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Yarn holder

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Sometimes, I Wonder if I Accidentally Bumped Off JD Salinger

This story is true and goes back to 2008 when John Hamilton at Penguin commissioned me to design the book jackets for JD Salinger's entire back catalogue.

Mr. Salinger was alive then, in his early 90s and, by all accounts, a belligerent and grumpy recluse. The chain of command was unusual and went like this. Salinger directed all his feedback via his New York lawyer, who then communicated with his London lawyer, who then communicated with Penguin, who then communicated with me, in my tiny home studio in North London. This process was somewhat intimidating, and went back and forth for weeks. It must have cost him a fucking fortune.

John told me Salinger was a very sensitive and emotional man and had always hated the first book jacket design for 'The Catcher in the Rye', a book which to this day still sells over a million copies a year. He had instructed Penguin to redesign the jackets using lettering only. "No pictures!" Salinger had stated. That's when John thought of me.

I designed three options, and Salinger chose the third — bespoke Inline Roman Capital letterforms with minimal and carefully considered flourishing to add a touch of refined elegance and unify the set. Salinger was shown the designs and signed them off himself, making only one change to the ‘Catcher’ jacket. He wanted the junction on the 'Y' in 'Rye' raised, which he felt made it more legible.

A day later, Salinger died. John said signing off the jackets was probably Salinger's last creative decision.

To this day I sometimes lie in bed at night wondering if the surprise of my stark, graphic and (back then) avant-garde new covers for his life's work tipped the poor fella over the edge. Fuck me, I hope I didn’t accidentally bump off JD Salinger. I just want to get this off my tits after all these years. Rest in Peace, Mr Salinger. What an intense privilege to be involved in a project of such literary magnitude.

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Unsleeping City: your (Kingston Brown) ex wife is the DA /dramatic

Never Stop Blowing Up: your (Jack Manhattan) ex wife is the DA /comedic

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Sorry I just can’t help…

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every time I find a pill on the ground I take it home with me and draw a picture of it with crayons. here's the collection so far.

^ the very first pill I found & drew. couldn't identify it (markings rubbed off) but it looked very beautiful to me.

^pill no. 2: fluoxetine. my greatest find and finest crayon drawing. sorry to whoever lost their fluoxetine. I'll save it for a special occasion. I used a sharpie pen to clean up some lines on this one I think.

^ pill no. 3: ibuprofen. accidentally closed my laptop on this one, destroying it. and getting goop on my laptop. I found another one though. People drop a lot of painkillers. The first 2 used only colors from the classic 24 pack of crayons, but I had to break out extras from my childhood crayon collection for this one.

^pill no. 4: benadryl. this pill was crumbling inside its plastic when I found it, but it was intact enough to take home and draw! Hooray.

^pill no. 5: midol. this one was real scuffed up. I actually found an entire bottle of midol on another occasion, and someone's last 2 weeks of birth control yet another time, but those are the kind of things I leave behind because someone's likely to miss their entire bottle of midol or sealed birth control and come back for it.

^pill no. 6: unfinished advil/ibuprofen. I find a lot of painkillers, as mentioned, so I guess I got bored. I also have a drawing of acetaminophen that I am not posting because I don't like it.

^pill no. 7: severe tylenol. I didn't know such a thing existed until I found it on the ground. "severe tylenol" makes it sound like the tylenol is mean. this was among the more challenging ones and it's kinda rushed, but drawing the plastic was fun. just did this one an hour ago.

in case you're wondering, I do keep the pills when possible. I like to hold onto my reference material. they live in a separate box from my vintage ibuprofen collection.

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everyone loves Predynastic Egyptian Terracotta Bowl with Human Feet. shout-out to a real one

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Are fedoras really that bad?

YES YES THEY ARE

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Rogue One as a Netflix series: what if the team survived Scarif? (in/sp; template)

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My dads

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*RARE* John Denver & Johnny Cash - Take Me Home Country Roads

Found this while going through my granddad’s VHS tapes and couldn’t find it anywhere online, so here it is.

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guards! read me my bedtime yaoi

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where the hell are my pneumatic tubes this is not the future jules verne promised

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the gifs i find on this website... you guys are art curators

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mercats, mermcats, catfish?

print! :)

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Lord of the rings

I present to you: this blessed group.

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"You think we'll ever get there one day?"

"Of course we will. We're the Okiros. Nothing's going to stop us."

"Some things might. I don't know why I say you should get there, your head's already in the clouds."

"Brother! It's important to dream!"