Summer has arrived in Portland and it’s spectacular weather for bike rides. I took mine out to local shops to see what new publications have hit the shelves recently. This post shares some of what captured my eye and even my imagination…
First I rode to Stand Up Comedy (811 E Burnside). You’re missing out if you haven’t been in there. Pro tip: Have a late breakfast at the Doug Fir across the street then go and visit Diana’s shop. Right now there’s an installation in the middle of the shop that features ongoing Smog/Bill Callahan vinyl on the turntable. Great stuff to be found in there.
Avalanche Magazine
The complete thirteen issues 1970-1976
Facsimile Edition
I was fortunate to see the complete re-issued set of Avalanche Magazine. Willoughby Sharp and Liza Béar founded Avalanche shortly after they met in 1968. At the time, Sharp was a New York-based independent curator and Béar an underground magazine editor who had recently moved to New York from London. They published the first issue in 1970 and collaborated on thirteen issues from 1970 to 1976.
Primary Information re-issued the set which contains complete facsimiles of all of the square-format editions, tabloid-editions, and the ephemera found with them. Amazing stuff.
“The aim of publishing, as represented in…Avalanche and similar publications, was to present primary…information, as far as possible, to let people think about art for themselves.” (pp. 165)
Certainly Avalanche proved to be an important conceptual art publication in the 1970s. And from a design perspective, the cover of the magazine had the right moves with its bold logotype set in Helvetica in combination with the no-nonsense portraits. – Walker Art Center
Dot Dot Dot (Issue 17) is Stuart Bailey’s magazine about graphic design without being, you know, about graphic design.
dot-dot-dot.org
offset printing
computer to plate
trimsize: 165 x 235mm (3mm bleed on all sides)
pages: 96 + 4 pages cover
black & white and full-color pages
stitched binding
Nudity in Groups is a quarterly one-sheet publication by Alex Felton and Kevin Abel. It folds out into a poster on one side, while the other side contains contributions by Dana Dart-McLean, Rob Halverson, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Steve Jenkins, Kristan Kennedy, Israel Lund, Corey Lunn, Fletcher Meisenberg, Patricia No, and Seizure Palace. They call it a “result of remote assemblage of submissions.” I’m always a fan of one-sheet publications simply because it’s a fun constraint to work within. To pull it off well, like this one, deserves a pat on the back.
Many of Them
A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term
Antonio Macarro
Antonio Macarro made his book Many of Them as a result of his admiration for and analytical interest in the publishing world and its structure. His unconventional view of the fashion world has been published in a limited edition of 1000 and includes chapters on: Stephan Schneider: Scientific Theory of Culture/Pelican Avenue: The Last Part of the Cycle Fiction/ The White Cape: Sustaining the Future/The Creation of New Worlds: Races, Types and Ethnic Groups/Raf Simons: Material World/ Antony Hegarty: Voice One/Bernhard WIllhelm: A Photographic Testimony Between and Beyond Science and Art/Elenora Salvatore: More Than A Pretty Face/ Sophie Auster: Good Bless America/Hermann Fankhauser: The Man Who Found The Missing Link.
Next I rode across the Burnside Bridge and into Old Town looking for the Grass Hut’s new location. Shameful that I haven’t been to it yet. And I still haven’t; I couldn’t find it. Same with Tender Loving Empire: no findy. I did, however, know my way to Reading Frenzy (921 Southwest Oak Street) which is where the next set of publications is from. I saw a lot that piqued my interest, but these the following two were particularly noteworthy to me:
Diner Journal Issue No. 14
http://www.dinernyc.com/dinerjournal/
http://thedinerjournal.com/
Diner Journal is a quarterly food publication produced by the folks that own and operate Brooklyn’s Marlow & Sons –Mark Firth & Andrew Tarlow. Now on its fourteenth issue, this publication features essays, articles, and a host of recipes from their kitchen. Tying it together is some tight illustration and design work by Derick Holt.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if every eatery in your neighborhood also published a illustrated quarterly of essays and recipes? I think I’d like to know their thoughts, opinions, biases, philosophies about what goes into and out of a kitchen. Am I right? Anyway, tip of the hat to Marlow and Sons and Diner Journal.
500 feet of wilderness
Container Corp
containercorps.com/books/500-feet-of-wilderness/
Portland’s Container Corp (written about recently here on Bangback) is a publication design studio, printshop, bindery, and exhibition space that serves as a platform for the creation, distribution, and discussion of new arts publications. At Reading Frenzy I encountered Container Corps’s 500 Feet of Wilderness and it resonated with me because it combined two things that I really like: Google Maps weirdness and the Mt. Hood wilderness.
500 feet of wilderness
A gigantic software corporation sends a car with a camera mounted on the roof down a one-lane unpaved forest road deep in the Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness beneath Mount Hood. The camera snaps a 360º view of the wilderness every 50 feet. It captures the forest at dusk, or maybe dawn. Dark firs and aspen blur past and a log-strewn river throws froth. The photographs cannot be said to aid navigation of the forest road. What, then, is the purpose?
This book represents a 500 foot stretch of the wilderness. If you take it apart and tape the pages edge-to-edge, you’d get a long panorama.
20 pages | 8″ x 10″ | Offset printed in various shades of green
That’s it for now. I’ll check back in next month with more finds.
