The 5 Year Plan is a collection of 32 screen-printed artworks by 32 contemporary artists. Contributors include Yoko Ono, Francesco Clemente, Donald Baechler, Chris Martin and Julie Doucet, as well as under known artists. All profits from sales of 5 Year Plan go to Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and to fund the next 5YP benefit project.

Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and becoming friends with Jonathan Harris through all sorts of different avenues, projects he has done, and more recently the times we’ve found ourselves in the desert in Jordan together. He’s truly one of the most thoughtful, inspiring, and talented folks I know. And I meet a lot of people.

And he has a book. And I’m so excited for him!

The book is called We Feel Fine: An Almanac of Human Emotion. It’s based on the extraordinary site with the same title. You can pre-order the book on Amazon for just under $20 and have it in time for the holidays to give it to everyone you know! Congrats Jonathan and Sep!

New Victionary book about retro design and how it’s appearing in contemporary graphical work. Looks good as both inspiration and a reference tool.

Emerged today as the perfect marriage between old and new, retrospective designs are deemed to be an inevitable phrase in the design cycle when designers begin to look back and find inspirations for new graphic styles in the depressive pixel age. Some think these designs has cheered the digital era with the lost enthusiasm for new findings and the future, others reckon it as a tribute to the prominent art and design movements between 1920 and 1990. Taking a trip down memory lane, Flashback unveils how the epoch persists to be an enduring spring with a bold and pronounced application of colour, shapes, typefaces and illustration works in contemporary graphic art.

Two crazy (and crazy interesting) books from Gestalten showed up on my desk this week. Both are worth checking out!

The first is called Papercraft: Design and Art with Paper (top) and is all about the crazy and ingenious projects people have managed to do with paper and some serious time and dedication. The second book is admittedly bizarre but still awesome. It’s called Hair’em Scare’em and shows a collection of photographs exploring the inventive possibilities of hair as a medium for artistic expression. Yes, there are some crazy hair styles inside. Inspiration for the next time I hit the salon? Perhaps.

Andy Kaufman was before my time but if what I read about this feud with Jerry Lawler and that “Man on the Moon” movie were any indication, this guy was a walking laugh factory. He blurred the line between the stage and his personal life and often times it was difficult to figure out if he was serious or if you were a victim of yet another one of his pranks. Perhaps one of his most controversial stunts involved challenging women in a comedy club to come on stage and wrestle him. He offered a $1,000 reward to any lady that could successfully pin him. He taunted the women with some pretty sexist, but admittedly hilarious, remarks. It’s clear if you understand Kaufman’s sense of humor that he was simply trying to entice them to join him.

Legions of women from across the country responded to the call, resulting in a barrage of hate mail (and love letters) from would-be contenders. Kaufman kept all of them and two of his colleagues Lynne Margulies and Bob Zmuda have compiled them into a book. “Dear Andy Kaufman, I Hate Your Guts!” is available Dec 1. From the preview I’ve seen, it does not matter if you were around when Kaufman was ruling the comedy circuit. You just need a brief intro into his wrestling stunt and then the pictures and letters do the rest to paint the picture of a legend.

Nearly a year ago I was interviewed for Donna Fenn’s next book Upstarts!. Now, I’m in it (there’s an entire section on Undercurrent and our culture) with a handful of my entrepreneur pals from around the globe… It’s a great book and inspiring gift. Give it to your kids. Give it to your students. Give it to yourself. Go, buy it, now.

Good looking new book called Colour Mania from the folks at Viction:ary!

In a world where everything dances in a veritable kaleidoscope of colours, few of today's uni-colour design has successfully manifested the intrinsic expressive qualities of colours across a variety of design disciplines and genre, including corporate identity, exhibition themes, promotional campaigns, packaging, book designs, illustrations. Arranged in a spectrum of ten colour sections, Colour Mania compiles a simple yet powerful collection of designs that draws on the essence of a range of tints and shades, as well as a rainbow tone that combines every one of them. For a more personalised flavour, the title is available in ten colours for the readers' own choices.

We’re neck-deep in a vampire renaissance. First, there’s True Blood, the Alan Ball created series that imagines Bon Temps, Louisiana as a place where strange and supernatural creatures aren’t just a result of second cousins marrying. And then there’s Twilight — the impossibly popular teen fiction books that make being really pale and aloof look cool. Who will make sense of this creepy pop culture movement? Dan Bergstein from SparkNotes has created a chapter-by-chapter blog that’s distills Twilight (and now the sequel New Moon) down to its ridiculous essence. Vamp fans love it because Bergs eviscerates their stories with a loving hand. I love it because it’s just damn funny. If you’re in either camp you should be following this. If you have no idea what I’m talking about you’re probably a man over 40.

pinkghost just announced the latest (and least exploitative) expression of fandom for all things round and chubby since Dance Your Ass Off. In collaboration with artists Julie West, Helena Garcia and 64Colors, pinkghost will debut the Chubby Books Series. The series combines a sketchbook, journal and postcard book into one “fat, cute, rounded corner book.” The books are indeed chubby: weighing in at a solid hard-backed 250 pages. Each volume features 10 artist-designed postcards, 100 lined pages and 150 sketch pages. Series 1 will be available in store and online beginning September 5th. Awesome.

