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House Industries: The Process Is the Inspiration

Author House Industries, Andy Cruz, Rich Roat, Ken Barber
Foreword by J.J. Abrams
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Hardcover
$50.00 US
Clarkson Potter/Ten Speed | Watson-Guptill
8.78"W x 10.28"H x 1.25"D   | 60 oz | 8 per carton
On sale May 30, 2017 | 400 Pages | 978-0-399-57810-6
Add to cart Add to list Exam Copies
A standard-bearer of American design since 1993, House Industries answers the burning question, “Where do you find inspiration?” with this illustrative collection of helpful lessons, stories, and case studies that demonstrate how to transform obsessive curiosity into personally satisfying and successful work. Presented in House’s honest, authentic, and often irreverent style, and covering topics ranging from fonts and fashion to ceramics and space technology, this beautifully useful 400–page volume offers a personal perspective on the origin of ideas for creative people in any field. Most important, this book shows that there’s no sense in waiting for inspiration because inspiration is already waiting for you.

"House Industries display elite talent and craft in their design, illustration, and production, but the real magic is that they are alchemists. If you get that alchemy means taking non-precious metals and turning them into gold and platinum, then you’ll understand it when I say that House turns numerous less-than-elite sources of inspiration into pure visual gold and platinum. It is easy for artists and designers to be precious, cryptic, and mysterious while peddling themselves as speakers of a language too smart for the rest of us to understand. However, it takes real courage to do what House Industries does: speak a common, if not universal, language but in such an elevated, powerful, and elegant way, that it reminds us how exhilarating it is to see a mastery of both the dominant and sub-cultural visual vernacular."
—Shepard Fairey

". . . the studies behind many of House Industries’ projects stress the importance of collaboration and trial and error—really proving to readers that the process is the inspiration. This book is a necessary read for fans of House Industries’ distinctively retro style and for any creatives with boundless imagination."
—Communication Arts

"I can think of few books that are a better buy than House Industries’ The Process of Inspiration. . . a delightful collection of eye candy that is also chock-full of great stories and optimistic insight into how to bring joy, creativity and fulfillment into your career and life. . . Guaranteed it will be worth the investment."
—Fonts.com

". . . massive and overflowing, with so many years of amazing work that it sent me into a design-induced seizure followed by a visual coma that I'm just now recovering from. The book is an incredible document of both how crazy and brilliant House Industries is."
—Charles S. Anderson, Charles S. Anderson Design and CSA Archive

"From a type foundry it has become a wellspring of generational typographic attitudes, styles, movements, schools, a melting pot of old and new, revived and invented. . . Known for their typographic stagecraft and promotional ingenuity, House now has a book that tells their story."
—Steven Heller, Print Magazine

Praise for House Industries:

"If there were any place I wish I worked that I don't, it's House. They're artists; their work is extraordinary."
—J. J. Abrams

"What I love about House Industries is that they search through corners of culture for something valuable that you'd never thought of before, then raise it to a higher artistic level. It's a very difficult thing to do."
—Shepard Fairey

"[House] makes all the best typefaces."
—David Lee Roth

"Design is a willingness to surrender to a journey. You often hear about “design driven” companies but most of them that want to license the Eames name are thinking of it as an acquisition for their collection of brands. Every once in a while you encounter a company like House Industries who is willing to go on that journey and grow our brand as well as theirs."
—Eames Demetrios

"I've been a fan of House Industries over twenty years. Even though we're buds, there's still a lot of mystery behind that mountain of incredible work. Until now. 400 pages that let the secrets out? Jackpot! Been waiting a long time for this one. Heavily, heavily recommended by the DDC."
—Aaron James Draplin

Known throughout the world for its eclectic fonts and far-reaching creative exploits, House Industries has been a standard-bearer of American design for 25 years. Chances are that most people in the world have seen House’s fonts on movie posters, magazine covers, websites or even cereal boxes. House Industries has worked with a wide range of collaborators including Jimmy Kimmel, Hermès, The New Yorker, John Mayer, Muji, the Estate of Charles and Ray Eames, Uniqlo and Heath Ceramics. View titles by House Industries
Andy Cruz View titles by Andy Cruz
Rich Roat View titles by Rich Roat
Ken Barber View titles by Ken Barber
INTRO 


 “Where do you find inspiration?” We get asked that a lot. Honestly, we never really thought about it much; we just made things up as we went along, relying on our instincts and intuition. But when the opportunity to write this book came along, we decided it was time to give the question a little more consideration and try to answer it. So we played the last twenty-five years backwards and deconstructed our work, figuring if we were going to mow down enough trees for a couple hundred pages, we should cook up something a bit more meaningful than a simple monograph.

