Giles Hoover

Photography and design for print production

Foreword

  • Beautifully Briefed, Early July 2022: The Autopian, The Ford Heritage Vault, and an Eames Follow-Up

    Beautifully Briefed, Early July 2022: The Autopian, The Ford Heritage Vault, and an Eames Follow-Up

    Car site The Autopian scores with book design, Ford posts old marketing material gold mine, and more on the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity in this edition of Beautifully Briefed.

    Autopian suggests book design

    The Autopian, founded by a couple of former Jalopnik writers, is a new automotive gem: in these days of more-of-the-sameism sites trying to make money of others’ ideas, the Autopian has a retro style and interesting, original content.

    Including this short post from their Cold Start column:

    Sometimes you may encounter an old car ad and realize that the design of it could lend itself very well to something completely different. In this case, this 1958 Ford Zodiac ad, with its rich, saturated colors, striking dress on the model, and evocative name with understated typography just feel like something you’d see on modern book cover design.

    Jason Torchinsky, Autopian Founder

    The ad:

    A 1958 Ford Zodiac (European)

    His book design idea “realized”:

    Jason’s book cover mock-up. Love the author name.

    Nice.

    The Ford Heritage Vault

    Ford has taken the unusual step of posting a good chunk of their old — 1903 to 2003, their first 100 years — marketing materials online: “promotional materials, photographs, and all kinds of other historical goodies,” according to CarScoops.

    “Our archives were established 70 years ago, and for the first time, we’re opening the vault for the public to see. This is just a first step for all that will come in the future,” says Ted Ryan, Ford archive and heritage brand manager.

    Here’s a personal favorite: the 1965 full line brochure, showing the cars set in architectural drawings — presumably, matching the car to the house:

    The 1965 Ford Family of Cars brochure

    Fancy a drive down memory lane?

    More from the Eames Institute

    We discussed the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity back in April, but Metropolis magazine has published an extensive article covering a visit to the Institute.

    Modernism has largely been diluted from a series of ideas rooted in social change to one of just style—Instagram moments, if you will. The Eameses insisted that they did not have a style or even an “ism.” […] Modernism was an idea, not a style. With the establishment of the Eames Institute, I hope Charles and Ray will be remembered most of all for their ideas and processes.

    Kenneth Caldwell, Metropolis
    An exhibit at the Eames Institute of Infinite Curiosity.

    With our ongoing struggle to use materials more efficiently, many of the Eameses’ ideas and ideals need to be taken for the solutions that they are: style with incredible substance.

    Read the whole article at Metropolis. (Via ArchDaily.)

  • Beautifully Briefed, Late June 2022: AIA’s Best Architectural Photography, 2022 Logo Trends, and … Buick!

    Beautifully Briefed, Late June 2022: AIA’s Best Architectural Photography, 2022 Logo Trends, and … Buick!

    Three items for the end of June, 2022: AIA Los Angeles announces photography awards, the 2022 edition of the Logo Lounge logo trends report is out, and Buick makes its new logo official. Let’s get into the details.

    AIALA Photography Awards

    The Los Angeles chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA|LA) has announced this year’s winners of the annual Architectural Photography Awards, and there’s some pretty great stuff:

    Ryan Gobuty: Santa Fe (Santa Fe, NM)
    Taiyo Watanabe: C-Glass House (Dillon Beach, CA)
    Tim Griffith: Mission Bay (San Francisco, CA)

    See more at AIA|LA. (Via Archinect.)

    2022 Logo Trends Report

    The always-excellent Brand New points us at Logo Lounge’s 2022 Logo Trends report, it’s 20th annual look at what logos and branding, as a group, are looking like this year.

    Logo Lounge 2022 Logo Trends Report

    [W]hile there are still corporate-looking marks being crafted there is a stronger effort to find ways to identify products that are artisanal and handcrafted.

    Bill Gardner, Logo Lounge

    Corporations trying to be more human. (News at 11.) But then, my use of that particular phrase perhaps betrays my lack of being in touch with the modern corporate world; I think publishing is a different animal, and prefer being part of that world despite the regular influence of corporate entities there, too.

    Nonetheless, following logo trends is, from a purely graphic design perspective, worthwhile — and this report summarizes beautifully. Read on.

    Buick’s New Logo, Officially

    We’ve touched upon it before, but Buick has, with the release of the Electra Wildcat concept, officially updated its logo:

    Official: Buick’s new logo

    Electra is Buick’s name for electric cars, simultaneously stating the obvious while giving a big nod to past models — and the Wildcat concept is, dare I say it, borderline cool:

    Scandinavian, American, Futuristic, Retro … Buick!

