Design

I was first seduced by the cover, then the images.

“During these last days of the administration, what is the point of protest, satire or any other sort of rabble-rousing? In assembling this collection of pictures I’ve made over the last eight years, I’m not really trying to accomplish much at all. But as President Bush once said, ‘One of the great things about books is, sometimes there are some fantastic pictures.’” – Alec Soth

Photo: CITYDESKSTUDIO

Local architects CITYDESKSTUDIO placed an interesting ad up on Craigslist yesterday: they’re selling a (used) 1978 skyway. (Wait hold up…has anyone tried to sell a bridge on Craigslist yet?). The skyway, which used to connect the JC Penny’s with the Power department stores over S. 5th street, was retired to make way for Minneapolis’ light rail project. Through the years millions of people have passed through it and the rest of our network in the sky, which covers an area of 69 city blocks. If you’re interested, check out Catherine Opie’s photographs and documentation of our relationships with these transient spaces in her Skyways & Ice Houses project from 2002. And I assume this was unrealized, but CITYDESKSTUDIO visualized one potential use for this iconic structure–which has seen such frenzied activity–as an almost rustic (rusty?) lake retreat.

We’re going to be posting selections from the Walker design archives in the coming months, starting here with one of my favorites: the exhibition catalogue for Zero to Infinity: Arte Povera 1962–1972. This book is from way back in 2001 and was designed by Linda Byrne. Below is a description of the project, followed by images of the book and related marketing materials.

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This catalogue documents an exhibition that examines the work of 14 Italian artists who explored a wide range of common materials to create extraordinary works. The term “arte povera,” literally “poor art,” has led to the use of cardboard and other “cheap” materials for other books on the subject. The challenge was to avoid this pattern, which we did by looking to the spirit of Italian design in the 1960s and its inventive use of materials. Drawing inspiration from the ten-year period bracketed by the exhibition, the book deploys a range of graphic devices without mimicking specific historical styles. The tactile nature of the artists works is referenced, for example, in the range of papers used throughout the book; each delineating a different section (essays, timeline, artworks, backmatter). The materiality of the book was enhanced by using several different papers to define particular sections and by flush trimming the book and not using a dust jacket. Large horizontal images were turned on edge to save space, which in turn enhanced the physicality of the book by shifting its orientation. Devices such as a shifting red bar that overprints the text and moves through the essays and timeline and the oversized endnotes numbers are details that enhance the graphic image of the book.