As convenient as it would be to trace our inspiration to a single source, we can’t do that. What we do know is that inspiration can’t be boiled down to one thing, be it a cool flea market find, an influential book, a personal hero, or a eureka moment. Our inspiration comes from a combination of factors—elements that are already part of the way we look at things and, consequently, part of the way we work. When we took a closer look at it, our process revealed itself as a mash up of personal interests, skills, working habits, relationships, and storytelling, not necessarily in that order.

Bring your hobbies to work. Sweat the technique. Get your hands dirty. Make friends. Tell it like it was. Embrace chaos. These chapter titles are short sentences, but at the same time, they are complete ideas that define the philosophy of our working process and form the core of this book. We illustrate each idea with case studies about specific projects, chronicling the backstories, artifacts, and memories that shaped them, warts and all. Each narrative shows how we applied these concepts so that you can benefit from our mistakes or maybe even steal a few ideas to spark inspiration in your own process.

We hope this book will help you navigate the tricky intersection between art and commerce in a way that satisfies the definitions of both—quite simply by finding some creative fulfillment while paying the bills. There’s an element of art in everything you do. To us, though, art itself is not the final product; art lies in the process of making that product. And that’s where we find our inspiration.
Copyright © 2017 by House Industries (Andy Cruz, Rich Roat, and Ken Barber); foreword by J.J. Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY JJ ABRAMS 6
ABOUT HOUSE 9
INTRO 12
BRING YOUR HOBBIES TO WORK 21
SWEAT THE TECHNIQUE 97
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY 169
MAKE FRIENDS 195
TELL IT LIKE IT WAS 259
EMBRACE CHAOS 293
CONCLUSION 318
CONNECTIONS 320
BIOS 334
ET CETERA 397
THANKS 398

About

A standard-bearer of American design since 1993, House Industries answers the burning question, “Where do you find inspiration?” with this illustrative collection of helpful lessons, stories, and case studies that demonstrate how to transform obsessive curiosity into personally satisfying and successful work. Presented in House’s honest, authentic, and often irreverent style, and covering topics ranging from fonts and fashion to ceramics and space technology, this beautifully useful 400–page volume offers a personal perspective on the origin of ideas for creative people in any field. Most important, this book shows that there’s no sense in waiting for inspiration because inspiration is already waiting for you.

Praise

"House Industries display elite talent and craft in their design, illustration, and production, but the real magic is that they are alchemists. If you get that alchemy means taking non-precious metals and turning them into gold and platinum, then you’ll understand it when I say that House turns numerous less-than-elite sources of inspiration into pure visual gold and platinum. It is easy for artists and designers to be precious, cryptic, and mysterious while peddling themselves as speakers of a language too smart for the rest of us to understand. However, it takes real courage to do what House Industries does: speak a common, if not universal, language but in such an elevated, powerful, and elegant way, that it reminds us how exhilarating it is to see a mastery of both the dominant and sub-cultural visual vernacular."
—Shepard Fairey

". . . the studies behind many of House Industries’ projects stress the importance of collaboration and trial and error—really proving to readers that the process is the inspiration. This book is a necessary read for fans of House Industries’ distinctively retro style and for any creatives with boundless imagination."
—Communication Arts

"I can think of few books that are a better buy than House Industries’ The Process of Inspiration. . . a delightful collection of eye candy that is also chock-full of great stories and optimistic insight into how to bring joy, creativity and fulfillment into your career and life. . . Guaranteed it will be worth the investment."
—Fonts.com

". . . massive and overflowing, with so many years of amazing work that it sent me into a design-induced seizure followed by a visual coma that I'm just now recovering from. The book is an incredible document of both how crazy and brilliant House Industries is."
—Charles S. Anderson, Charles S. Anderson Design and CSA Archive

