What do you normally do when you go on vacation? Pay too much for dinner? Get lost? Argue with your significant other? Sure, but mostly you take lots of pictures. The jetsetters over at WALK photographic travel guides recognize that a photo is worth at least several hundred words, which is why you won’t find stars, ratings, tips, or endless flowery prose dedicated to the sights and sounds of a city. Instead, you get a great representation of what it’s like to — well — walk around. Their first book on Berlin is out now, with upcoming destinations like Amsterdam, Barcelona, Chicago, Copenhagen, Florence, London, New York, Paris, Rome, and San Francisco coming up. If you happen to live around Denver, check out the release party at Enso Gallery.

There’s a certain ennui that sets in right after college graduation. It’s the first time that you’re free from an academic life you’ve been enduring since you were five, but it’s also the first time that you really have to figure out what the hell you’re doing. Harvard film student Kate T. Williamson returned from a year abroad in Japan (where she wrote her previous book, A Year in Japan) to live with her parents in Pennsylvania. Her new illustrated book, At a Crossroads: Between a Rock and My Parents’ Place (Princeton Architectural Press), out today, captures the humor of her stopover in American suburbia. It’s kind of like Dan Clowes graphic novel, Ghost World…but for the quarterlife set. Follow Williamson as she navigates the uncharted waters of Hall & Oats concerts and minor league baseball games, all the while trying to solve the problem of her next step.

As most creative personages are aware, capturing the essence of an original thought is vital to the genesis of a brilliant idea. Often times those seeking to innovate lay in bed with a computer or notepad nearby just in case that critical first thought of a genius concept comes to them just as they’re counting sheep. Marie Chantal Turgeon is certainly familiar with this practice and has thus manifested it into a somewhat brilliant idea of her own. The Montreal-based artist/blogger’s self-published book First Thoughts: On Life, Blogging and The Creative Process is a compilation of Turgeon’s sketches and spontaneous musings in their purest forms on the subjects of life, creativity, and exploration of the of the arts. The book also contains observations about how blogging can be apart of the creative process. So, if you’re looking to be harness your inspiration, we recommend taking a look at some inspiration in action by picking up a copy of Ms. Turgeon’s book at her emcee Etsy shop, along with some of her illustrations and paintings.

Jessica Joslin is the kind of artist who would worry Darwin: bones, brass, glass, and pieces of musical instrument are all soldered together to form impossible skeletal animals that either, a) you’d find in a backwater taxidermy shop from the future; b) a circus freakshow run by the HR Giger; or c) Disney’s Bambi, directed by David Fincher. You can catch her weird wonderfulness in the Scottsdale, AZ area today through April 26 as she premiers her Curiosa collection at the Lisa Sette Gallery and a book signing for Strange Nature tomorrow, from 1-3pm.

For those Renaissance people out there who enjoy the past time of putting their daily musings to paper, Rebound Books is a nifty outfit based in Cape Town, South Africa that essentially ‘reclaims’ neglected old books into truly one-of-a-kind journals full of creamy, matte, environmentally friendly paper. The binding is done by a master book binder, and he thread-sews sections by hand. The blank "book-block" is then glued to the cover to make a durable book that will last for decades. Since Rebound Books is not in the business to mass produce, but rather to create unique and quality journals for the design-discerning scribes of the world, they offer a pretty limited selection. That said, they seem willing to work special orders–so if you have a special hardback collecting dust that you want to resurrect, this might be the answer. No word on whether they’ll ship to the States, but it’d be worth an inquiry. If you’re in Cape Town, BIBLIOTEQ book store on 41 Kloof Street has them.

