Bookshelf: Andreas Samuelsson

Date
4 December 2011

This week we welcome Swedish illustrator Andreas Samuelsson to share fives picks from his bookshelf. Appropriately, they’re an eclectic lot – reflecting Andreas’ own taste for Japanese arcade, freeform styles and sideways thinking that he employs in his own work, as well as a couple of his biggest artistic influences…

Naoto Fukasawa Edited by Naoto Fukasawa

This is a collection of works. When I found the japanese brand Plus Minus Zero some years ago, I fell in love in one second! Later on I realised Naoto Fukasawa was the man behind these lovely everyday objects that combined humour and minimalistic design. He inspired me a lot with his thoughts that a peeled potato could be the shape of a simple mobile phone. My girlfriend gave this book to me.
www.amazon.co.uk/naoto-fukasawa
www.phaidon.com/naoto-fukasawa

Japanese Arcade games 1978-1987 KVC CORP

I’m a huge fan of Japanese arcade games from the 80s and 90s. This book shows some of the greatest Japanese games and cabinets from that era. I found it on a forum this year and I don’t understand a word in it because it´s in Japanese, but who cares! There’s lots of rare images in this book of old flyers, icon graphics and cabinets that you cant find online. Whenever your a fan of vintage arcade games or not, I certainly recommend to look into this world of simple graphics and thoughts, so much inspiration!

Tre små negerpojkar Henrik Nygren

A swedish book with a fantastic selection of graphic design by Henrik Nygren – the title refers to Agatha Christies novel. The book documents some stories around letter pressing and the time when Nygren met Paul Rand teaching at Yale Brissago Summer Program in Graphic Design.
www.henriknygrendesign.se

Lim Johan: Ett levnadsöde Hans Lidman

A selection of paintings made by the mysterious man and naive painter Johan Erik Olsson – “Lim-Johan”. I found this book in a lovely bookshop in Göteborg, Sweden called Faust. You cant find many paintings made by this artist because he only did a few while he was alive. But the ones he did during the 1940s are maybe the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen.
www.bokstugan.se/lim-johan

David Hockney – A retrospective – LACMA Abrams

Some paintings you’ve seen over the years stick in your mind. David Hockney’s A Bigger Splash from 1967 is one of those for me! There’s so much energy in his images though he only uses a few simple shapes and forms. I recently bought this book and can’t understand why I haven’t bought a book by this artist earlier. The last 23 pages in it also show some very unique ink printings on paper with a very simple pattern design I’ve never seen by this artist before.
www.amazon.co.uk/david-hockney
www.hockneypictures.com

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About the Author

Bryony Quinn

Bryony was It’s Nice That’s first ever intern and worked her way up to assistant online editor before moving on to pursue other interests in the summer of 2012.

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