    Both Buick and Cadillac have hinted at more Art Deco in their upcoming products, perhaps best illustrated on this concept’s interior:

    It’s a head rest, folks.

    Nice. (Not even remotely possible on a production model, but still.) Read more on Buick’s new logo and transition to an electric car brand at Car and Driver or The Drive.

    See you in July!

    Update, 12 August 2022: Brand New weighs in: A New Point of View… ick

  • New Gallery: Madison (Part 2)

    New Gallery: Madison (Part 2)

    Continued from Part 1, below.

    According to Southern Living magazine, “In Madison, Georgia, you can witness the power of tireless historic preservation efforts and take in the glory of old Southern architecture — from Greek Revival to Victorian, this town showcases all the great architectural styles.” (Read their day trip advice.)

    DAR Statue and Morgan County Courthouse, Downtown

    It’s certainly worth taking some time to visit — and for this guy and his camera, the restaurants, shops, stroll-worthy streets, and simply spectacular historic district represent a great opportunity to add to the treasure trove of Georgia architectural photography.

    Building Detail #2, Madison Welcome Center, E. Jefferson St.
    Building Detail #1, The James Madison Inn
    Gazebo and Stage, Madison Town Park
    Metallic Sculpture, Madison Town Park
    Train and Silos, Madison

    A total of 90 (!) photographs have been posted to the new Madison gallery. Once there, click on any photo to enlarge or start a slide show.

    I’m not done, either: I had two lenses with me, but only one battery — which gave out before I could make a round downtown with the second lens. I’ve got another trip through the area scheduled, and will absolutely make the time to return, camera in-hand, to complete the gallery. Stay tuned.

  • New Gallery: Madison, Georgia (Part 1)

    New Gallery: Madison, Georgia (Part 1)

    The past couple of days represented a much-needed break from the recent heat wave — an opportunity to get out of the house and celebrate a stunning morning with camera in-hand.

    I pass through Madison regularly (it’s along the route from Macon to Athens), and have been meaning to stop and take some photographs for literally years. Today, the first of two parts this week, with more to come soon.

    We start at the Madison Morgan Cultural Center and loop through the historic district — and its many, frankly stunning buildings — south of downtown:

    Madison Morgan Cultural Center (Detail #4)
    507 S. Main Street #1
    411 Old Post Road #1
    413 S. Main Street, Photographed from Old Post Road

    There are a few detail shots mixed in, too, like this one from the Presbyterian Church:

    Madison Presbyterian Church (Door Detail)

    See the first 34 photographs in the new gallery. (Remember to double-click on a photograph to see larger.) Next time, downtown. Happy Monday!

  • Beautifully Briefed [Updated]: Book Six-Fer, June ’22

    Beautifully Briefed [Updated]: Book Six-Fer, June ’22

    A book design treat for your Monday morning: four of my favorite new book covers from last month’s debuts.

    How To Be Eaten. Design by Julianna Lee.

    Aged, distressed paper is a great look when done well, and this one hits all the right notes. The size relationship between the characters, the glow around the eyes, the two color choices, the type, all of it — great stuff.

    Sedating Elaine. Design by Janet Hansen.

    A veritable how-to on less-is-more. Brilliant.

    Vladimir. Design by Katie Tooke.

    Another solid-color triumph. Great font choice here, too. Awesome.

    I’ve saved the best for last:

    You Have a Friend in 10A. Design by Kelly Blair.

    Great Circle has featured before, and this follow-up takes us inside the plane and into the safety brochure in the best possible way. Great, brilliant, and awesome wrapped into one.

    Via LitHub and Spine, as usual. Have a good week!

    Update, June 20th: WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station, has a summer reading list out, highlighting Georgia books and authors — and I’d like to include two of the covers here:

    Invisible Child.

    The grainy photograph, the wonderfully placed city skyline, and classic typography, combined with the diagonal cutline, elevate this title from mundane to eye-catching.

    The Sweetness of Water.

    Excellently distressed doesn’t begin to describe this, on many levels. Side note: it’s a terrible shame that the Oprah and Booker call-outs have been elevated to logo status in what can politely be described as a distraction (from a book designer’s point of view, at least).

  • Updated Galleries: Macon Downtown x3, Automotive

    Updated Galleries: Macon Downtown x3, Automotive

    FedEx pulled up around 8:30 this morning and dropped off a new lens. (It wasn’t due ’til Tuesday — bonus!) Given that it was an absolutely beautiful morning, I shelved my plans for the day, picked up the camera, and headed downtown.

