#1. Atlas of Plants and Atlas of Countries: I had to go back to my parents' house to dig for this example, haha. As a grade school student then, I thought these were the coolest books ever (so cool, I still kept them around all these years). I, of course, loved the illustrations, but as a child then, I remember being amazed by how the transparencies brought the illustrations to life and gave multiple perspectives on how to view them.
#2. Esquire's 75th anniversary issue: Esquire used to be one of my go to mags for design inspiration. Back in 2008, they came out with their 75th anniversary issue in 2008 with an e-ink paper technology cover, and I had to go out to the newsstands to buy myself a copy to capture a moment in history. I kept mine in the freezer for safe keeping to prolong the life of the battery, lol. Here's a brief clip about the making of the cover.
The concept was cool, but I wonder if the technology was prematurely executed? The blinking lights just didn't stand out as I had hoped and imagined they would on newsstands when I heard about this move through the grapevine before the release. It would have been cool to see the entire cover light up on the newsstands!! Well, since this cover, I have yet to see another on the newsstand, and it's been 5 years so far (maybe the cost and ROI didn't make sense for an advertiser to foot the bill?)
#3. Looking at everyone's "crazy cool" books got me thinking about cool innovative bookshelves:
