Meanwhile: Sword Furniture

— “I like the idea that a cover should look like the author finished the book and (being as good at design as they are at writing) designed the cover too, to produce one complete object” – Pablo Delcan and Jamie Keenan discuss the evolution of their covers for the UK and US editions of Ingrid Robeyns’s Limitarianism: The Case Against Extreme Wealth.

— New favourite Instagram account: Fourth Cone Restoration. Whenever one of their videos pops up on my feed – gently penciling out the crease lines of some gorgeous vintage poster or adding a linen back – it’s like a little moment of pure zen. Me being me, I couldn’t resist asking what pencils they use, and apparently Prismacolor Premier are their weapons of choice.

— Smashing flickr collection of vintage logos and typography courtesy of someone called [best Man With Two Brains intonation] BRG HH. As is often the case with these things, you can ignore the words completely and just take in the wonderful colours.

— Somebody please stop me blowing all my cash at Photobook Junkies.

— Doing image research for a cover, I found this beautiful Japanese book of wave and ripple designs from 1903, a kind of stock library of patterns that “would have found their way onto swords (both blades and handles) and associated paraphernalia (known as “sword furniture”), as well as lacquerware, Netsuke, religious objects, and a host of other items”.

— A sucker for messy cutting board aesthetic and anything Björk, I’m loving this Venus as a Boy animation by Chilean artist Silvana Youlton Ramírez. Not loving the fact Debut is thirty years old, a fact that makes my knees hurt.

— Look, I don’t know if klaxons are still a thing around here but RICHARD SCARRY TATTLY KLAXON

This was originally posted on Meanwhile, a Substack dedicated to inspiration, fascination, and procrastination from the desk of designer Daniel Benneworth-Gray.

Collage by the author.