Imaginals! - Hardcover

Eichenbaum, Ken; Arihood, Wayne

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0962027189 ISBN 13: 9780962027185

Publisher: Litterati Books, 1998

Synopsis

Describes new creatures that are made by combining inanimate objects with real animals.

About this title

About the Author:

Ken was unable to join the National Guard in Alabama, so when he graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Madison, he was whisked away by the U.S. Army to serve time as a Lieutenant in the Military Police. While at UW he became art director and then editor of The Wisconsin Octopus, the campus humor magazine. Meantime, our nation's leaders were trying to hobble together a peace treaty between the North and South Koreans. Then they sent Ken to Seoul. The year he spent there, and the churlishness of his commanding officer, pretty much ruled out the Military as a career option.

So, after a surprisingly Honorable Discharge, Ken enrolled in the old Layton School of Art (now known as the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design) for a year of postgraduate study and acclimation to civilian life. Many years later, Ken was invited to teach an evening course in advertising design at that school, which proved to be a productive learning experience for both instructor and students.

In 1957 he teamed up with two former UW classmates, George Ronsholdt and Kurt Gross, to form ADS, INC., an advertising and design studio. Within a year, Mr. Gross, being the wisest of the three entrepreneurs, fled the struggling business to join the State Department, thus insuring a regular paycheck.

Mr. Ronsholdt hung on for a couple more decades, during which time the agency acquired a lot of business, 25 more employees, and a new office building. Around that time the two owners assembled a stable of graphic designers and established a partnership called UNICOM that specializes in corporate identity, logotypes, annual reports, packaging, and furniture design. Ken published his first edition of a book for written primarily for businesses that use newspaper advertising as a primary medium. It was an instant success, and spurred the publication of two more editions, and invitations to conduct advertising seminars around the U.S. and in Manila, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

A few years after Ken purchased Mr. Ronsholdt's share of both ADS, INC. and UNICOM, he sold the agency operation to its employees. It continues to thrive under the leadership of Mike Tighe.

Today Ken and his wife Dr. Cate Charlton divide their time between Santa Cruz, California where she has a bustling chiropractic practice, and Bayside, Wisconsin, where he conducts his publishing activities under the name of Litterati Books, and continues to do some graphic design work, but mostly for non-profit organizations that couldn't ordinarily afford his exorbitant fees.

From School Library Journal:

Grade 3-5-This title features a full-color, glossy illustration of a combination animal/inanimate object (the carpsichord, caterputer, windshield viper, etc.) on each double-page spread, accompanied by a poem and definitions. It's an intriguing idea, but this book doesn't quite pull it off. The number of definitions per page (which often feature Lake Wobegonesque asides) detract from both poetry and pictures by their length and by their prominent placement on the page spread. Many puns, while clever, will have to be explained to younger readers, despite the explanations, and the idea of combining animals with objects might carry limited appeal for an older audience. For more child-friendly examples of poetry paired with computer-enhanced art, try J. Patrick Lewis's Doodle Dandies (Atheneum, 1998) or Kim Golding's Alphababies (DK Ink, 1998).
Tana Elias, Meadowridge Branch Library, Madison, WI
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Litterati Books
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0962027189
• ISBN 13: 9780962027185
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 40
• Illustrator: Schachameyer Sher