graphics in the Digital Age is Liz McQuiston's latest book on the subject of protest art. Published by Phaidon Press and comprehensively illustrated, the book presents dissident artworks from the traditional to the shocking, from high-tech to no-tech. Paintings, drawings, and posters are displayed side by side with street art, postcards, t-shirts... even screen grabs of websites.

Mark Vallen's 1991 anti-Gulf War silkscreen poster, New World Odor is included in this essential and exhaustive study of modern protest art.

Buy at Amazon

Nusign* was born from a meeting between Piero Preitano, founder of the communication agency “l’Araignee” and Oliver Stak, artist and founder of WorldSigns magazine.

The group exhibition Nusign*2.4 was their first collaboration in July 2004, organized by l’Araignee with the help of Stak. It gathered for the first time in Paris forty of the most talented young European artists coming from the post-graffiti scene.

Nusign* magazine sees itself as the reflection of young contemporary creation: to exceed the street/gallery gap and to represent a whole generation of creators whose work goes beyond the borders of street art. The works of artists coming from street culture who have known how to infiltrate and to tackle diverse institutional art will be alongside those of more classically trained artists who have adapted to the streets

On Thursday 8th of Feb., we will also be celebrating the launch of the Nusign #1

Nusign* Magazine is a quartlerly contemporary art magazine avaialbel for 15 euros. Click here for more information.

Arguably the most influential weapon in military history, the AK-47 - or Automatic Kalashnikov 1947, to you and us - is a limb-shredding killing machine designed to annihilate everything in sight.

Appropriately dubbed the '$10 weapon of mass destruction', it's been a thorn in America's side ever since it was created.

Light, easy to repair and able to function in any climate, the gun has been responsible for the deaths of thousands of US soldiers since World War 2, and continues to be a threat, even today - Iraq and Afghanistan are awash with them.

The fascinating history explores the weapon's past, making it very clear that if you ever see a Russian with big gun, you should run away fast.

www.ak-47book.com

The Designed To Help project was launched by UK designers iLovedust, earlier this year.

The idea was to produce a book of graphic design, illustration and photography, to raise money to help charities deal with the tsunami crisis in Asia.

iLovedust received an overwhelming response from designers and prospective partners who wanted to support the project, and when renowned design publisher Die Gestalten Verlag (dgv) joined iLovedust, 'A Book Designed To Help' became a reality.

The book is a lavish hardcover of 304 pages, featuring around 1,000 artworks from over 240 contributors from around the world. The book is a 'must have' for a design-oriented audience worldwide and all profits from the sale of will go to respected worldwide charity organization CARE, who will use the funds to help the poorest communities recover from the tsunami disaster. The book can be ordered now through online booksellers from around the world.

Please buy a copy! A record of the donations made month by month to the charity CARE can be downloaded from the link at the top of the site. Go on! Take a look and be proud.

For more information on the artists involved and how to get hold of this book please go here www.designedtohelp.com

Related Links:
www.die-gestalten.de
www.ilovedust.com
www.ebdruck.de
www.scheufelen.de
www.josef-spinner.de
www.care.org

Downtown Manhattan impresario, Tony Arcabascio, and California based publisher, Arkitip, have finally compiled and bound into one book:

Now You Know

Now You Know is 3 years worth of columns/short stories written by Tony exclusively for Arkitip, between 2003 and 2006. A ‘how to’ for the street smart. It’s just a couple of things the people who ‘know,’ may not know (if you know what I mean).

5.25"W x 7"H
64 pages plus cover
Offset printed, notch bound
Packaged in their own slipcover and self seal poly bag

http://www.arkitip.com/printedmatter/nowyouknow.php

What is Hola Amiga?

Hola Amiga is a zine I publish every few months. Its a collection of random pictures, illustrations, patterns or anything I happen to be thinking about. I tend not to use many words so it may seem very cryptic .. but there is no intentional hidden message.

