Love these redesigned book covers. They were created by 100 artists for DoeDeMee, a project dedicated to raising awareness of illiteracy. (For each poster version sold, a portion of the money is given to UNESCO projects in Africa.)
My favorite:
I might actually need this Northern Lights poster by Hamish Steele.
Check out the whole collection to find your favorite.
At the Rumpus, Jason Novak presents an illustrated version of where letters got their shapes. One of my favorites:
Make sure to check out the whole alphabet.
Mysteries of the Vernacular is one of my new favorite web series. Beautifully animated sequences take you through the history of one common word, like clue:
This is exactly what I needed when I was nine and asked my mom why we called a tree “a tree” and not “a dog” or “a fireman.” Can’t wait to see the full set of 26!
(via Colossal)(H/T Patrick Truby)
Even if you’re not headed back to school in the next couple of weeks, this is a great time of year to get back in that productive groove. This list by Sister Corita Kent and popularized by John Cage provides great inspiration for artists of all kinds:
Another good one to post above the writing desk.
(image: Brain Pickings)(via swissmiss)
Kind of in love with artist Lisa Congdon’s work. Her series of quotes is fantastic, too. I especially like this one:
Good advice for pretty much anyone. Work like writing can be hard, especially when there’s a lot of rejection involved. Staying tremendously interested in stories can help you move forward through those hard times in your writing career.
It doesn’t look like this image is up on her Etsy site (yet?) but I’d love to have a print and hang it above my desk. Great writing inspiration!
(image: Julia Congdon)(via A Beautiful Mess)
Check out this gorgeous outdoor library in Ghent:
It was created by artist Massimo Bartolini for a Belgian art festival. So it doesn’t seem like this will be a permanent installation, but I love the idea. Check out all images through the link.