Collateral Matters:
Brace yourself for blatant self-promotion:
This week marks the opening of Collateral Matters:... 
Field Notes and Fifty States:
Item: Field Notes Colors "County Fair" 50 Editions
Paper: 100# linen cover stock (Blue, Red, Ye... 
Zines Matter (Still):
Make a zine in 2010. It has been about 13 years since the zine scene was really “happening”... 
Scout Books for MICA:
Item: Scout Book
Specs: 3.5" x 5", Saddle-stitch binding, 1/4" rounded corners
Paper: Chipboar... 
DKNG makes a poster:
DKNG is Dan Kuhlken and Nathan Goldman, a pair of creative dudes whose projects range from scree... 
World Map from These Are Things:
Printer: Seizure Palace
Item: Silkscreen Poster, 20" X 30"
Paper: Cougar Natural
Ink: 4 Spot ... 
Zine Ride
Summer has arrived in Portland and it’s spectacular weather for bike rides. I took mine out to local shops to see what new publications have hit the shelves recently. This post shares some of what captured my eye and even my imagination…
First I rode to Stand Up Comedy (811 E Burnside). You’re missing out if you haven’t been in there. Pro tip: Have a late breakfast at the Doug Fir across the street then go and visit Diana’s shop. Right now there’s an installation in the middle of the shop that features ongoing Smog/Bill Callahan vinyl on the turntable. Great stuff to be found in there.
Avalanche Magazine
The complete thirteen issues 1970-1976
Facsimile Edition
I was fortunate to see the complete re-issued set of Avalanche Magazine. Willoughby Sharp and Liza Béar founded Avalanche shortly after they met in 1968. At the time, Sharp was a New York-based independent curator and Béar an underground magazine editor who had recently moved to New York from London. They published the first issue in 1970 and collaborated on thirteen issues from 1970 to 1976.
Primary Information re-issued the set which contains complete facsimiles of all of the square-format editions, tabloid-editions, and the ephemera found with them. Amazing stuff.
Dot Dot Dot (Issue 17) is Stuart Bailey’s magazine about graphic design without being, you know, about graphic design.
dot-dot-dot.org
offset printing
computer to plate
trimsize: 165 x 235mm (3mm bleed on all sides)
pages: 96 + 4 pages cover
black & white and full-color pages
stitched binding
Nudity in Groups is a quarterly one-sheet publication by Alex Felton and Kevin Abel. It folds out into a poster on one side, while the other side contains contributions by Dana Dart-McLean, Rob Halverson, Jessica Jackson Hutchins, Steve Jenkins, Kristan Kennedy, Israel Lund, Corey Lunn, Fletcher Meisenberg, Patricia No, and Seizure Palace. They call it a “result of remote assemblage of submissions.” I’m always a fan of one-sheet publications simply because it’s a fun constraint to work within. To pull it off well, like this one, deserves a pat on the back.
Many of Them
A Diary in the Strict Sense of the Term
Antonio Macarro
Antonio Macarro made his book Many of Them as a result of his admiration for and analytical interest in the publishing world and its structure. His unconventional view of the fashion world has been published in a limited edition of 1000 and includes chapters on: Stephan Schneider: Scientific Theory of Culture/Pelican Avenue: The Last Part of the Cycle Fiction/ The White Cape: Sustaining the Future/The Creation of New Worlds: Races, Types and Ethnic Groups/Raf Simons: Material World/ Antony Hegarty: Voice One/Bernhard WIllhelm: A Photographic Testimony Between and Beyond Science and Art/Elenora Salvatore: More Than A Pretty Face/ Sophie Auster: Good Bless America/Hermann Fankhauser: The Man Who Found The Missing Link.
Next I rode across the Burnside Bridge and into Old Town looking for the Grass Hut’s new location. Shameful that I haven’t been to it yet. And I still haven’t; I couldn’t find it. Same with Tender Loving Empire: no findy. I did, however, know my way to Reading Frenzy (921 Southwest Oak Street) which is where the next set of publications is from. I saw a lot that piqued my interest, but these the following two were particularly noteworthy to me:
Diner Journal Issue No. 14
http://www.dinernyc.com/dinerjournal/
http://thedinerjournal.com/
Diner Journal is a quarterly food publication produced by the folks that own and operate Brooklyn’s Marlow & Sons –Mark Firth & Andrew Tarlow. Now on its fourteenth issue, this publication features essays, articles, and a host of recipes from their kitchen. Tying it together is some tight illustration and design work by Derick Holt.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if every eatery in your neighborhood also published a illustrated quarterly of essays and recipes? I think I’d like to know their thoughts, opinions, biases, philosophies about what goes into and out of a kitchen. Am I right? Anyway, tip of the hat to Marlow and Sons and Diner Journal.
500 feet of wilderness
Container Corp
containercorps.com/books/500-feet-of-wilderness/
Portland’s Container Corp (written about recently here on Bangback) is a publication design studio, printshop, bindery, and exhibition space that serves as a platform for the creation, distribution, and discussion of new arts publications. At Reading Frenzy I encountered Container Corps’s 500 Feet of Wilderness and it resonated with me because it combined two things that I really like: Google Maps weirdness and the Mt. Hood wilderness.
20 pages | 8″ x 10″ | Offset printed in various shades of green
That’s it for now. I’ll check back in next month with more finds.