It’s rare that we turn something in to the printer with an artist literally in the same room, but with Dan Black out visiting Portland from Minneapolis before making his way to Flatstock in Seattle this weekend, we were able to do just that with Volume 5 of the Little Otsu Annual planner. He just had to make a few tweaks to the list pages and then finalize the cover (which turned out great …and yellow!) and we could sit in the same room knowing it’s now up to 1984 Printing in Oakland to print and cut and collate and bind and then finally ship out the final product to us and then your favorite hometown stores and then to you! Normally we work with artists over email and the phone and IM and we talk often and send each other files, but it’s not the same thing as being able to talk and give feedback together in the same room. Hopefully more artists visit Portland so we can work on stuff together in-person!

a sneak preview of Volume 5!

Since this was the fifth Annual we’ve done, we wanted to take the best ideas from each one and put them together to make something new. So we’ve taken the initial idea from Volume 1, added the “clean” look and similar size of Volume 2, added monthly pages like Volume 3, retained the look of the daily grids from Volume 4, and mixed in a new weekly layout and completely hand-drawn elements (including over 18 different typefaces). Of course it has the personal and list pages you’re used to and plenty of room for notes on each weekly spread. Needless to say, we’re pretty excited with the results!

an example weekly spread (click on it for a larger image)

Every year with the Annual so far we’ve changed the look, size, theme and grid, trying out different ideas to see what people like and what works best. With Volume 5, we’ve landed on what we think is the size, format, and weekly & monthly grid that really works the best for the most folks and we’re going to stick with the basics of it for each Annual from now on, but always with new themes and art. That way you can rely on having the organization you like with new art to look at each year. We love feedback on our planners so always feel free to let us know what you think! And stay tuned for Volume 5 to be available at the beginning of next month!

Our new 2011 fold-out calendar & poster by Ron Rege, Jr. is now in our SF store (and will be available online next week)! Come check out its amazingness! It folds out to a whopping 18″ x 24″ and like one of those 3-D posters from the ’90s, seems to reveal things to you the longer you stare at it. It was printed in Hayward, CA on 100% post-consumer recycled paper with vegetable-based inks and we are making a limited edition of 50 unfolded posters available only at the SF store, so act fast!

front of calendar

poster side for after the year is over

close-up

Oakland artist Paul Morgan created an incredible new window display for us out of double-sided triangles screenprinted with his amazing patterns forming what is almost a quilt of multi-colored paper in our large front window. It’s shapes within shapes within shapes and can be viewed from a micro to macro level, all designed, screened, and assembled by Paul! And as a companion piece, Jessalyn Aaland used some of Paul’s scraps to create two great collages on our sandwich board pretty much off-the-cuff!

You can even bring some of this window magic home–we have 5 different exclusive prints of the patterns that are used in the window display (but in a more convenient rectangle form) for only $15 each or you can get a set of all 5 for $50! This is one of our last window displays before we close so come on down and check it out!

photos by Amara Dan

LO artist & friend Jo Dery has one of her zines (“Plant Life For Human Lesson”) included in a new MoMA book called, “Modern Women: Women Artists at The Museum of Modern Art“ by Alexandra Schwartz! Way to go Jo!

She also has work in a new art show in Pawtucket, RI that’s up for another week…

Friends Making Things Happen, August 13-25
Machines With Magnets Gallery, Pawtucket, RI

A group show with: Jo Dery, Jen Corace, Mike Taylor, Jaie Devore, Tim Kerr, Mike Leslie, and Jacob Berendes.

Providence, RI’s Jo Dery will be in Chicago for a screening next Sunday, May 30th, at Roots and Culture Gallery, 8pm. Definitely check it out!

Roots and Culture Gallery
1034 N. Milwaukee Ave
Chicago, IL

We’ve been working with Lart the last few weeks on her new weekly planner called “Alpine Songs” and we’re so excited about it that we thought we’d share a sneak peek of the cover mock-up!

The Minneapolis duo behind LandLand Dan Black & Jessica Seamans never cease to amaze me with their posters. Here are a few examples from the past few months.

Jo Dery & Jeremy Tinder are part of the current show at Giant Robot (GR2) called “Patchwork, Small Works on Fabric” that ends on April 7th. If you’re in LA and have a chance you should check it out!

by Jo Dery (via www.gr2.net)

by Jeremy Tinder (via www.gr2.net)

Our friends and old neighbors Creativity Explored in San Francisco have a new art show opening April 15th called Where Are We? which takes the concept of maps as the basis of the exhibit:

“This includes, but is not limited to, painting and drawing on maps, using maps as collage material, and drawing maps from scratch. While some of the artists working with this theme embrace the challenge of integrating maps into their oeuvres, others take a more individualized approach by creating maps of their home countries, while yet others use the topic of maps to explore fresh new subject matter.”

image from creativityexplored.org

Maps have always had a strong influence on us with their combination of the artistic and the practical. They are a necessary part of getting from one point to the next–even now with online maps and GPS we live with maps more than ever–but they can also be beautiful and intricate and create not just a physical manifestation of where we live, but also another two dimensional world we wished we could live in.  They have always been part of our world view, a visual representation of Earth where we imagine ourselves going from tiny point to tiny point.

Lart made two amazing projects based on maps: Lakes and Territories of the Greater 2008 and 2009 Railways. Both were a calendar on one side and a poster on the other, so that at the end of the year you could flip it over and have a poster with no indication that it was ever a calendar (we’ve always been bothered by how calendars basically become obsolete once the year is over and loved this dual use idea brought to us by Jennie Smith).

The Lakes and Territories of The Greater 2008

the back of Lakes and Territories

The map drawings were created as a map to each given year, with the months as territories/states on one and subway stops on the other. It was a common thing in our store to have people ask “what is this a map to?” and not always understanding the answer of “the year 2009.” Especially with how pervasive calendar dates are out there with your computer, iphone, etc, we thought it was nice to have a calendar that’s not so straight-forward and forces you to stare at it a bit.

2009 Railways Map Calendar

the back of 2009 Railways

The NYPL has another great exhibit (in the same space the Ehon exhibit was in) ending on June 26th that is based on maps called, Mapping New York’s Shoreline, 1609-2009. We saw it when we were in New York last October and it was really great, almost overwhelming with how many maps there were. It was fascinating to see the way the city grew and changed, what geographic misconceptions existed, and the craftsmanship and artistry of old maps. On their revamped website they also have a Map Blog pulling things from their extensive map collection.

images from nypl.org

Here are more Ehon book images from the New York Public Library exhibit we talked about in yesterday’s post.