"From a type foundry it has become a wellspring of generational typographic attitudes, styles, movements, schools, a melting pot of old and new, revived and invented. . . Known for their typographic stagecraft and promotional ingenuity, House now has a book that tells their story."
—Steven Heller, Print Magazine

Praise for House Industries:

"If there were any place I wish I worked that I don't, it's House. They're artists; their work is extraordinary."
—J. J. Abrams

"What I love about House Industries is that they search through corners of culture for something valuable that you'd never thought of before, then raise it to a higher artistic level. It's a very difficult thing to do."
—Shepard Fairey

"[House] makes all the best typefaces."
—David Lee Roth

"Design is a willingness to surrender to a journey. You often hear about “design driven” companies but most of them that want to license the Eames name are thinking of it as an acquisition for their collection of brands. Every once in a while you encounter a company like House Industries who is willing to go on that journey and grow our brand as well as theirs."
—Eames Demetrios

"I've been a fan of House Industries over twenty years. Even though we're buds, there's still a lot of mystery behind that mountain of incredible work. Until now. 400 pages that let the secrets out? Jackpot! Been waiting a long time for this one. Heavily, heavily recommended by the DDC."
—Aaron James Draplin

Author

Known throughout the world for its eclectic fonts and far-reaching creative exploits, House Industries has been a standard-bearer of American design for 25 years. Chances are that most people in the world have seen House’s fonts on movie posters, magazine covers, websites or even cereal boxes. House Industries has worked with a wide range of collaborators including Jimmy Kimmel, Hermès, The New Yorker, John Mayer, Muji, the Estate of Charles and Ray Eames, Uniqlo and Heath Ceramics. View titles by House Industries
Andy Cruz View titles by Andy Cruz
Rich Roat View titles by Rich Roat
Ken Barber View titles by Ken Barber

Excerpt

INTRO 


 “Where do you find inspiration?” We get asked that a lot. Honestly, we never really thought about it much; we just made things up as we went along, relying on our instincts and intuition. But when the opportunity to write this book came along, we decided it was time to give the question a little more consideration and try to answer it. So we played the last twenty-five years backwards and deconstructed our work, figuring if we were going to mow down enough trees for a couple hundred pages, we should cook up something a bit more meaningful than a simple monograph.

As convenient as it would be to trace our inspiration to a single source, we can’t do that. What we do know is that inspiration can’t be boiled down to one thing, be it a cool flea market find, an influential book, a personal hero, or a eureka moment. Our inspiration comes from a combination of factors—elements that are already part of the way we look at things and, consequently, part of the way we work. When we took a closer look at it, our process revealed itself as a mash up of personal interests, skills, working habits, relationships, and storytelling, not necessarily in that order.

Bring your hobbies to work. Sweat the technique. Get your hands dirty. Make friends. Tell it like it was. Embrace chaos. These chapter titles are short sentences, but at the same time, they are complete ideas that define the philosophy of our working process and form the core of this book. We illustrate each idea with case studies about specific projects, chronicling the backstories, artifacts, and memories that shaped them, warts and all. Each narrative shows how we applied these concepts so that you can benefit from our mistakes or maybe even steal a few ideas to spark inspiration in your own process.

We hope this book will help you navigate the tricky intersection between art and commerce in a way that satisfies the definitions of both—quite simply by finding some creative fulfillment while paying the bills. There’s an element of art in everything you do. To us, though, art itself is not the final product; art lies in the process of making that product. And that’s where we find our inspiration.
Copyright © 2017 by House Industries (Andy Cruz, Rich Roat, and Ken Barber); foreword by J.J. Abrams. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Table of Contents

CONTENTS

FOREWORD BY JJ ABRAMS 6
ABOUT HOUSE 9
INTRO 12
BRING YOUR HOBBIES TO WORK 21
SWEAT THE TECHNIQUE 97
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY 169
MAKE FRIENDS 195
TELL IT LIKE IT WAS 259
EMBRACE CHAOS 293
CONCLUSION 318
CONNECTIONS 320
BIOS 334
ET CETERA 397
THANKS 398

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