Mo’ Meta Blues: The World According to Questlove

Questlove writes, “When you live your life through records, the records are a record of your life.” The iconic drummer, producer and co-founder of the The Roots has penned a stunning memoir about his epic journey to the top. His life’s work becomes a window into his background as he recalls growing up as the son of a 1950s doo-wop singer in Philly, various encounters …

The Field Guide to Typography

A visual encyclopedia for sign geeks

In “The Field Guide to Typography,” Peter Dawson, co-founder of London-based Grade Design, leads the journey through 125 different typefaces (which is not to be confused with fonts). From the start, the book compares itself to a birdwatching handbook, as both cater to an obsessed minority “who can’t help but observe, classify and identify them.” And Dawson is such an engaging narrator that even typeface …

Fideli Sundqvist: I Love Paper

The Swedish artist's book teaches the tricks of her very crafty trade

In the summer of 2011, Fideli Sundqvist presented her graduation project at Stockholm’s Konstfack University. In the midst of the overblown gaudy work from the art departments, the conceptual design pieces and rivers of clichéd scratchy pencil illustrations, Sundqvist’s final project, “Tilly & Gul” was a whimsical tale of an elephant and its nameless little yellow chum. Instead of paper and ink, or screen-print or …