I was looking for Herb Loobalin’s recently, my studio mate Rob has a copy. It is something else, page after page of impressive typography and illustration. Right up my street.
So, I decided I wanted a copy of my own, I looked online and to my shock and dismay, it cost $140 on Amazon. Faaaak that for a lark. Silly cash.
For those of you whop don't have a that kind of cash to throw around, here is a decent Flickr album dedicated to the book. http://www.flickr.com/photos/nkeppol/sets/72157618401843508/with/3541861878/
Happy oogling.

Came across this treasure trove of book cover designs all on one site. I've only had a quick mooch through it so far, but there's bloody heaps to get inspiration from. Very comprehensive catagories to choose what angle you'd like to navigate through all the information on the site too. Two thumbs up.
http://bookcoverarchive.com/

This is such a smart idea
Have a goo here for more: http://cardoncopy.com/one/index.html

I was lucky enough to see George Lois speak at a design conference called Offset last week. I was familiar with some of his work (Esquire mainly) but not all of what he presented on the day. The man is a serious inspiration to all designers out there. Ideas. Ideas. Ideas. He repetedly stressed the importance of ideas in graphic communication. No cheap tricks using flash-in-the-pan styles, make sure all graphic solutions have a heavy weight idea at their core. Proper order. Too much shite, trendy design out there these days with no substance in my opinion. I am itching to get my hands on his new book. I'd say it's an impressive read, similar to Tibor Kalman's book or Sagmeisters.
His site: http://www.georgelois.com/  where you will see much of his work and you'll find a link to his book. One other interesting point I never knew, the man's mentor was Paul Rand. Right place, right time!

There's very fiew sculptors work that I could look at all day and still not get bored. This fella is one of them. A man with serious talent. Tip of my hat to you James Hopkins.
http://www.jameshopkinsworks.com/index.html

Grant Hamilton shot this series of photos. I've been meaning to post about this lad for a good while, I absolutely love them. Basically they're close crops of graphics on the side of trucks. What an awesome idea. One of those, 'I wish I had thought of that before' ideas. Fair play.
Here's the man's site: http://sxseventy.com/

Here's a link
http://vimeo.com/15357305
to a video of a mural I completed recently in Dublin called City Links. Heineken put on a competition called Your Heineken, Your City a while back and I won the Dublin section of the competition. The video gives a background to the design that depicts my visual representation of Dublin.
Thanks to Colin in ThinkHouse PR that did a sterling job on the editing of the piece ans a big thank you to Chewy too.

Being an avid enthusiast of handpainted type, I thought I had struck gold when a friend of mine sent me on a link
the signage painter Kevin Freeney below. A dying craft for sure, the Flickr link at the end of this post gives a snap shot of a time in Dublin when there was an appreciation for the skill. 

Kevin Freeney 1919-1986 was a Signwriter from Dublin, Ireland.
"Dublin Street Life & Lore" by Kevin C. Kearns said of Kevin:

"Signwriting goes back at least three generations in his family. Back in the 1930's he rambled through Dublin's streets on a bike or with a pushcart carrying his paints and brushes. In that period the city's streetscapes were elegantly embroidered with handwritten shop and pub fascias. Having done "at least 700 pubs and shopfronts" inDublin, the most famed streets — O'Connell, Henry, Grafton, and Capel— all carried his personalised three-dimensional relief lettering and ornamentation. His fellow craftsmen hailed him as a "Master".

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gentlemanofletters/

A number of years ago I was lucky enough to attend a talk given by Bridget Riley. At the time, I had no prioir knowledge of the lady and her spectacular body of work. Before Riley, Escher is probably the only optical artist I had come across or had taken a keen interst in. I remember the first time I saw her work, as it came up on the screen at the talk, I was blown away by it and am still today. The fact that she was there to put it all in context and that she did so in such a humble and informative manner added to the experience all the more. Unfortunately and bizarrely, she doesn't have a site of her own. So...
for further info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bridget_Riley   
and for more on op art   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_art

I can't get over this man's talent. The scale, style, composition, use of colour.... I could go on. Everything he seems to do reaks of awesomeness. Be sure to have a goo at the vids on his page to see his skills, quite sickening to watch. :)
http://www.aryz.es/