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Maira Kalman

Books

Peek at the Ideal Bookshelves of 10 Famous Readers

By Emily Temple on

Thessaly LaForce and Jane Mount’s My Ideal Bookshelf celebrates the favorite reads of notable figures from David Sedaris to Rosanne Cash, creating a portrait of each icon in books.… Read More

Partner Buzz

The Very Best of Book Cover Design

By Claire Cottrell on

There’s nothing we love more here at Flavorpill HQ than judging books by their covers. Be it plausible-seeming but tonally inappropriate covers or dust jackets that scream “don’t date me!”, we admit that it’s awfully fun to pooh-pooh the cliché adage. Dear readers, mark your calendars, for today — thanks to your help — we’re going to set all snark and judgement aside and take a look at excellent reads that also happen to have extraordinarily well-designed covers.

In honor of the adorably outfitted, exceptionally designed (inside and out) Prius c, design love is all around, so join us as we round-up engaging prose combined with exceptional design. Showcasing the work of legendary typographers, art directors and graphic designers alike, click through to see what stunning contributions the literary world has made to design, and vice versa. Tell us your favorite from our selection in the comments below! … Read More

Pop Culture

Wanted: T-Shirts Designed by Sofia Coppola, Dave Eggers, David Byrne and More

By Emily Temple on

We admit, we’re suckers for this kind of thing — but we imagine some of you are too, so we hope you’ll forgive us. Levi’s has partnered with food activist Alice Waters, along with Sophia Coppola, Dave Eggers, David Byrne and Maira Kalman, to create a mini collection of t-shirts to benefit Waters’ great Edible Schoolyard project, a national initiative that teaches grade-school children about growing and making healthy food. The t-shirts, which sell for $30 a pop, are 100% organic, and feature plantable tags (with organic seeds, even!) for maximum environmental friendliness. Click through to see the designs, and head here to buy your own. … Read More

Web

The 10 Best Arts and Culture TED Talks

By Judy Berman on

It seems like every day someone is sending us a new TED talk. We are big fans of the forward-thinking smart-people conference, but there’s just no way we can watch everything posted on the site. That said, there’s no way we would miss “David Byrne: How architecture helped music evolve,” a speech from this year’s event that just appeared on the site. Once we checked out that show stopper (seriously, watch it now), we couldn’t help scanning the TED archives to find the best arts and culture-related talks. Our ten favorites, spanning the realms of art, design, literature, music, and TV, are after the jump. … Read More

Art

Maira Kalman Decks Museum Halls with Illustration

By Kelsey Keith on

You may not know the name Maira Kalman right off the bat, but chances are you know her drawings. Her wildly popular New York Times illustration blog presents an irreverent stream-of-consciousness on everything from US presidents to the citizens of New York City. She illustrated The Elements of Style (the one in the red clothbound cover) and her writing graces the menus and awning of West Village eatery The New French. Basically, her whimsical, observant doodles are everywhere, now including her first museum survey at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia. Images from the exhibition Various Illuminations (Of a Crazy World) after the… Read More

Art

Friend Shopping with Paper’s Kim Hastreiter at Partners & Spade

By Ian Volner on

Partners & Spade is the latest venture from New York’s unlikeliest fashion-lifestyle-design impresario: married to a handbag institution, brother to Dickie Roberts, Former Child Star, Andy Spade has put some of the proceeds from the sale of wife Kate’s eponymous line of apparel towards opening his new brand-consultancy studio and storefront on Great Jones Street in Noho with partner Anthony Sperduti. Open weekends only (weekdays by appointment), Partners & Spade is a rumpus room for Spade’s select band of merry consumerist pranksters; last month, artist Mike Mills stuffed the place with an entire collection devoted to the year 1971, while Maira Kalman assembled a saleable shrine of items made by her late husband, graphic designer Tibor Kalman. Now the circle of fun has widened, with the opening last week of a show curated by Paper editrix and cultural switchboard Kim Hastreiter.… Read More