Jay Ryan (1)

Ryan is a Chicago-area screen-printing artist who started out making posters for bands that he knew, and gradually became part of the music poster renaissance starting in the early 2000s. His style is easily recognizable and unique (a Google image search for "jay ryan posters" will give you a nice taste), and his mix of soft colors, hand-lettering, cute animals, and violent or odd circumstances (attack by adorable squirrels!) is pretty enchanting. This is a fun one to pick up and browse through, and then return to again with fresh eyes.

[full review here: http://spacebeer.blogspot.com/2016/02/100-posters-134-squirrels-decade-of-hot.ht... ]… (mais)

(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted here illegally.)

So when do you know that you've really made it as a book critic? Why, when you start receiving free review copies of lush art books, that's when, chump! I just recently received my first, in fact, Akashic's Animals and Objects In and Out of Water, a late-'00s overview of Chicago-based graphic designer and indie-rock stalwart Jay Ryan; and I was already a big fan of Ryan's work (it's hard to live in Chicago and not be, frankly -- his work is everywhere), so this book turned out to be an extra-big pleasure in my case. Featuring beautiful reprints of over 120 of his best designs, all of them from 2005 to '08, and a series of essays from artists he's done work for (including our old pal Joe Meno), this is a perfect gift for any creative hipster in your life; and with it coming out as an oversized paperback, it's one that everyone can afford too.

Out of 10: 9.0

(IMPORTANT UPDATE AND DISCLOSURE: Since writing this review, I've learned that my cousin Nathan Keay was part of the production team for this book. Rest assured that this didn't influence my opinion, in that I wrote my review before finding this out.)… (mais)