I named the zine “Hola Amiga” because I’m fascinated with Spanish/Latin/Brazilian Culture. This was before I had ever been to a Spanish speaking country or could speak a word of Spanish. My main influences/inspirations were Mexican food packaging, Mexican Wrestling Posters, Brazilian Jui-Jitsui, the art of Marisol Escobar and the music of the Brazilian singer, Atrud Gilberto. With Luck, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to go Spain where my interest in Spanish/Latin culture grew exponentially and I decided I had to live in Latin America. I have been living throughout Latin America countries since Oct 2003 (Argentina, Chile, and Costa Rica) .. while looking at Hola Amiga, you can see Latin cultural influences and my very gradual process of learning how to speak Spanish.

I create Hola Amiga because I like to make art and I find it fascinating how people are influenced, including the manifestations of my own influences.

Hola Amiga consists of three main components: Input, Output and Reflection.

Input

are the things going on in my life at that specific moment in time. Input are things ranging from music, environments, letters, emails, cultural learning's to things people say, concepts, observations, food, books, weather, mass media, relationships, inspirational people, experiences, exercise, etc .. basically anything a human experiences.

Output

is Hola Amiga .. the disregarded, impulsive, spontaneous, unconsidered, unplanned, unstudied by-product of life's daily influences. These are my drawing, sketches, thoughts, etc.

Reflection

is something I just do in my head. This is when I try to bridge the gap and explain the relationship between the Input and Output. Most of the time I don't realize why I decide to use specific imagery at the time. Eventually I track down the source/influence. In life a lot of the time you have an idea and then you execute it. With Hola Amiga I do the opposite ... I execute it and then sometimes successfully track down the idea. Really not much different than trying to explain the odd events of a dream.

For more information simply click here

Nate Williams (aka n8w) is originally from the Western United States, but has spent the last 3 years wandering around South and Central America.

Go check his site here www.n8w.com

A the new book called Horse Play tells the story of 'Streethorsing' a new extreme sport that I can only describe as a mixture of parkour (free running) and skateboarding but on Horses! The sport of riding horses through towns and cities extreme style. The book seems to be filled with unbelievable photos of people on horse back doing skateboard-like tricks off railings and over barriers.

Fake or real – I dunno? Looks good though!

Published by WESC

Found at Coolhunting.com

The ‘official’website is over at http://www.streethorsing.com
 

ARKITIP'S beginnings were humble. While the magazine began with a 50 copy, hand stapled run in 1999, those first copies look more sophisticated than most other "zines" you might have considered in the same category. The covers were silk-screened on corrugated cardboard and the docutek used to replicate the black & white art in the magazine rivaled the performance of most offset printers. It had a great homemade feel that was bona fide quality. Excellence in production is still of primary importance to ARKITIP today. Artists contributing to the magazine respect this, as they know their art will not be compromised in any way. Today, ARKITIP is a 1000 copy hand numbered 4/color art book. The fact that the magazine publishes site specific work at a lower price point than what hangs on gallery walls makes it available to art collectors of all economic levels.

Each issue is like an original piece of art in and of itself. The magazine's founding principles remain as they were 5 years ago:

• Support the arts
• Promote freedom of expression
• Make art affordable and accessible

ARKITIP Magazine serves these principles every day by its very existence. What began as a creative project between friends has become a full fledged business and a worldwide source for groundbreaking art and design today.

5 Things you might not know about ARKITIP:

Site specific artwork
ARKITIP delivers original, site specific artwork in every issue. The assignment for the artists who contribute is to create something original to run in the magazine. Artists have the opportunity to design and layout the art they contribute as well. Making a contribution to ARKITIP is like creating your own "installation" that is then distributed around the world. It's like a traveling exhibition that you can take home.

We put it out there
Supporting freedom of expression has never been an easy thing, but the magazine has successfully published the art of many controversial artists. Some of these artists have contributed work that had never been published before (or since), because it was considered too controversial. Using the magazine as a medium, ARKITIP provides artists with a platform for open expression. We believe this helps keep the true spirit of art alive.

