FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 2010
How to become the chicken coop Frank Gehry
Haven’t laid my hands on a copy yet, but it looks like author and publisher Lloyd Kahn has another winner, in this case a painstaking reproduction of a turn of the century catalog The Gardeners’ and Poultry Keepers’ Guide: Illustrated Catalogue of Goods Manufactured & Supplied by W. Cooper Ltd. Kahn says, on his blog,
“It’s hard cover, linen-looking finish, foil stamped, printed on off-white paper — a book lovers’ book — the kind that us bibliophiles love to touch and thumb through (and feel secure in the knowledge that no stinkin’ ebook will replace the “hard” copy). Also, it’s useful: it gives homesteaders, gardeners, builders, and architects still-practical designs.”
I’ll note one detail I like in the chicken coop in the catalog above, the “dry run.” I included a small dry run space in my coop and the chickens really like it–a place for them to hide out when it rains.
Just ran across this again. No clue as to where it’s from. Looks like it’s signed “MS.”
This is exactly what happened when we got our first Mac in the late ’80s. Michael Rafferty, who was working for Shelter then, started doing everything on the Mac, while I was still using my Adler portable typewriter, and laying out pages with X-Actos and glue. Took me years to migrate over…
(Actually I still do initial layout manually.)
We thought this would be a snap, reprinting this 100-year old London catalog of greenhouses, chicken coops, and farm buildings. As usual (will I ever learn?), it had many complications, since we were determined to have it look like the original and capture the spirit of the times. We worked and worked on it (as did Toppan Press in China) and the result is wonderful. I’m thrilled; it’s a dream come true. I’ve loved this little book ever since I found it in an obscure used-book store in London in the early ’70s.
It’s hard cover, linen-looking finish, foil stamped, printed on off-white paper — a book lovers’ book — the kind that us bibliophiles love to touch and thumb through (and feel secure in the knowledge that no stinkin’ ebook will replace the “hard” copy). Also, it’s useful: it gives homesteaders, gardeners, builders, and architects still-practical designs. It’s now in stock. Yahoo!
More: https://www.shelterpub.com/_cooper/cooper-book.html
Ever since my high school journalism course (thanks, Jack Patterson!) I’ve been a communicator. I’ve developed a reflex action of telling people about what I run across in the world. In about 40 years of publishing, I’ve done maybe 40 books, as well as posters, pamphlets, booklets, flyers and now – – blogs and tweets.
I started the blog in 2005, struggling with such a different type of media, posting maybe once a week, whenever I got a bit of time. Finally, I’m getting at least one post a day up. I’m getting around 5-600 visitors a day. It ain’t “viral,” but it’s sure fun! I get great feedback, surprisingly soon. Identification of mushrooms, correcting my mistakes (not infrequently), turning me on to stuff I’m interested in…
We’ll keep producing hold-in-your-hand books in the future,** but also increase internet communication, and produce e-books. (I’m hopeful that the iPad will allow us to do 4-color Shelter-book-style layout. C’mon Steve, don’t let us down!
*I love the haiku aspect of Twitter. You’ve got to write tight.
**Our book on tiny houses is assembling itself, right before my very eyes. Man it is lookin good!
Simplification in the 21st century…
My job is communication, and I do so with photos, writing, books, flyers, posters—and now, blog posts and Twitter. What’s frustrated me right from the beginning of blogging is the difficulty of doing anything more complex than picture on left, text on right. For years I’ve been looking for a way to do blog layout like our book pages—and quickly.
I’m really excited to think there may now be a way to do magazine layout in 4-color. This morning I came into a coffee house in Berkeley and read an article in the New York Times (there’s nothing like a hold-in-yr-hands newspaper!) about Apple’s notebook, to be announced tomorrow. This caught my eye: “The New York Times Company, for example, is developing a version of its newspaper for the tablet, according to a person briefed on the effort…”
Bring it on Steve!
With Apple Tablet, Print Media Hope for a Payday
By BRAD STONE and STEPHANIE CLIFFORD/Published: January 25, 2010
https://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/26/technology/26apple.html?sq=apple%20tablet&st=cse&adxnnl=1&scp=1&adxnnlx=1264521626-VO7HQ7g03OdZEteEl2WECQ
Architecture Week, an online magazine (400,000 viewers a month), just did a nice excerpt from our book, Builders of the Pacific Coast:
A few months ago I got this email from our agent in Korea: “Dosol told me that nation-wide TV broadcasting company would like to contact you for an interview. They are going to make a programme about you.” I did the interview and sent them this photo taken here in December (’09). Dosol is the Korean publisher that is translating our Builders of the Pacific Coast. Koreans are about to get a look at builders in British Columbia!
Photo by Lew Lewandowski
Once I got back from Europe and the dust settled, I finally started on our tiny houses book. We’ve been gathering material on the subject for about a year and I’m astounded by the wealth and richness of material. I thought I’d have to wrestle with myself to get rolling on this project in the early stages, but it’s taken on a life of its own from day one. I’ve never had a book take off like this. I’m having a wickedly good time, getting up early in the mornings to work on it. PLUS I’m running across all kinds of other interesting stuff (see blogs of Nov.-Dec.).
There are a ton of books out there on tiny (or “small”) houses and more coming, so why are we doing one? Well, we wrote about building small, simple, non-architect, homes in Shelter, 36 years ago. In fact Bob Easton drew up 5 simple little buildings with these roofs: shed, gable, steep gable, gambrel and circular. We told owner-builders to keep it small, simple, and economical, and to not get trapped in a wishful fantasy (domes, 7-sided, abstract shapes, etc). “Quick to build so you can get on with your life.”
Secondly, there’s an obvious surge of interest nowadays, necessity being the mother, etc.
Third, I’ve been photographing small buildings for 40 years now.
Fourth, we’re doing one of our signature building books, dense with photos and stories, way different from other books, hoping to publish by November 2010. It’s gonna be a good one!
*Click here for gambrel roof page from Shelter (shown above).
From The Private Patient an Adam Dalgliesh mystery by P. D. James, in which she is writing about London:
“The city which lay below was a charnel house built on multi-layered bones centuries older than those which lay in the cities of Hamburg or Dresden. Was this knowledge part of the mystery it held for her, a mystery felt most strongly on a bell-chimed Sunday on her solitary exploration of its hidden alleys and squares? Time had fascinated her from childhood, its apparent power to move at different speeds, the dissolution it wrought on minds and bodies, her sense that each moment, all moments past and those to come, were fused into an illusory present which with every breath became the unalterable, indestructible past. In the city of London these moments were caught and solidified in stone and brick, in churches and monuments and in bridges which spanned the grey-brown ever-flowing Thames….”
“And the Pursuit of Happiness—Back to the Land” is a wonderful hand-lettered article by prolific artist Maria Kalman: in the NY Times. Farmers, fast food, healthy food, edible schoolyards. Sent us by Leo Hetzel. Photo is of farmer Mickey Murch’s rolling food van. He drives it into the small town where he lives to sell fresh bread and other food.
Maria Kalman’s website: https://www.mairakalman.com/
