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Maxim 2: "Having guts always works out for me"

In 46 years on the planet Stefan Sagmeister has learnt 20 things. More than some and humbler than others, Sagmeister's rate of a lesson every two years or so belies the design genius he puts into expressing his maxims in physical terms.

In Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far, Sagmeister has collected these maxims in a book for the first time. See, previously they were published in the most unlikely of spaces including billboards, projections, light-boxes, magazine spreads, annual report covers, fashion brochures, and even in swimming pools and as giant inflatable monkeys.

The "book" fits these unlikely arenas by continuing to push the boundaries of format. Actually a book-shaped box open at the top, the box includes 15 booklets of 16 pages each. The front of the cover-box is a die-cut of Sagmeister's face, to allow for different covers to emerge according to which booklet is placed in front.

An expression of Sagmeister's oeuvre of photographing three-dimensional graphic constructions, the book creates a universe of optical delusions in which chopped up chairs, vienna sausage shadows, wilting flowers, toilet papered trees, reappropriated soft toys, half ripe bananas, slimy fish, cutthroat snails, pruned hedges, magnified microbes and bamboo scaffolding reveal hidden messages. No wonder he's only learnt 20 "things", with such a gargantuan imagination continually distracting him.

If you can tear yourself away from the visuals, words are supplied by design historian Steven Heller, Guggenheim chief curator Nancy Spector, psychologist Daniel Nettle and Sagmeister himself. Oh, and Maxim 1 is: "Helping other people helps me." Read the other 18 in the book.

Fashion tips for superheroes

"What to wear, what to wear?" thinks Superman. "Red jocks with blue bodysuit or red briefs with blue body stocking," he sighs. It must be tough at the top of the food chain - where exactly does one turn for fashion advice after the whole of humanity has seen you save the world from ultimate destruction?

Well, to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, where the recent Superheroes: Fashion and Fantasy exhibition explored the symbolic and metaphysical associations between fictional comic book characters and fashion. Superman, Spider-Man, Hulk, Wonder Woman, Alexander McQueen, John Galliano and Jean-Paul Gaultier headlined.

And, to take home, for a lifetime's worth of superhero fashion tips, was Abbott Miller's exhibition catalogue, which juxtaposed fashion imagery, comic book details, film and TV stills, and other representations of superheroes in a comic frame format. By closely cropping images and allowing them to break the frames, the book has a suitably heightened sense of drama and interconnection. "Comics pioneered the fragmentation of time and space with multiple-frame compositions," explained Miller.

The catalogue also featured a pressed tin front and back cover that added a tactile, three-dimensional element to the design, and of course ensures that when Superman jumps through walls of fire, he doesn't singe his shopping bible.

Sneaker dreams

Shoes are not about protecting feet. When they're about the feet inside them, they communicate social status, pop affiliations and even fetishes. When they're viewed as commercial commodities they hold a secret political, social and economic history.

Intrigued by a cleaning lady wearing an unknown brand of sneakers, Chinese graphic design student Shumeng Ye went in search of the secret history of Warrior basketball sneakers. "In the 1970s, Warrior basketball sneakers were a much sought after status symbol in China. Many Chinese teenagers dreamed of a pair of white Warrior sneakers. Three decades later, these sneakers are still well known among the Chinese people but they are no longer objects of desire. They are used by elderly and poor villagers doing physical labour at construction sites and pulling rickshaws. They are used by Chinese working class heroes. Today's Chinese youngsters dream of Nike or Converse," she explains.

Documenting these working-class heroes photographically, Ye went on to publish a limited-edition book, Book of Warriors, which has generated much acclaim from across the world. Interestingly, the book has inspired a comeback of the shoes among Chinese hipsters, reasserting the value of locally conceived and manufactured produce.

Elaborately cheeky work

"Imagine this, you board a plane for a 12-hour flight to Cape Town and there's a person sitting in your seat wearing blue spectacles and bright red shoes. He moves over to the window seat and you take your place, fearing that he's probably going to the same design conference and you'll have to talk design for hours. That's how I met Jaime, but it wasn't boring," reads Jasper Morrison's introduction to Jaime Hayon Works. Yes, Hayon and Morrison met en route to Design Indaba in 2007.

Published by Gestalten, Jaime Hayon Works is the rising Spanish star's first monograph and offers a thorough exposition of the prolific designer's interdisciplinary approach and extraordinary talent. Whether he is creating interior design, furniture, illustration, tableware or decorative vases and ceramics, Hayon's signature style always shines through. Seemingly without effort, his designs coherently bring together diametrical opposites such as opulence and practicality, sensuality and precision as well as finesse and restraint.

Fitting of his style, the book's design complements bold white silhouettes of his work on the cover with gold-edged pages. Always carving out his own space between extravagance and cheekiness, the book connects Hayon's work to his personality, introducing the reader to Hayon himself, who basks in the spotlight of self-promotion. Nonetheless, Hayon is generous, offering indulgent exposes of his creative process - rough scrapbook explosions are translated into slick computer rendered graphics and ultimately manifest as hyperreal objects of desire.