The Portuguese photographer Edgar Martins is releasing his book 'Topologies' in May. The book includes selections from each of his major series of large-scale photographs. Martins frequently takes shots of barren, uninhabited landscape scenes that are solemnly beautiful and quiet. He is also interested in the leftovers of modern society, abandoned and disused structures that he portrays as landscape elements in their own right.
Have a look at his cool website here...

Take a look at Soyfriends, a Norwegian publisher dedicated to printing and distributing some very cool Scandinavian artists and illustrators. The editions are produced by the artists and printed in limited editions of 20 to 100 copies, making them fairly unique pieces of artwork. Some of these illustrators produce some outstanding work. I especially like Rui Tenreiro's comic style "Partie de Campagne".
There is a lot of diverse and interesting work, so check out more here...

Nicholas Feltron publishes this beautiful annual report and the 2007 version is now for sale in a printed edition for $5. He collects statistical information about virtually everything that comes with an everyday life, like listening to music, walking the streets, travelling, spending hours reading etc and turns this into visual info.

The result is a both amusing and interesting piece about all the statistical trivia that makes up 2007 for the people. Have a look here for more...

(via infosthetics.com)

There is a real nice story over at ThingsMagazine about Penguin Books history and the way the book cover has undergone some very interesting changes over its lifetime. The post includes some great links, book reviews and their own Penguin Project.

Here is an excerpt:
....there is an undeniable visual unity when you're presented with a decade's worth of covers. The Penguin design story is straightforward, but much mythologised. As Robin Kinross notes in the Hyphen Press's excellent Journal, the company ultimately appears to have lost the plot, indulging in too much 'visual imitation and self-reference'. read more..

Here is a great project! A collective of 60 artists presenting their work in the form of a book. All profits from sales go to UNICEF.

Read more about the project and check out the trailer here:

http://www.60uniteforchildren.com

"City of Good" is one of Shilo Studio's four original pieces featured in their recently released Book/DVD. The book looks fantastic and you can grab it here.

Watch City of Good here or
learn more about wemakeitgood.com or SHILO Studio here

about Shilo
Co-Founded by Jose Gomez and Andre Stringer in 2001, Shilo is an Emmy Award winning creative studio of designers, animators, and directors who share a common obsession to forge a new perspective in storytelling.

Shilo strives to not only push the boundaries of contemporary design and live-action direction but also strike a nerve in an ever-numbing audience. Combining live-action, design, animation, classic typography, illustration, music and sound design, Shilo creates projects with boundless emotional impact.

(via cpluv)

This book has been around for a while but never the less a very good reference when it comes to understanding how we experience the city. Ian Borden uses skateboarding as a point of view. Architect by profession he teaches at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London and has written a number of great books.

About:
This book is the first detailed study of the urban phenomenon of skateboarding. It looks at skateboarding history from the surf-beaches of California in the 1950s, through the purpose-built skateparks of the 1970s, to the street-skating of the present day and shows how skateboarders experience and understand the city through their sport. Dismissive of authority and convention, skateboarders suggest that the city is not just a place for working and shopping but a true pleasure-ground, a place where the human body, emotions and energy can be expressed to the full.

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