No compromise
ARKITIP is a completely home grown, self-supporting operation. We have complete control over all aspects of the magazine's content, design, manufacturing, marketing and distribution. This gives us the freedom to feature any type of art we think is relevant because no one is attempting to assert his or her influence. Maintaining autonomy is crucial to ARKITIP, as it allows us to create a completely unique and distinctive product.

No art snobs
ARKITIP accepts artwork from professionals and amateurs, so you don't have to have an Mfa to contribute. The only requirement is that we like the project. Our taste is not the same as the mainstream art establishment, so anyone is eligible. We have literally hundreds of submissions each month so not everyone makes the cut but if you think you have an original project, we'd love to hear about it. The magazine strikes a balance between unknown artists and well-known artists alike.

The future
The evolution of ARKITIP is vital to its success. The magazine changes every 6 issues in size and format. We are constantly thinking and re-thinking the role of creativity in our lives and the magazine is currently exploring new avenues to document this. Stay tuned for more features in the magazine that document the artistic process.

www.arkitip.com

How graphic-design has entered our lives. A wide-ranging survey showing how graphic designers & illustrators are applying their skills in variety of fields. From sneakers to t-shirts, from wallpapers to toys, from furniture to household products, from big to small, from head to toe.

Publisher's description:
A world of graphic arts appearing on our daily items – From fashion, toys, furniture, to household products, featuring design by more than 70 ingenious artists from around the world.

A new graphic arts world is appearing in our lives. Graphic design is everywhere, touching everything we do, everything we see, and everything we buy. The current state of the graphic design industry is a bustling one. Graphic design is no longer the supporting character, but the leader in designing the visual tone of any brand or any product. Every day the effort becomes more and more challenging for today’s graphic designers to envision and create unique designs with powerful messages to compete with the multitude of ads that seep into our daily lives.

In this book, we talk about graphics that create some kind of relationship with us. It is not only a relationship between audience and the entity, like we would get from reading a book or seeing a poster, but also a relationship with our lives. This relationship encompasses all the design disciplines - including fashion design, architectural design, industrial design, interactive design, etc. Most of us can recognize the value of good design in major undertakings such as building a house; few of us give it much thought in our daily items. Graphics that appear in our daily living and our surroundings are very often mostly neglected or forgotten. To a lot of people, design is like a trend, but rather an art of making objects look beautiful. It is true that many designers are going under the trend, however, good design isn’t reliant on anything. It can be made with tools on a computer; it can be made with fabric; it can even be made by a paper box that people are going to dump.

Discover the omnipresent power of living graphic design around you. From big to small, from head to toe, the survey comprises of study of top international brands to unique projects by design experts and also up-and-coming designers.

About VICTION:ARY
Established as an identity to emphasize the strength of collaborative efforts in the area of visual communication. Not only creating more perspectives for those who love design and visual graphics, VICTION:ARY also aims to provide a channel for creative talents to share their truest spirits all over the world.

Specications
- Flexi hard cover
- Full colour throughout
- 210 x 265 mm (H)
- 272 pages
- ISBN 849630938X

Formore info goto www.victionary.com or by online at Magma

Sneaker Freaker 'The Book' arrives - with all the old issues now impossible to find and the early ones selling on eBay for crazy prices, the guys n gals at Sneaker Freaker thought it was time to roll all the old stuff into a nice new package and make it available at a nice price.

Sneaker Freaker 'The Book' is 320 pages of jam packed sneaker gold compiled from issues 1-6 and is augmented by a whole bunch of brand new content. It features 100 of the best custom sneakers in the world plus a How-To Customise guide written and illustrated by world renowned custom artist Sabotage (Singapore).

On top of that there is a massive section devoted to the problem of fake sneakers and a guide to spotting bootlegs. There's also dozens of vintage sneakers, interviews with designers, features on the best collaborations, new product reviews, performance sneaker road tests plus a sneaker hunting guide for Paris, London, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Tokyo. And that's not even half of it...