    Verdict? It’s so a keeper. See for yourself:

    Catholic Cross, St. Joseph’s, Macon
    Purple Hydrangea, St. Joseph’s, Macon
    (Funeral) Chapel, New St., Macon
    552 New St. (Brick Detail), Macon
    Public Art (Detail #1), D T Walton Sr Way, Macon
    Tree and City Auditorium, Macon

    Wound up with sixty new items posted. However, the downtown Macon gallery was getting almost too big — confusing, even — so has been separated into three parts:

    One more thing: Four photographs have been added to the Automotive gallery, including this rare Mitsubishi Lancer Evo:

    Macon Lancer Evo (Wheel Detail)

    Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!

  • Beautifully Briefed, May 2022: Two on Type, Two on Photography, and Kottke

    Beautifully Briefed, May 2022: Two on Type, Two on Photography, and Kottke

    This month’s favorites cover a delightful new extension of the typeface DaVinci, Google’s updated mega-font, Noto, photographs of a desert aircraft boneyard from above, and mega-photographs of the Milky Way.

    Before we get there, however, I wanted to wish Jason Kottke — whose 24 years of web sleuthing has been a source for items here on Foreword dating back to its original iteration in the ’90s — good luck on his sabbatical:

    “I need some space to think and live and have generative conversations and do things, and then I’ll make something, but I can’t tell you what it is just yet.”1Alexandra Bell, NYT That’s the sort of energy I need to tap into for a few months.

    Hear, hear.

    The Beautiful DaVinci Italic

    It’s Nice That points us to a new, extended version of the font DaVinci, done for Sydney’s Biennale:

    “When you do this sort of type exercise — based on printed letters — it gives a very organic shape and form, in opposition to the very metallic sharp shape from type materials.” Furthering this organic look by pushing the fluidity curse at its maximum, Virgile ended with a design “which is very historical, yet with a contemporary twist.” 

    Just look at those glyphs!

    Makes you want to find an excuse to use it. But that’s not all: Flores is an incredibly diverse artist whose work both challenges and inspires. See more.

    Google’s Noto

    Called “A Typeface for the World,” Google’s Noto defines “megaproject.”

    Noto is a collection of high-quality fonts with multiple weights and widths in sans, serif, mono, and other styles. The Noto fonts are perfect for harmonious, aesthetic, and typographically correct global communication, in more than 1,000 languages and over 150 writing systems. 

    Google’s Noto font collection.

    According to Google,

    “Noto” means “I write, I mark, I note” in Latin. The name is also short for “no tofu”, as the project aims to eliminate ‘tofu’: blank rectangles shown when no font is available for your text.

    While the font itself has been around for a few years — 2013 seems like yesterday in so many ways! — it’s updated regularly, cover 150 out of the 154 scripts defined in Unicode, and deserves attention from every web designer and type nut. Read more at Google or Wikipedia. (Via Kottke.)

    Aircraft Boneyard, From an Aircraft

    This is Colossal introduces us to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona, whose desert conditions are ideal for storing — and scrapping — aircraft:

    What happens when the military’s aircraft are end-of-lifed

    The photographs are by Bernhard Lang — whom Colossal has highlighted before — and who has an incredible talent for finding patterns from above. See many more at his website.

    Milky Way Photography

    We don’t get many opportunities here in Middle Georgia, but in other, less populous (read: less light-polluted) places in the world, the Milky Way shines forth from the heavens:

    Mountain, redefined.

    The Guardian points us to the 2022 Milky Way Photographer of the Year, and many just wow:

    Take cover . . . in awe!

    Check ’em all out, be inspired to take one of your own, or simply be reminded just how big this system we’re a part of is. Enjoy.

  • Gallery Update: The Columbus Museum

    Gallery Update: The Columbus Museum

    As I mentioned in the last entry, Gerald and I were in Columbus, Georgia on Saturday, where our primary photographic mission was The Columbus Museum — specifically, its Olmsted Garden.

    ArchDaily is to blame here; they pointed me to the following:

    Celebrating the bicentennial of the birth of Frederick Law Olmsted, Sr., known as “the father of landscape architecture”, the Cultural Landscape Foundation has created an ever-growing digital guide of Olmsted’s most notable works.

    I immediately looked up what was near me, and lo and behold…. (Full disclosure: the garden is actually by Bradley Olmsted, one of Fredrick’s sons.)

    Of course, the building’s interesting, too, so there’s a good mix of architecture, gardens, architecture from the garden, and — you guessed it — garden architecture:

    The Columbus Museum (B&W #1)
    Urn, Columns and Bricks, The Columbus Museum
    Crawford’s Kindred (B&W detail), The Columbus Museum
    Olmsted Garden (Flower #3), The Columbus Museum
    Old Pool House (B&W), Olmsted Garden, The Columbus Museum

    I enjoyed the visit, and as a result of that visit, added 32 new photographs to the Columbus gallery. (They’re grouped together: “Columbus Museum – Mar22.”) Peruse anytime; purchase if you’d like. Thank you!

