Body Type by Ina Saltz is a book on typographic tattoos. Moving away from traditional art-based tattoos, the book focuses on how type when used to convey a message, becomes an image of beauty etched on skin. It’s certainly a book for lovers of type and tattoos. Ina Saltz is an art director, designer, writer, photographer and professor (at The City College of New York) whose areas of expertise are typography and magazine design. You can buy Body Type here. Volume 2 of Body Type is expected in 2009.

Awesome collection of covers for 100 design books. Compiled by Jérémie Werner. See the other 99 here.

Black Metal is a genre that I could and would never get into. But this photo essay by Peter Beste of the movement in its traditional home of Norway is both compelling and intriguing in equal measure. It sheds light on what is perhaps the darkest form of musical expression today.

“In the last two decades a bizarre and violent musical subculture called black metal has emerged in Norway. It’s roots stem from a heady blend of horror films, extreme heavy metal music, Satanism, pagan mythology, and adolescent angst. In the early-mid 1990’s, members of this extremist underground committed murder, burned down medieval wooden churches, and desecrated graveyards. What started as a juvenile frenzy came to symbolize the start of a war against Christianity, a return to the worship of the ancient Norse gods, and the complete rejection of mainstream society.  I have spent the last 7 years photographing in this insulated and secretive community.” - Peter Beste

“I never thought I would work in the phone sex industry. All those years doing customer service, my customers would comment on my sexy voice. I thought I was being professional, not sexy. This work is customer service. It’s just your customers leave with more than a smile.”

The allure of phone sex is rooted in the make believe world of fantasy. That perhaps one is actually talking to the woman in the ad or least one who looks as sexy as she sounds. But really, who are the women manning the phone lines? New York-based photographer Phillip Toledano lifts the veil on this in his book, PhoneSex. Indeed they aren’t the beauties callers expect but this is just testament to the power of (male) human imagination.

Images from the book and Interview with Toledano here.

Written by Lucas Conley, OBD: Obsessive Branding Disorder argues that there is too much of it (branding) resulting in valuable resources being diverted from R&D. The end result is products or services that don’t improve or more of which that we don’t need.

OBD details somewhat disturbing findings - such as a woman who named her daughter GoldenPalace.com or that seven out of every 100 mothers in the U.S. work for a company called Vocalpoint, a clandestine word-of-mouth marketers who casually “praise” various products to friends and neighbours. Branding gone too far or being taken to a new level?

via VSL.

In aid of UNICEF’s Myanmar Cyclone Children’s Appeal. It costs GBP3.00, all of which will go to the cause. The same applies for purchases outside Europe with the exception of an additional GBP2.99 to cover shipping. Buy it here.