$20 USD - [Buy] For more info on Sneaker Freaker Magazine go here www.sneakerfreaker.com

"At the beginning of 2001, I began taking pictures of recently abandoned offices, and the things people had left behind. This project was more than photography for me. It was economic archeology. America has not suffered such a vertiginous economic collapse since the 1930's, and I wanted to document the human cost, while it was happening.

There is something very strange about walking into a recently abandoned office. The heavy, Pompeii-like stillness, punctuated only by the occasional sound of the air-conditioning, turning itself on. A coat-hanger waiting patiently for a coat. A limp happy-birthday balloon on the floor. A drawer stuffed with take-out menus. Everywhere, signs of life, interrupted. "

Bankrupt by Philip Toledano is available to buy at Amazon and for more information on Philip Tolendanos photographs visit his website www.ptoledano.com

C.R. Stecyk III (born in the early 1950s) A southern California native and one of its most ardent pop culture historians.

Craig Stecyk (also known as John Smythe or Carlos Izan), started to gain notoriety for his art work on surfboards in the early 1970s, particularly when he became involved in the founding of the infamous Zephyr surf shop in Santa Monica, California.

In the 1970s Stecyk was also a contributing photographer and writer for "Surfer" magazine. As surfing gave birth to Skateboarding Stecyk became one of it's earliest practitioners and proponents. When Surfer magazine revitalized the 1964 SkateBoarder magazine Stecyk became one its most important photo journalists. The stories he wrote about the notorious Z-Boys from DogTown were for the most part his creation. His stories inspired an entire generation and he is often credited as the Godfather of the sport/art of skateboarding as it is known today.

Stecyk is also internationally known as a respected and collected fine artist working in sculpture, painting, surfboards, and hot-rod cars. He is one of the founders of Juxtapoz art magazine, and has written for many different books. His Life was portrayed in the 2001 award winning documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys as well as the Hollywood style feature film Lords of Dogtown in 2005.

His work features in this months Arkitip Magazine

Disposable - A History of Skateboard Art is 228 pages of full colour, featuring over 1000 skateboard graphics from over the last 30 years. The book is far more than a gallery of photos - longtime skateboard artist Sean Cliver gives his insights into the history of the art, and also into the evolution of the industry. Disposable, A History of Skateboard Art is packed with long quotes from pro skaters, and opens a window into more than just the art, but the heart and history of skateboarding.

Set of 10 full color Crude Oil Postcards from Banksy.

Each postcard features a different image from Banksy's notorious Crude Oil Series.

This series made big waves when Banksy put up some of these pieces in several big wig museums all over the world. These images depict traditional oil painting scenes, but Banksy adds twists, some subtle, some not so subtle. Keep em for the collection, or make your friends happy with a surprise note.

Clarence Hornung's "Traditional Japanese Stencil Designs" is not the book to purchase if you are seeking inspiration for tattoos. It is, however, of exceptional value if your interests include Japanese aesthetics in general and textile motifs in particular or if you are seeking sophisticated patterns that can be manipulated and reproduced as graphic designs.

The stencils included were originally designed for monochromatic printing on cotton textiles but are also typical of the patterns imprinted on deer-skin goods and traditional Japanese wrapping papers. More than any other volume in Dover's generously-sized library of books on Japanese design, Hornung's testifies to the Japanese genius for manipulating a few design elements into subtle and classically beautiful patterns. Some of the patterns are abstract and without specific meaning, but the overwhelming majority are rich in symbolism. Hornung's introduction discusses the most important of these symbolic meanings. However, the usefulness of the introduction is compromised by his failure to number the stencils and then identify for the reader precisely which plates represent each thematic motif.

There are over 100 royalty free patterns in JPEG format included on the CDR, while the book serves as a look-book for each pattern. Also includes a quick reference guide in the back of the book. Excellent for designers and asiaphiles.

Buy at Dover Publications