ABZZZZ - book review

Quando soube que o Planeta Tangerina ia lançar um livro sobre o alfabeto, fiquei imediatamente alerta, afina é a junção de duas coisas que adoro: Letras e os livros da Planeta.

Assim que o encontrei à venda comprei-o. Não tive muito tempo para o folhear na livraria mas também não era necessário, sabia que ia ser uma óptima compra.

O ABZZZZ junta ao abecedário e à ilustração outra coisa de que gosto muito... dormir. É um livro que se prontifica a ajudar o leitor a adormecer "muito antes de o abecedário chegar ao fim".


When I found out that Planeta Tangerina was going to launch a book about the alphabet I was immediately interested. It's the combination of two things I love: Letters and the books from Planeta Tangerina.
I bought it as soon as it hit the stores. I didn't have much time to browse the book before buying it but there was no need to, I already knew it was going to be an excellent buy.
In ABZZZZ there's illustration, there's letters and there's also one other thing I like a lot: sleeping. It's a book that tries to help the reader fall asleep "long before the alphabet is over".

 

 

Para mim, o mais impressionante de ABZZZZ foi a forma como a Yara conseguiu criar uma harmonia em cada spread apesar de em cada págia se tratar de uma letra diferente e muitas vezes com temas bastante distintos.

To me, the most amazing thing in ABZZZZ was Yara's ability to create this harmony in each spread even if each page is about a different letter and the themes are often quite distincts.

Se, como eu, são fãs do Planeta Tangerina, vão gostar de certeza.

Um óptimo livro para uma tarde chuvosa de domingo.

If you're a Planeta Tangerina fan like I am you'll definitely like this book.
A great book for a rainy sunday afternoon.

I can fly - book review

Hello there,

this second book review comes because I loved this book so much that I wanted to tell the world about how awesome it is.

I Can Fly was written by Ruth Krauss and illustrated by Mary Blair and is part of the Little Golden Book Classics collection.





This book from 1951 and renewed in 1979 is a small rhyme about a little girl with a lot of imagination that plays with a different animal in each spread.

My favourite thing about this book as to be the illustrations. I didn't know Mary Blair's works before but found them so magical that a book with a selection of her from this collection is already on its way.

The book ends (I've seen that in other edition this comes in the begining but I actually prefer it in the end) with a lovely bordered sheet of music called "I can fly" in which the lyrics are the text of the book.

What better book to read in an afternoon in the sun?

If you want to buy it you can for only €4.23 for example in Book Depository.

See you soon.

Hyperactivitypography from A to Z - book review

As I told you before, lettering is something I really want to invest in this year. With that in mind I decided I needed new books on the subject, and any reason is a good one to buy books, right?
A few days ago, as I was searching through Amazon and Book Depository, I somehow laid my eyes on this beauty and I experienced love at first sight. I ordered it the same day and counted the days till it arrived (13 days).
I decided to present it to you because it deserves all the recognition it can get.

I can say that Hyperactivitypography from A to Z is an exercise book that at a first look may seem targeted for children buy is in fact a great tool for typography beginners as it takes a serious and clever yet fun look at this very complex subject.

My love began with the cover, pretty colour put together beautifully and the cutest characters interacting with the title.
In terms of dimension, the book is a little smaller than I was expecting (16cm x 21cm / 196 pages), I thought it was a big table book and was very pleased to discover it fit my bag perfectly, which makes perfect sense since it's an exercise book.

The book is filled with typography themed jokes that are funny and clever. I was browsing through it and found myself smiling, which trust me, as never happened before while reading about typography.

Before you start reading there are two pages with instructions on how to use the book, the supplies you need (pen, ruler, scissors...) and there's also a typometer - a ruler to measure fonts - and a ruler to measure line spacing. To me, these are more like a curious addition than a helpful tool, as I will not cut them out.

The book is divided into 28 chapters - 26 themes where each name starts with one letter of the alphabet, another one with the answers to the exercises and a final one to practice what you learn.

The next images are from different chapters. 

One of the details that I love is the colour palette used. The book is printed with only 5 colours (cream, pink, blue, green and orange) and each chapter uses only three of them, and the scheme changes in each chapter.

To me, the most difficult exercises are the ones where you need to writes the names of the fonts used in the text which tells me I need to work on that.
Have you seen Mr. Garamond up there? Definitely one of my favorite details on the book are the illustrations of the typographers!

One last thing you might be asking is "how can you write on such a lovely piece?" and the answer is I'm not, how could I? It was never my intention.

So, that's it! Are you buying it already?