Melissa Kuperminc: Reading Creatively
Professor Melissa Kuperminc is a life-long book lover. As a child, she enjoyed visiting the Margate City Public Library in Margarte City, NJ, a two-room Tudor cottage where she remembers curling up in a shaft of sunlight, reading for hours. That’s where she learned to treasure all facets of the reading experience: the discovery of a book, its cover design, chosen typeface, the feel of the paper, and the contents themselves.
The SCAD Atlanta graphic design professor’s selection of beloved books includes two new ones she has been saving for winter break.
Diane Ackerman, A Natural History of the Senses (Vintage, 1990): “Ackerman is a poet, and this is a beautifully written book and a mesmerizing investigation of the five senses. Her writing is rooted in science and driven by curiosity. I’m on my fourth copy of this book, having pushed it into the hands of interested students who didn’t want to let it go.”
Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1981): “I had to read a good bit of Barthes in graduate school seminars, and often found it tough but rewarding reading. This slender book was written after the death of Barthes’ mother, and near the end of his life. It’s a moving meditation on how and why photography is meaningful.”
Simon Garfield, Just My Type: A Book about Fonts (Gotham, 2011): “Typography is one of my passions. Letterforms have personality, character, provenance, and a surprisingly rich history. Garfield reminds me of a sort of British Malcolm Gladwell, and this book about the history and mysteries of letters is a fascinating joy.”
Johannes Itten, The Art of Color: The Subjective Experience and Objective Rationale of Color (Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1973): “Itten was a legendary master professor in the Weimar Bauhaus. Between 1919 and 1922, he taught at the Bauhaus, developing the required and innovative preliminary course which still influences art school foundations classes to this day. This big book taught me just about everything I know about color, and let me see it in a new way.”
Rebecca Solnit, Hope in the Dark: Untold Histories, Wild Possibilities (Haymarket Books, 2016): “This slender book has become even more relevant over time. It shows that while social change happens along an unpredictable path, there are reasons for hope that can power the fight for social justice. Solnit is one of the great writers and thinkers of our time, and this is a great introduction to her work.”
Alice Yin Cheng, This is What Democracy Looked Like: A Visual History of the Printed Ballot (Princeton Architectural Press, 2020): “This is the first illustrated history of US printed ballot design, featuring essays on the ballot as well as a visual history of ballot design in the 19th and early 20th century.”
Peter Mendelsund and David J. Alworth, The Look of the Book: Jackets, Covers & Art at the Edges of Literature (Ten Speed Press, 2020): “This gorgeous book about book cover design “examines art at the edges of literature through notable covers and the stories behind them,” according to the authors. I haven’t gotten to this one or the book on ballots yet, but that’s part of the joy of the holiday season…curling up with a good book!”
