Quick (and arguably belated) CODEX overview and SanFran ABAA 2010

So between Feb. 3rd and 14th I’ve done the Pasadena Book Fair, attended the remarkable CODEX Foundation symposium, and am now two thirds of the way through the 2010 SanFran ABAA book fair. Though I’ve had the best of intentions about posting, reality has battled me at every turn. Between the events themselves, the need to catalogue new material I’ve been picking up along the way, and the tremendous burden of going out to eat with friends, colleagues, and/or clients I’ve barely been able to keep up with remembering to sleep.

In brief, it has been a remarkable week or so. CODEX was absolutely wonderful. In addition to seeing old friends, I made several new ones and found some remarkably good material that I greatly look forward to placings and…more importantly…met some printers/artists who I look forward to working with for years to come. You can not imagine the depth and breadth of what was shown in the hall. Details on some will follow in the not too distant future.

The ABAA fair here is the largest in the world. There are so many dealers and so much extraordinary material that it is simply overwhelming. I am at a profound disadvantage in that I am manning the booth alone this fair and am not able to wander the floor. This has been partly addressed in that some interesting (read ‘deviant’) things have been brought to me <laughing>…and I have ducked out here and there. I am hoping to be able to dig a little deeper tomorrow.

There seems to be great numbers overall…the aisles are full nearly all day and attendees seem to be genuinely engaged and excited. I’ve seen sales running a good range and have heard similarly from others. I hope this holds true for tomorrow as well. Until I’ve the time and energy to flesh out the fun and interesting bits of the whirlwind of chaos that this trip has been, I offer a new suite of captioned pictures (each being worth 1000 words):