READ MORE…

Josh Kenyon and Jolby. They continue their proud tradition of making our jaw drop this month with a new Zine and accompanying art exhibit entitled “&1: Everyday Shenanigans.” You can tell by the title that -despite their serious talent- this collection of mustaches, monsters, and plenty more where that came from, is more boisterous than serious. That sense of amusement makes it all the more worth our consideration and your consideration. Should you happen to be in Portland, OR on August 7th, we heartily recommend showing your appreciation in person by popping into the exhibit opening at Artful Goods from 5-8pm for a heaping helping of good-natured nonsense.

We’re giving away 5 hardback PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn books to a few very lucky readers. Want to enter? Lets do it Twitter Re-tweet contest style. Tweet the following and I’ll pick 5 winners Friday: RT Contest: I want to win the PSFK Snapshot Brooklyn Book from @joshspear

Good luck!

The gift that keeps on giving is sadly underused. I’m not talking about a puppy. I’m referring to what might become a relic if people don’t start having obsessions with receiving things in the snail mail again: Gift of the Month Clubs. In particular, Zine of the Month Club is one such variation, which should rank right up there with Beer of the Month Club or Cigar of the Month Club. For $75 a year, Mark Price Is a Factory will send off a zine each month by various artists published by them (or rather, him). Of course, you could just buy them individually, but that’d take the fun out of getting a neat-o present buried among the credit card statements and cable TV flyers in the mail. You canceled your newspaper and magazine subscriptions long ago when you bought your BlackBerry or iPhone. Now’s the time to start up those things you used to like before they went old school. Just make sure the Hot Sauce of the Month Club doesn’t come in the same delivery as these zines.

Related: Six Months of TEeA Party

My pal Jeff Staple just announced the launch of reed pages, his magazine venture. I’m always impressed with him and his ability to spread his mission and ideas across all mediums from consulting to apparel, digital, and now back to the basics of awesome print and paper (this looks so good, I’d categorize it as a book). And anytime he launches something new, I think about a good way I can bring it to my own readers.

So, to celebrate the inaugural Issue 1, we’re going to giveaway a year subscription. It’s pretty simple.

This quote appears in the premier issue of Reed Pages. Fill in the blanks below and you win.

“New _____________ is okay but why does it have to be so ugly? The ___________ and ___________ should have to answer to an aesthetic community board that won’t let them build awful ___________.”

Comments will be held for moderation, and we’ll approve and pick the winners Friday! Good luck!

Yesterday, Rick Smolan released the top secret project he’s been working on with HP: THE OBAMA TIME CAPSULE, a customizable book. Using the HP print-on-demand technology we last showed you with MagCloud, people can weave their own names, photos and messages into an historic large format book featuring the work of the world's leading photographers, graphic artists and writers.

The book can be extensively personalized by answering a few questions and uploading photos to the project website. THE OBAMA TIME CAPSULE offers readers seven different ways to personalize the book. If you’ve been courting your own ISBN, you’ll come close with co-author credit on the front cover and a photograph of you on the back (as well as inside amongst celebrity supporters). Each collectible copy of the book is printed one at a time. Most publishing industry analysts agree that print-on-demand will be the publishing model of the future.

“From grass roots Facebook campaigns to viral YouTube videos, the Obama campaign took the presidential race to a new level in terms of personalization,” said Smolan, co-founder of Against All Odds Productions (AAO). And the book follows suit: Using the Internet, publishers have fewer barriers to market and by only printing what is necessary, excess inventory and waste are eliminated.The OBAMA TIME CAPSULE (retail price $64.95) is now available exclusively through Amazon at an introductory price of $34.95. Additional sponsors for the book include Google, AOL, Facebook, Glam Media, Blurb, Microsoft, eMotion and NewPage.

Ladies and gentleman: Our very own Sao Paulo correspondent Phuong-Cac is a now a published author. Hooray! Total Sao Paulo: A Guide To The Unexpected is out today! The book is all about, you guessed it, Sao Paulo– features maps, illustrations, a slang glossary (very important, man) as well as a curated list of the best restaurants, bars, clubs, shops, galleries, museums and other can’t miss things around the city.

All the photographs and illustrations featured inside are from talented people living in Sao Paulo– and launching with the book is a local listings site that will have magazine-style stories on Sao Paulo bands, artists, markets, and everything else you need to know about this amazing city.

Wanna celebrate the launch? Thought so. Head over to Carmichael Gallery in LA on Saturday, May 9th from 3-7pm and listen to performances by Andrea Ferraz, watch a capoeira demonstration, and hear DJ Marlon Fuentes play a special set of Sao Paulp legends. Not in LA this weekend? Just jump up and down on your bed after you’ve bought the book.

Congrats PC! Pictures of “inside the book” after the jump (looks fantastic)…

READ MORE…