Not sure how we missed these on release but a heads up from Arkitip was most welcome. Peter Mendelsund designed editions of classic Franz Kafka works. Mendelsund, art director at Pantheon Books, part of Knopf Publishing, had always hoped to design covers for Kafka novels and talks extensively on his website about the ideas and decisions behind the bold imagery he carries through the set. Under the Schocken Books header, another Knopf off-shoot, he manages to distill key themes running through the son of Prague’s work, into beautiful, deceptively simple designs.

“Whenever I’m asked (and I’m asked with some frequency) which authors I’d most like to design jackets for, I always say Kafka ..There’s just something about Kafka- and this something is so very hard to pin down.” Find them at Amazon.

George Lois, the master communicator of the advertising world soups up around 120 life lessons in his new Phaidon book, Damn Good Advice (For People with Talent!), which delivers a slew of insightful thoughts on making things work for you. Now, Mr. Lois clearly singles out “people with talent” as the group he is speaking with with the book; that means everyone reading this here site.

Put Damn Good Advice on your coffee table and thumb through it daily for some insight on how to make your work and world better. Though some of the mantras delivered by Lois are obvious, it is rather nice to be reminded of them. Forthcoming on Phaidon March 26. Available from Amazon.

Photography: Selectism.com

Select quotations and pages from the book after the click.

Czech creative collective OKOLO pay tribute to Italian architect and designer Carlo Mollino with their usual innovative approach. The book encourages the reader to delve deeper into Mollino’s life, in an interactive manner, by assembling paper models representing the man’s work and passions. Bonus – the finished products also look pretty cool, educational as well as aesthetically pleasing, right?

“Mollino became a modern Renaissance man whose production embraced the entire cultural and technological world of his time thanks to his undisguised love of life and everything that our world offers. The book is divided into six basic chapters. Apart from a text on a specific theme, each part brings a materialized symbol of Mollino’s creativity. Thus, the reader can assemble miniature models of Mollino’s fascinating projects, implementations, and symbols related to Mollino’s life”

More looks in our gallery…

CR turns us onto a new edition of Vatsyayana classic, Kama Sutra, coming soon on Penguin Classics under their Graphic Deluxe series. The challenge with Kama Sutra as described by word-form illustrator, Malika Favre, whose work is featured on the cover, is that the book houses no images.

The graphic design and presentation of the Kama Sutra comes only through the cover work: ”There are no pictures inside the book so the challenge was to make the cover sexy, modern and daring without being vulgar or over the top. I decided to create a very bold and playful alphabet that would run across both flaps and front and back cover spelling “Kama Sutra.”

The beautifully re-worked edition of Kama Sutra arrives stateside on January 31 from Penguin Classics. Available from Amazon.

Photography: CR

More looks in our gallery…

This one is pure porn to those that love the classic frames. Rizzoli is set to deliver The Competition Bicycle, a strong look at the world history of bicycle races and competitions as told primarily from the aspect of he bicycles themselves. Richly detailed photos of the classic frames from ages past are served up across 168-pages. Simply put, this one is gorgeous and is highly recommended for cyclists, design junkies, and anyone would can appreciate simple form of a two-wheeled sprinter. The representation is strong: ‘74 Merckx De Rosa, Lemond’s Gitane from ‘81. You want this book.

Coming Febraury 21, 2012 on the Rizzoli imprint. Available from Amazon.

Photography: Jeff Carvalho/Selectism.com

Select looks from inside The Competition Bicycle in our gallery…

If you’re a collector of Ivy related books then your shelves must be heaving by now. There’s been quite a few of them and they just keep coming. Here’s another, this time from publishers Assouline. We point you towards this one because, rather than simple being a prep style guide, it offers a history of the colleges that created those armies of khaki covered, button down fiends.

“The Ivy League admits readers to the world’s most revered institutions, portraying the character of each school and what sets it apart, from renowned graduates and dominant political stances to athletic rivalries, architectural styles, popular fashion, and more.” 200 images, with text from Daniel Cappello, pre-order yours here.

Good enough to eat (Don’t, it’s a book), Victionary publishers based in Hong Kong have created this book, Eat Me: Appetite for Design, focusing on restaurant, food and product design. The content itself is superb; innovative products, cleverly constructed brand identities with the book itself available in chocolate or vanilla wafer form, bite included.

Everything about this has been lovingly put together from typeface to photography. Amazon sells it Stateside. Via CR.

Click for images

The photographic work of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin are collected in the new two volume book set, Inez van Lamsweerde – Vinoodh Matadin: Pretty Much Everything, available now from Taschen. 666 (yes, a strange number) photographic works, “pretty much everything” they have done over two decades are collected in the book set, published in an edition of 1000 signed and numbered copies (an “art edition” of 100 copies is also available that includes two pigment photo prints by the photographers).

Their works of Alexander McQueen, Bjork, Rachel Weisz, as well as campaigns for Lanvin and others are a small number of the familiar works found inside Pretty Much Everything. Published by Taschen. Available from Amazon.

Select looks from inside the enormous Inez van Lamsweerde – Vinoodh Matadin: Pretty Much Everything book set in our gallery.

A Limited edition publication we’d recommend getting your hands on.

Photography by James Pearson-Howes (British Folk, Dazed, i-D, …) and Will Robson-Scott (The Independent, Mixmag, Time Out), Top Deck is for anyone who spends their daily commute on London buses will feel the familiarity of the world outside those smudged windows. Spot on design from Utile and Mother London with foreward from The Guardian’s Justin Quirk.

“Top Deck, is a series of images made over the course of two years on the top decks of east London buses giving a new a perspective on the monotony of the every day commute. The work will result in a newspaper publication and a two-week show at renowned advertising agency, Mother.”

Next month sees the release of Hadid, an overview of the work of Zaha Hadid, one of the most celebrated and inventive architects of the age. Taking on relatively small scale projects such as the Strirling Prize winning Evelyn Grace Academy School in Brixton and The Bergisel Ski Jump; alongside London’s 2012 Aquatic Centre and Guangzhou Opera House, Hadid is currently working on the first project in her native Iraq. Images, essays, sketches and floor plans, the book is a detailed survey of an incredible career. Published by Taschen.  Available from Amazon.