Abstract City

By Christoph Niemann

This anthology of the illustrator’s New York Times blog features a chapter of all-new material: “a masterpiece of sophisticated humor” (Library Journal, starred review).

In July 2008, illustrator and designer Christoph Niemann began Abstract City, a visual blog for the New York Times. His posts were inspired by the desire to re-create simple and everyday observations and stories from his own life that everyone could relate to. In Niemann’s hands, mundane experiences such as riding the subway or trying to get a good night’s sleep were transformed into delightful flights of visual fancy.

In Abstract City, the struggle to keep up with housework becomes a battle against adorable but crafty goblins, and nostalgia about New York manifests in simple but strikingly spot-on LEGO creations. This brilliantly illustrated collection of reflections on modern life includes all sixteen of the original blog posts as well as a new chapter created exclusively for the book.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Apr 1, 2012
• ISBN: 9781613123201

Book preview

In 2008 I started drawing and writing Abstract City, a visual blog for the New York Times. The topics I chose ranged from the joy of riding the subway with my kids; my obsession with maps and LEGOs; my love-hate relationship with coffee; my hate-hate relationship with cables and red-eye flights; to my struggles with holiday cookies, physics, and spooning. This book contains the original sixteen essays from the blog. In an additional chapter about my creative process, I explain why talent is overrated and how yoga almost destroyed my design career.

Editor: Deborah Aaronson

Design: Office of Paul Sahre

Production Manager: Jules

Thomson

Library of Congress

Cataloging-in-Publication

Data:

Niemann, Christoph.

 Abstract city / Christoph

Niemann.

     p. cm.

 ISBN 978-1-4197-0207-5

1. Niemann, Christoph—

Blogs. 2. Illustrators—United

States—Blogs. I.

Title.

 NC975.5.N54A35 2012

 741.6092—dc23

2011032766

Text copyright © 2012 Christoph Niemann

All illustrations/photographs copyright © 2012 Christoph Niemann.

Published in 2012 by Abrams, an imprint of ABRAMS. All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the publisher.

Abrams books are available at special discounts when purchased in quantity for premiums and promotions as well as fundraising or educational use. Special editions can also be created to specification. For details, contact [e-mail] or the address below.

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Contents:

1. The Boys and the Subway

2. Bathroom Art

3. New York Cheat Sheets

4. Coffee

5. I LEGO NY

6. My Life with Cables

7. Bio Diversity

8. Over the Wall

9. Master of the Universe

10. Good Night and Tough Luck

11. Come Rain or Come Shine

12. My Way

13. The Haunted Household

14. Red Eye

15. Unpopular Science

16. Let It Dough!

17. Afterword

My sons Arthur, five, and Gustav, three, are obsessed with the New York City subway system.

They can barely sit through an episode of Sesame Street. But when we go for aimless subway joyrides on the weekends, they sit like little angels, devoutly calling out the names of every station for hours.

People often ask me for directions in the subway. Even though I know my way around rather well, I still have to defer to Arthur very often. Yet it seems people don’t trust the advice of a preschooler. They should.

Arthur knows the map so well that when he got his first pair of subway-map socks, he pointed out with a chuckle that it had the Q still running as an orange line.

Arthur spends hours studying the subway map. He laughs at his mother when she suggests taking the B on a weekend. The only questions he has are about the pronunciation of some station names.

This morning he read the timetable for the number 3 train and

Reviews for Abstract City

[kurtwombat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

We all take in life as we live, it's how we let it out again that shows who we are. For Christoph Niemann, his life comes out through his graphic design influenced art work. Much of the unique work that appears in his book ABSTRACT CITY originally appeared as part of his visual blog for the New York Times. Working like visual essays accompanied by modest text, each is a treat presenting relatable moments from everyday life in formats that recall catalogs or training manuals. Often silly but always creative, Niemann's art utilizes disparate art forms to convey his ideas the elements of which usually relate specifically to what he is talking about. For example, relating his personal history with coffee through a series of drawings on coffee stained napkins or lamenting how electrical cords complicate our lives through art using actual wires. Since much of my childhood involved creating my own world while playing with Legos, I particularly appreciated Niemann's using the multi colored plastic blocks to represent what it's like to life in New York, entitled--I LEGO NY. It's tempting to breeze through the book but I found myself dipping back into previous essays. As I experienced each new art format, I appreciated the ones before even more.

[joeydag · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Amusing series of graphics by the artist. Some very punny, others touching.

[martinbodek · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What an astonishing display of gaspworthy creativity. I had thought it rare that a man could concoct a singular essay with such rolling-stream inventiveness, and he's got 16 of 'em! I then found more of his works online, and I absolutely love to death his live-draw 2011 NYC Marathon, and I've already liked his Facebook page and have RSSed his Times column and I just can't get enough. Wow, what a brain!

[nmele_4 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Niemann's designs, and the tales he tells through them, are original, wry, beautiful. What else do you want?

[violetbramble · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

In 2008 Christoph Niemann started a visual blog, Abstract City, for The New York Times. This book is a collection of those blog entries. I really have no idea how to describe this book. Of course, as a visual blog, it's mainly illustrations, photographs and charts. Subjects covered include Niemann's sons obsession with the NYC subway, the art work he and his wife considered for their new bathroom tiles ( they went with Warhol's "Brillo Box"), how to survive in NYC, his love of coffee, his hatred of cables, his obsession with maps and Lego NY, a series of NYC themed legos. (Niemann is the author of I Lego NY)I thought this was pretty humorous. If I didn't live in NYC I'm not sure I would've gotten a lot of the references. Recommended for those interested in graphic art and New York City.