We know from past experience that Barcelona-based Actar Publishing puts out some of the best books around on cutting edge design and architecture. That’s why we’re super psyched for two of their most recent releases that celebrate the most compelling samples of graphic design in recent memory from two of our favorite foreign lands. Super Holland Design is a stunning compendium that delves into the work of Dutch designers such as Experimental Jetset and Sander Plug, amongst others, that have forced us to re-think the meaning of design through their use of new techniques and technologies. The second volume we’re touting is ESC: Enter Spanish Creativity, which displays some of the finest graphic design talent to come out of (you guessed it) Spain, including works by Basedesign and Ipsum Planet. The primer explores the “visual seduction by new and experimental formulas” as “the defining concept of emergent Spanish Design”. We’re certain both books will provide your design crazy mind with a compelling read as well as a feast for your eyes.

Bulletin boards have always been a great tool for keeping maintaining one's sanity. Whether you use one for pinning up photos of your friends that you miss back home or for leaving little schedule reminders somewhere you can see them, there's no denying their usefulness. However, in order to hang all of that stuff up you usually have to use sharp tacks. In addition to the fact that using those tacks will leave holes in your photos, stepping on them will leave holes in your feet. Thanks to Modern Hangups, you won't have to worry about piercing your little piggies anymore. This simple new solution for your bulletin board woes ‘is an adhesive-backed dispensable display surface bundled with powerful magnetic tacks’ to replace all those pesky pins. The strip can also be most conveniently extended to the length of your liking, making for an excellent alternative for hanging up anything from photos to daily to-do lists. The only problem we have with Modern Hangups is that they're not available anywhere yet. This wonderful patented product is in need of an investor and manufacturer. We hope that changes soon, because our feet are all poked up.

With Polaroid film set to go the way of the dodo sometime in 2009, it's only a matter of time before the many shutterbugs who champion the photo format run out of their remaining film stock. Luckily, for fans of the non-digital instant image some of the best scene snappers have pooled some of their favorite images together so that the art form of Polaroid photography might live on forever. For The Love of Light: A Tribute To The Art of Polaroid gathers the work of twenty-five photographers from ten countries, on five continents in one breathtaking volume of photos produced with the their precious Polaroids. The book will be available in July, and hopefully will be such a roaring success that it will lead a world wide Polaroid revival and force the parent company to reconsider its stance on phasing out their film. C’mon photo fans…band together to save an endangered species before it's too late.

Favorite JS booksmith/art publisher Viction:ary has a few new titles that you won’t find at your local Barnes & Noble, which are well worth your cash/credit spendage:

• Simply Material is a visual compendium of media to use as your canvas. Can you liberate the art from concrete or harness the awesome potential of epoxy resin?
• Fashion Wonderland sounds like a fairly pretentious theme park, but contents of this book are pretty arresting. Tons of designers have contributed the illustrations and art they take their aesthetic cues from.
• Illustration - Play puts the spotlight on 23 international artists and their unique illo medium. Paper cutting, stitchery, hand knit, fabric piecing, origami, patchwork, and more are represented.
• Type Addicted is a thorough read for the font aficionado; see how real typographical artists slice up the Roman alphabet.

Related: Viction:ary Archive

Pieter Hugo is a South Africa-based photographer who is on the up and up. Recent accolades include Pieter’s inclusion in ReGeneration: 50 Photographers of Tomorrow, 2005-2025 (an exhibition identifying 50 young photographers who will be considered great by 2025), first prize in the Portraits section of the 2006 World Press Photo competition, and a selection as the Standard Bank Young Artist for Visual Art 2007, with an exhibition touring South Africa until July 2008. His most recent monograph, The Hyena & Other Men includes some striking photos Pieter took in and around Abuja, Nigeria during the past several years of some locals ‘taming the beasts,’ if you will; it would be an understatement to say that it offers an impressive and candid look into Nigerian culture. I’m not sure how many readers we have in South Africa at this point, but if you’re around and about Cape Town this week, head over to the BIBLIOTEQ bookstore on Kloof St. this Thursday, March 6th at 6 pm to meet Pieter at his launch and signing event.

