Books We Publish – M. Russem Book Design

Iconic: The Postage Stamps of Lance Wyman

Michael Russem — Sat, 02 Nov 2019 21:13:04 +0000

Graphic designer Lance Wyman created commemorative postage stamps for some of the most historically significant events of the late twentieth century: Olympiads, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the 1970 World Cup, the first manned landing on the moon, and the twenty-fifth anniversary of the United Nations. Studying the entirety of Wyman’s philatelic work—forty-three stamps in all—Niko Courtelis details how well they have withstood the test of time. With comments throughout by Wyman himself, this book (co-published with Katherine Small Gallery to accompany an exhibit of Wyman’s stamps) is sure to reintroduce you to the designer you thought you already knew.

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Dogs are OK

Michael Russem — Sat, 31 Oct 2015 14:35:01 +0000

Dogs are OK. We don’t love them, though. We do, however, love photographs, postcards, prints, and drawings of dogs. For this slender volume we’ve collected some of our weird and lovely favorites to make something for everyone–whether a lover of dogs or not. Co-published with Pressed Wafer and with an introduction (in English and Japanese) by Michael Russem, this one’s for anyone who’s got a new puppy, lost an old friend, or thinks that dogs are just OK—or slightly better than OK.

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Notes on Postage Stamps

Michael Russem — Thu, 10 Sep 2015 14:28:14 +0000

Eric Gill had exacting and pointed opinions about postage stamps, their purpose, and their design. Unfortunately, his theories didn’t always hold up when put into practice, and he had a less than successful career as a designer of stamps. Accompanied by nine of Gill’s previously unpublished preparatory drawings and sketches for stamps, Notes on Postage Stamps is a short, previously unpublished essay by Gill in which he succinctly lays out his philatelic ideas—some of which were a little too idealistic and some of which were spot-on. All of them are interesting and thought-provoking.

Notes on Postage Stamps contains fifty-six full-color illustrations, most of which will be completely unfamiliar to historians and enthusiasts of Gill’s work. An afterword by Michael Russem chronicles Gill’s seven attempts at stamp design—only two of which resulted in published stamps.

See some sample spreads from the book here.

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Towards a Reform of the Paper Currency

Michael Russem — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 23:37:00 +0000

[U. S. paper money] stands as the prime symbol of value in the inﬁnite transactions of a great commercial nation. It is worth its face in gold . . . but, my God! what a face! —W.A. Dwiggins

Towards a Reform of the Paper Currency particularly in point of its design is a passionate and lively little rant with lots of good design ideas for the improvement of banknotes and stamps—and just about anything else. First published in 1932 by the Limited Editions Club in an edition of 452 copies, this new edition is also printed in an edition of 452 copies—potentially doubling the number of copies in the world. In truth, the original edition is now one of WAD’s less seen and more expensive books and is often selling for one hundred or more times its original publication price of $5.84. Our edition is more modestly priced—and produced with the tools and methods of our time in history (as Dwiggins would have wanted it)—and comes with a new introduction by Bruce Kennett, whose forthcoming biography of Dwiggins will be published by the Letterform Archive in 2015.

This new edition features reproductions of banknotes and stamps issued by the Treasury of Antipodes which Dwiggins found to be exceptional and a potential model for the redesign of U.S. currency. Also included are reproductions of the U.S. banknotes and stamps in circulation at the time of the original publication so that readers can see what Dwiggins found so offensive.

See some sample spreads from the book here.

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Why Stamps?

Michael Russem — Mon, 28 Jul 2014 19:05:50 +0000

A good graphic designer pays attention to small things, and there are few things smaller than stamps. Ivan Chermayeff has been paying attention. For almost fifty years the acclaimed graphic designer has been making collages—and in those collages stamps and mail have played an important role. Envelopes are heads. Stamps are eyes and lips. However, one could be forgiven for never having noticed this, as the whole in Chermayeff’s collages is greater than the parts.

In Why Stamps? Chermayeff calls attention to the parts with a brief essay on postage stamps and a selection of fourteen collages which use stamps and mail to the best possible effect. Also shown are two of Chermayeff’s smallest cut-paper collages: Stamps for the USPS and Royal Mail.

See some sample spreads from the book here.

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Philatelic Atrocities

Michael Russem — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 13:00:09 +0000

Niko Courtelis is a creative director, filmmaker, and butcher of stamps. We should each be so lucky to be carved up with such adventure and care. Cut and shockingly reassembled, these stamp collages have scandalous fun with the often mundane world of stamps. Philatelic Atrocities takes these paper Frankensteins and turns them into a lookbook of freaks, oddities, printing, and design.

Philatelic Atrocities contains seventeen full-color details and reproductions of Niko Courtelis’s stamp collages. A brief introduction by Courtelis explains why it’s OK to chop up stamps.

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My Suffolk Downs

Michael Russem — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 20:44:19 +0000

Melissa Shook came to Boston from New York in 1974 to teach photography at MIT. She soon discovered Suffolk Downs. Though she did not bet, she felt comfortable at the track, enjoying the sounds, the crowd and the people who worked with the horses. Over the next thirty years she documented her Suffolk Downs in photographs and poems concentrating on the trainers, hot walkers, exercise riders, horse shoers, dentists, those who delivered hay, feed, and ice, and the jockeys and their agents.

Suffolk Downs, located in East Boston, opened in 1935 and flourished into the 1980s. The Beatles played there, and in 1969–1970 Bill Veeck, who is in baseball’s Hall of Fame as an owner, managed the track. He wrote about his experiences in his book Thirty Tons a Day. In 1989 Suffolk Downs closed for two years. When it reopened the track came slowly back to life. Laura Hillenbrad’s book Seabiscuit: An American Legend published in 2001 and the movie made from it, are credited with reviving interest in Suffolk Downs.

See some sample spreads from the book here.

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Designing the Mentoring Stamp

Michael Russem — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 21:02:17 +0000

Lance Hidy, the accomplished designer of books, posters, types, and stamps, takes us through the process of designing a postage stamp while explaining how the small Mentoring stamp relates to his larger body of work. Thirty-eight full-color reproductions illustrate the photographs, designs, and drawings which were part of the design process, as well as related posters and illustrations from the last thirty years of Hidy’s work.

See some sample spreads here.

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