  • Updated Gallery: Columbus, Georgia

    Updated Gallery: Columbus, Georgia

    Gerald and I were in Columbus, Georgia, today, which included a delicious lunch at The Black Cow — no word whether the name is related to the Steely Dan song — and which meant a few photographs:

    United States Post Office and Court House (Eagle Detail), Columbus, Georgia

    One of several of the Post Office and Court House (the header photograph is that building, too), along with a few others from downtown:

    Lamp and Buildings, Downtown Columbus, Georgia
    Arches, Planes, and Sky, Downtown Columbus, Georgia
    Tower and Spire, Downtown Columbus, Georgia

    Columbus is really well covered in its dedicated gallery: check it out. The majority of today’s photographs, however, were from the Columbus Museum; those will be posted Monday. Stay tuned.

  • Spring Book Design Coverage

    Spring Book Design Coverage

    For your May Day, please take a closer look at twelve great book covers — and a bonus thirteenth! — spotted during the first four months of 2022.

    In alphabetical order:

    Book design: David Drummond

    Brilliant: actual text, printed (on a great color paper, too), with actual string, photographed on said print. Not only is it exactly right for the subject matter, it’s simply and beautifully done.

    Cover design: Brianna Harden

    Another great background color choice, this time highlighting the awesome colors chosen for Fiona and Jane’s illustrations. The hand-painted text is perfectly done.

    Cover design: Vi-An Nguyen

    Woodcut or just aged? Doesn’t matter, as “brilliant” falls short when describing this title.

    Cover design: Alex Merto

    From It’s Nice That, we have a nice feature on Alex Merto — whose Ghost Wall cover is a great example of plant life adding so much more: “the force of a river to the head,” to paraphrase Emma Donoghue’s quote.

    Cover design: Anna Morrison

    The typography, awesome little plane — the purse(r)! — the clouds, all of it: sky-high levels of good.

    Interestingly, Fight Night‘s cover has gotten notice before:

    Cover design: Patti Ratchford, illustration: Christina Zimpel

    I can’t begin to imagine what caused the redesign, or why it wound up being so radically — 180 degree! — different. The old design wound up on some “best covers” lists (here’s LitHub’s October 2021 post, for instance); the new one has wound up on mine.

    Cover design: Christopher Sergio

    LitHub says this one has a very high “hang on the wall” factor. I can’t think of a better description — great stuff.

    Cover design: Na Kim

    Na Kim just can’t help but design the best covers: a wonderful, antique background complimented by brilliance. (Great typography, too.)

    Cover design: Emily Mahon

    It’s nigh-on impossibly to look at this cover and not flip it around to read the text trisecting the leopard. Take something simple, add the elusive more, get this. Yeah.

    Cover design: Jim Tierney

    Another fantastic example of plants adding more than the sum of their parts. The mottled green background and watercolor-style falloff is perfectly complimentary. Great stuff. (Except: This is one of those times when an editor or publicist somewhere says, “Hey, we need to add this quote at the top. Let’s do it without consulting the cover designer.”)

    Cover designer … unknown. Credit where credit is due — when I can.

    From the Banned Books Department, we have the 20th Anniversary edition of this difficult title rendered in a photo-based collage that’s nothing short of brilliant. Highest praise. Kudos, too, to Open Culture: The New York Public Library Provides Free Online Access to Banned Books: Catcher in the Rye, Stamped & More.

    Cover design: Jack Smyth

    Never mind the great brushed color blocks or boat-rowing-the-ocean above the title. This is here for the overlap between color and island. Shortlisted for the prize for intersection-of-the-year.

    Cover design: Leanne Shapton

    This illustration being in grayscale is, at first, a little off. But, of course, that’s exactly the point. I overuse “brilliant,” but it’s the best description. (See a note from the designer at LitHub‘s cover reveal.)

    So, the bonus. No, it’s not the extra Fight Night, above, it’s a fictitious cover. That’s right:

    Cover design: Anna Hoyle

    In another It’s Nice That post, we have Anna Hoyle: “Judge her fake books by their comical covers.” Okay!

    More book design updates soon — ’cause, here in Georgia, USA, we’re done with spring. Summer starts . . . now.

    Additional sources: Spine, “Book Covers We Love” for January, February, March, and April, and LitHub, “Best Book Covers of the Month.”