Emotion as Promotion: A book of Thirst by Rick Valicenti (ed.)
Parched for lack of innovative design? Emotion as Promotion, the first monograph of the design group Thirst, spans numerous genres and maintains the snarky Thirst voice throughout. The design collective’s hallmarks include striking color photographs, creative computer manipulation, the use of new media, and challenges offered to the reader, viewer, and client. Typography also plays a major role—a new font, Infinity, was designed by Thirst especially for this book.

Emotion as Promotion is explained by the publisher as “an exuberant manifesto, a collective autobiography, and a brutally honest heart-to-heart.” Readers get a fly-on-thewall view of the design group and its inner daily workings as Thirst principal Rick Valicenti and his colleagues share recollections of each project. With humorous client assessments, Thirst shows us the end result and all stages in between. If you’ve had a hard time figuring out this unique design group, this book does well to enlighten.
$60, hardcover, 352 pages, The Monicelli Press

Plates + Dishes: The Food and Faces of the Roadside Diner by Stephan Schacher
Looking for a quick summertime read? Try Plates + Dishes, a quirky travel journal of sorts by photographer Stephan Schacher. “Bored with conventional travel and the boundaries of recognized photography, I set out two years ago on a journey that I would never forget. I wanted a challenge, and indeed, it turned into one. I decided I was going to photograph every single meal I ate and each and every waitress serving me on a journey through North America,” explains the author in his introduction (cleverly entitled, “My Way on the Highway: Food for Thought”) regarding the premise of the book.

Through Schacher’s introduction, you get a sense of the stories behind the little diners, their regions, food, and serving sta.. The rest is simply a series of pictures of meals alongside snapshots of waitresses (nope, no men included, for better or for worse). Each chapter is summed up by a spread of guest checks from each restaurant, a map of the states involved, and travel ephemera—sayings, notes, icons, logos, terms, even a bill with what appears to be a waitress’s number on it.
$16.95, softcover, 184 pages, Princeton Architectural Press

Project: Superior by Chris Pitzer (ed.)
Calling all comic book lovers! Have no fear, Project: Superior is here. As editor Chris Pitzer puts it, it’s “the anthology devoted to heroes that are super.” From Jeffrey Brown’s Aw Shit, It’s a Cycloctopus to Scott Campbell’s Pretty OK Team to Jim Mahfood’s One-Page Filler Man, Project: Superior includes both funny and peculiar takes on the comic book genre.

Evil geniuses with master plans, mutated freaks with extraordinary super powers, and do-gooders of all types are examined in these short stories—in quick, comic book form, of course. The makers of this book “set about making a list of people we thought could make some kick-butt comics, contacted them, and here we are,” according to Pitzer’s introduction. “We’ve got all types of stories in here, from all types of people. All of us trying to be something a little more than we are.”
$19.95, softcover, 288 pages, Ad House Books

Type One: Discipline and Progress in Typography by Silja Bilz et al (eds.)
Typography today exists in conflict with classical font design and contemporary influences such as analog distortion, screen applications, street culture, deconstruction, hand lettering, and illustrative letterforms. Type One not only presents an overview of the diversity in current typography, but it also reveals where conventions have become established and where valid new approaches exist. In addition to a large selection of typefaces and their colorful applications, the book features articles by and interviews with international experts such as François Rappot, House Industries, Norm, and Professor Tanja Diezmann. Topics range from the democratization of the font creation process by the computer to how much existing approaches are based on the same fonts. Texts are edited and commented upon by Silja Bilz, who was former project and product manager for Corporate Type at the renowned Linotype Library. While Type One provides practical context and examples, it also investigates the experimental and inspirational side of font design. This combination makes it an essential resource for anyone seeking an up-to-date exploration and understanding of typography.
$69, hardcover, 224 pages, Die Gestalten Verlag