Monday, March 11, 2013

New Book: Flip the Script, A guidebook for Aspiring Vandals & Typographers

This book is a monumental collection of graffiti lettering and regional styles. It is the first serious attempt to catalog lettering and alphabets in the USA in a systematic way. Although no survey of styles will ever be complete, it's a worthy effort that lays down an important visual historical foundation.

Hand styles, tags, histories, interviews ... this book has it all. This is an epic addition to graffiti history and to typography studies, brought to you by Christian Acker of http://www.handselecta.com

Anyone who's done their homework will recognize the names of the writers whose knowledge and hands grace this book. It's the kind of book that only someone who knows what's up can write.

It's the size of a traditional blackbook with a rugged textbook-style cover, high-quality paper, and a satin, sewn-in bookmark appropriate to its seriousness as a working reference for the lettering-obsessed. 

- Susan

http://christianacker.tumblr.com
http://gingkopress.com/05-str/flip-the-script__gra.html
http://www.amazon.com/Flip-Script-Christian-P-Acker/dp/1584234601/


Gingko Press in association with Upper Playground is pleased to announce the release of

FLIP THE SCRIPT: A Guidebook for Aspiring Vandals and Typographers.

Graffiti is one of the last strongholds of highly refined, well practiced penmanship in our contemporary culture. The tag, that most reviled and persecuted form of graffiti, is seldom appreciated for its raw beauty and skeletal letter forms. The casual viewer seldom discerns the difference between entry level and advanced hand styles.

Within the pages of FLIP THE SCRIPT, author Christian Acker systematically analyzes historic hand styles by collecting the work of writers from the most influential American cities and searching for the origins and commonalities that connect people, places and times. While distilling years worth of interviews with graffiti writers from all over the country, intersecting tales emerge that reveal a web of unwitting connections and influences.

FLIP THE SCRIPT has captured a representation of geographic differences within contemporary folk-art history; a history rapidly becoming muddied by internet culture. Acker presents the lettering samples in a clean, chronological format, for the first time giving the material a formal treatment evocative of classical calligraphy manuals and typography books.

FLIP THE SCRIPT includes art and interviews from luminaries such as: TAKI 183, STAY HIGH 149, HAZE, CORNBREAD, ESPO, AGUA, RENOS, GREY, DUGONE, MIKE GIANT, CHAZ BOJORQUEZ, SLICK, & CRAIG STECYCK.

224 pages, Hardcover, 8 ̋ x 10.5 ̋ (178 x 229 mm) 100s of 2-color illustrations, English ISBN: 978-1-58423-460-9 Retail: $ 35.00
Publication Date: 3.8.2013