So far, Stefan Sagmeister has only learned around twenty things in his life. It appears one of them is that it's important to share what you've learned with the world. Through his site, Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, Sagmeister imparts his own knowledge to readers through both written and visual media and asks readers to do the same by contributing their own life lessons illustrating them in beautiful words and via any medium they are comfortable with, whether it be through film, sculpture, paintings, graphic design, typography, compositing, motion graphics, etc. The result is a cross between Life 101 and an advanced course in the visual arts. Despite the fact that the idea has already been transformed into a book featuring Sagmeister's lifetime of knowledge along with typographic works to support this body of lessons, the site continues on because, well, we've still got a lot to learn.

You may have heard the name Evan Hecox pop up on this site once or twice. Frankly we’ve always known the guy makes a killer skateboard graphic for Chocolate, but he’s come into his own as an artist. Hecox’s new book, Urban Abstract, showcases his way with familiar ethnic cityscapes (from the Barrio to Chinatown) touched off by bright, solid colors. 162 pages are faithfully reproduced linoleum block prints, and thirty-two of the books are housed in a handmade, laser etched wood box as a limited-edition offering. If you’re in the Dallas area next Friday, February 29th, head down to Design Within Reach and pick up a copy for yourself.

For more years than you can count on one hand, heads have been turning the pages of the Wax Poetics music magazine to read about lost heroes and found classics in hip-hop, funk, soul and jazz written by the most talented authoritarians on the subjects. It’s a magazine — a journal, really, considering the depth of the subjects and articles that you’d spend as much time with as Harper’s — that filled a gap in a market and has a following that you bet will never let such a precious resource die now that it’s been established. This week Powerhouse Books threw a shindig to celebrate its partnership with Wax Poetics Books, a division of the magazine dedicated to the book format. For you this means you’ll be seeing the magazine’s Anthology Volume 1, a tome packed full of Wax Poetic’s choicest stories from previous issues; and the more recently published Cover Story, musings from the publication’s VIPs on their fave record album covers (some pictured above), at a bookstore near you. We want to wish our friends at Powerhouse Books on a great coupling!

Way back in the Summer of 2006, long before we directed you toward the miracle that is Doane Paper, Chad Doane decided to count the ways in which he loved Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke. Rather than picking up a flower and pulling of petals he decided to make a crossword puzzle using his invention that was dedicated to the diminutive musical mastermind. He didn't think anything of it and more or less just scanned it and posted it onto his flickr page. Eight months ago, seemingly out of nowhere, Keith Stephenson contacted the Doane Paper principle to request a new art and design book he was working on. Well eight months have come and gone and Doane's puzzle has hit the printing press along with plenty of other interesting grid and square design work in Squares, Checks and Grids, The third volume in the highly collectible Communicating With Patterns series from Keith Stephenson and Mark Hampshire of multidiscplinary design agency, Absolute Zero Degrees. The book, which pays “visual homage to squares and checks, an inspirational graphic collection of different occurrences of squares and checks from all environments” is available on Amazon and is definitely worth a gander.

Last year, Diesel sent frequent collaborator and bare-body-parts-loving photographer Terry Richardson on a worldwide jaunt for their From Rio to Hong Kong exhibit, which is yep, already over by now. But while he was in Rio de Janeiro shooting the show’s inclusions, Diesel’s Brazilian team pegged the idea to put a book together of just the photos he took of the Cariocas in the Wonderful City. Rio, Cidade Maravilhosa features some of Rio’s celebrities like actress Camila Pitanga mixed in with smooching drag queens, frolicking beach boys and girls at Ipanema’s Posto 9 section of beach, and rowdy baile funk partygoers — probably the only time that all these different groups can be found in such close proximity to each other at the same time, the same place, and in perfect T&A harmony. But the bad news: The book’s currently only available at Diesel stores in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, but according to Rio bookseller Travessa, it’ll hit a fine bookstore near you (check Colette and stores in L.A.) eventually. Cruise by some of the photos at RG Vogue’s site here, Globo’s here and watch a trailer for the book here.