The Curated Collection defies the aphorism to not judge a book by its cover. In this series of beautifully crafted titles, an unusual shell opens to reveal high-quality content. Each volume explores a different creative-industry phenomenon that is, in turn, influencing wider society.

Services: Creative Strategy, Art Direction, Editorial, Naming

SECRET SOCIETY Modern Speakeasy Style and Design Gaining access into worlds hitherto unknown is a most intoxicating privilege. In an era when even the most obscure knowledge is widely available, secrecy contains major cache. Perhaps this is why, well past the Prohibition era, the contemporary speakeasy thrives, albeit under the radar. These destinations, infused with an illicit, festive atmosphere, admit only the most discerning, daring, and ”in the know” night crawler. In this beautifully illustrated book we will reveal the coordinates of some of the world’s most exclusive hotspots that speak volumes to the true nightlife connoisseur. Through photographs and interviews with elite nightlife impresarios, Secret Society takes us on a journey into an alluring underground culture.

Secret Society: Modern Speakeasy Style and Design

Limited Edition: When D*Face realized he could make a career out of his artwork, he started a secret project to test the publics awareness and hesitation when faced with alternative advertising. There was no specific goal in mind; the project was merely a test of “cause and reaction.” It’s no surprise that his early influences began with books on graffiti art, cartoons, comics, skateboarding and early Thrasher magazines. Through his artwork, this London-born artist hopes to spark subversive sentiments against the status quo relationship between society and media. D*Face adopts iconic images from the media and converts them into satirical characters that he can use to propagate his creative messages. He created 20 limited edition, graphic covers for FOR WHICH IT STANDS, that capture his tongue-in-cheek signature style of anti-establishment imagery.

“Incite, inspire, evoke.” This is the mission of Patrice Farameh, the boutique publisher based in New York City who produces a limited number of books annually under ‘The Curated Collection’ line.

Savvy insiders in the areas of art, fashion and interior design lend their expertise as ‘curators’ to each exciting title, creating stunning collections of cutting-edge content.

The books of The Curated Collection are both objets d’art and compendiums dedicated to modern cultural movements, exuding a hybrid vigor that could only be produced from a successful union of the two. Illuminated manuscripts of the new millennium, The Curated Collection’s varied titles embody both visionary design and substance. Manufactured and bound at the birthplace of printing in Italy, the slipcases, covers and pages are printed at the highest-quality level–a suitable tabula rasa for innovative graphic design and electrified artistic direction. While all of the titles are collectible due to their limited run, several have been produced as extreme, one-off limited editions. The artists Zevs, D*Face, Jeremy Dean, Peter Tunney, Kevin Berlin and Penny, among others, have all collaborated with The Curated Collection to create inimitable yet accessible works of art out of the publications.

The books defy the aphorism ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover.’ Each beautiful, unusual, and well-crafted shell opens up to reveal high-standard creative content. Every title explores an intriguing aspect of cultural phenomena that is mobilizing today’s creative elite and in turn influencing an entire society. From the proliferation of the powerful skull symbol in fashion, design and art, to the allure of speakeasy style in an age of mass media, to the image of America as seen through the lens of controversial and cutting-edge contemporary artists, The Curated Collection speaks to anyone interested in objects of truth and beauty.

–Patrice Farameh
Founder of ‘The Curated Collection’

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DESIGN BEHIND DESIRE The Sensuous Textures of Wanting Design Behind Desire also demonstrates how many items and genres from the world of fetish wear and bondage are inspiring and provoking fashion and design in a tangible way. How there is a tactility and truth to materials, which shifts the ‘sexy’ to profoundly sexual and where desire as both a concept and motivational force becomes more powerful where there is duality or contradictory forces at play.

SKULL STYLE Skulls in Contemporary Art and Design Skull Style is a beautifully designed book that presents not only one of the most ancient symbols used in the history of mankind but how it is utilized in the most surprising and modern way today. Formerly an emblem of evil and mortality, the skull has been transformed into an avant-garde design element used in the most cutting-edge art, chic interiors and vanguard style of the moment. Whether embellished on costly T-shirts, woven on limited edition chairs, and even encrusted with diamonds sold at an art auction for $100 million, the skull is no longer just a daunting memento of our frail mortality but a contemporary figure of fashion. This 500-page book shows how this once morbid trinket of death has been reinvented into the much-desired decoration by the trendsetters of tomorrow.

FOR WHICH IT STANDS Americana in Contemporary Art What do Mickey Mouse, Coca Cola, McDonald’s golden arches and the stars and stripes all have in common? They are all stamped with an illustrious, invisible but totally obvious seal that proclaims, “Made in America.” These images and others like them have become stand-ins for the country itself, recognizable to people all over the world. With bright colors and radical designs, they symbolize the United States, a place heralded for its wealth of opportunities and the rich creativity that can only thrive in a land of the free. Whether produced as the result of rags to riches stories, or as allegorical takes on a fascinating culture, these images provoke spirited responses the world over, attaining cult status on a global level. For Which It Stands presents a collection of contemporary artists working in diverse media who use these traditional American icons to relate their own inspired ideas.