Book Review: Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti

Books are for so much more than pleasure, don't you agree? They are inspirational, educational, and provocative. Books can challenge you to explore things and ideas that you didn't even know you were interested in, and they can open your eyes to new and different worlds, styles, art, trends, and design. That's why I'm so invested in books about design, art, photography, and decorating - and why I feel the need to share my thoughts on these books with all of you. 

Signs of Our Times: From Calligraphy to Calligraffiti is the perfect example of a book that not only inspires, but provokes, educates, and broadens your look at the world. This wonderful coffee table book, published by Merrell Publishers, tackles the evolution of the 60-year art of Calligraffiti. Never heard of it? Me either! 

Calligraffiti emerged in the 1950s as an alternative approach to art being explored and produced in the Modernist era. Artists in Iran and the Arab world took inspiration from the movement, their own varied cultures, and combined those to create a sort of lyrical art in a new artistic language using ancient techniques in a bold new way. 

Fifty artists are featured in the more than 300 pages of this impressive volume, dotted along a historically accurate and informative timeline on how changes in the Middle Eastern world have affected the art of Calligraffiti and the artistic contributions that followed from the 1950s to present day. Each of the artists is asked three questions: How did writing/calligraphy/ words come into your work, or how did you come to words, writing or the morphology of letters in your work? Is there anything you may want to add in terms of your sources of inspiration, whether poetry, historical events or aesthetics?

The answers to these questions, and the artist work that accompanies the following pages is extraordinary, and gives a humbling perspective to the greater world. 

The book is honestly, fascinating. Looking at each of the brilliant photos of Signs of Our Times is like being in an art gallery of beautiful Arabic and Persian Script, or the morphology of those scripts and letters in contemporary and modern art.

Take a closer look for yourself, and grab a copy for your coffee table or library via the Amazon link below:

Book Review: Life of a Pattern

Life of a Pattern by Neisha Crosland

Published by Merrell Publishers 

You may or may not be familiar with the name Neisha Crosland, but you are definitely familiar with her work. Neisha is a surface pattern designer, based in the UK, recognized internationally for her sophisticated, yet unusual color combinations, and her impeccable attention to balance and proportion. Her body of work has propelled her to the forefront of UK design, and in 2006 she was honored with the title Royal Designer for Industry, an incredibly high accolade for designers in the UK as only 200 designers can hold this title. 

Neisha started her own textile company designing scarves and accessories nearly 23-years ago, and has since gone on to design fabrics, wallpapers, rugs, tiles, fine china, and even stationary! Turnell & Gigon carries her wallpaper, Harris & Jones her stationary, and her pillow covers and curtain panels can be found at Crate & Barrel. 

Without a doubt, Neisha's unerring eye has an extraordinary ability for seeking out symmetry, order, and beauty and then taking that inspiration and funneling it into her beautiful work, is unsurpassed. In her first book, Life of a Pattern luxuriously published by Merrell Publishers, specially commissioned photography focuses on the detail, color, techniques, and patterns Crosland has mastered. She shares fascinating technical detail in current and early work, including weaving and printing methods that have now vanished because of commercial pressures on mills and manufacturers. Life of a Pattern takes you from the inception of the idea to the finished product, exploring all of the wonderful resources and inspirations along the way. 

Brilliant and massive, the book is filled with inspirational drawings, and photography. Let's take a look: 

360 pages in a large format, results in a book perfect imbibing inspiration. Page after page, you are introduced to brilliant textiles, patterns, and more from pattern visionary, Neisha Crosland. Take a closer look, and pick up your copy via the Amazon link below: 

Book Review: The Country House Ideal

The Country House Ideal by Jeremy Musson

Published by Merrell Press

 

ADAM Architecture, based in the UK, has a worldwide reputation for traditional architecture and design, and has built award-winning projects of all types around the world. Among the firms most admired architectural masterpieces however, are their grand country houses. Architectural historian, Jeremy Musson, the foremost authority on British country houses and culture.

 

The former Architectural Editor of Country Life magazine, Musson has written many books on the glorious country houses that dot the English countryside, this his fifth. ADAM Architecture was created in 1986, and now operates with the creative direction of architects Robert Adam, Paul Hanvey, Nigel Anderson, Hugh Petter and George Saumarez Smith. Together, the team builds country houses today for the elite, which certainly reflect the grand manors of the past, but have creative and contemporary solutions to how we live (and want to live) today.

 

The book is glorious, truly. A masterpiece of work both in architecture and in interior design. With 19-featured projects, it's impossible for me to showcase all of them here, but take a look at just a few of the gorgeous restorations, renovations, and new construction that the book has to offer:

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker

 

As a sucker for symmetry in design, the houses of ADAM Architecture really appeal. Particularly this one, set in the hills of Wiltshire. It was built to replace a home that was destroyed by fire in 1945 in the neo-Queen Anne style.

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker





 

Here, another beautiful example of English architecture. This Cotswald stone in Oxfordshire is designed in sympathetic style, and is a five-bay addition to an old farm house.

 

  Photo Credit - Paul Barker

 

This Cottage Ornee style house in Easstridge, Hampshire is a playful take on the gothic style of architecture known earlier. The house is brand new, but looks centuries old thanks to materials and the superb architectural knowledge of ADAM architect, Nigel Anderson.

 



Photo Credit - Paul Barker

 

Another new build by Nigel Anderson, beautifully sited in Hampshire, reflects the best Classical tradition in the English countryside.

 

Interiors of these gorgeous homes are also featured, and they are as unique but beautiful as the architecture of the exterior:

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker; Interior of Stocks Houses - Hertfordshire, UK scanned

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker; Interior of Stocks Houses - Hertfordshire, UK scanned

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker; Interior of Stocks Houses - Hertfordshire, UK scanned

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker; Interior of a house in the Avenel project, Scotland scanned

 

Photo Credit - Paul Barker; Interior of East Hoe Manor, Hampshire scanned





 

287 beautifully curated pages of photos, history, architectural notoriety, and design lay waiting for you to add to your library. Trust me, if you're a fan of architecture, design, or the English Country aesthetic, it's a book you'll not want to live without. It's the kind of book that gives you enough ammunition to launch an all out attack on the internet to get more and more and more information about a house leaving you not only satiated in design, but perhaps, a little smarter, too! Grab your copy today, via the Amazon link below.