Fingerprint

I am in love. LOVE. The object of my big love is a new book called Fingerprint by Chen Design Associates. It's delicious. I want to crawl inside the book and roll around on the pages. 
In the old days, we didn't have Photoshop. We had Letraset, Prisma pens, acetate, tracing paper (lots of tracing paper) and a black and white copy machine. Those were our essential supplies. Everything took longer to create. We'd design  with warm wax on the back of the paper and images instead of glue so we could arrange and rearrange often. There was no dragging and dropping option. If you did it once and it didn't work, you started over. In the 80's, I worked for a company that designed and printed the Delta Airlines in-flight magazines. I remember the moment my entire life changed: they got a copy machine that could print in red and blue as well as black.  When I was supposed to be designing the pages of the magazine, I'd sneak in my own art projects and use the cool copier. I'd copy stuff on to acetate in different colors and hide the copies in my bag so I wouldn't get caught. I was an art bandit! I totally mastered that copy machine! I learned how to design with my hands  (while constantly looking over my shoulder).  Fingerprint features graphic designs with handmade elements. And next to the amazing art are notes by the designers. I love this. The artists tell you they used a pencil, a photograph, and a scanner. They don't tell you how you can get this identical look by buying 12 different products that cost lots of money.  It's art without a sales pitch, which is rare these days. Everything in this book is unique and there's so much personality jumping from the pages. There's personality in the ART. I LOVE IT!  If you learned to design in the old days, I as I did, you will go crazy for this book. If you learned design on a computer, you'll go even crazier as you see things in a new way. Prepare to be inspired!
I must go google Josh Chen and start stalking him. I want to be in his next book.