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Here’s a quickie illustration post this morning that falls into the Just When You Think You’d Seen It All category for the ‘ol tried-and-true tale of the Three Little Pigs. Steven Guarnaccia<\/a><\/strong>, the chair of the illustration program at Parsons the New School for Design<\/a><\/strong> in New York, brings us The Three Little Pigs: An Architectural Tale<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, released by Abrams in March. <\/p>\n Hand this book to an architectural design junkie, and you will make his or her day. <\/p>\n Guarnaccia reimagines the tale with reverent nods toward three famous architects (or, as Booklist<\/em> writes, “a porcine doppelg\u00e4nger for {each}”): He models the pigs on Frank Gehry<\/a><\/strong>, Phillip Johnson<\/a><\/strong>, and Frank Lloyd Wright<\/a><\/strong> — with the three pigs’ homes as nods to their trademark styles. <\/p>\n The first pig “decided to build his house of scraps”:<\/p>\n “The second little pig decided to build his house of glass”:<\/p>\n But the third little pig decided to build his house of stone and concrete:<\/p>\n There aren’t any remarkable changes to the dramatic action here: The wolf (all decked out soft-core punk, as you can tell here) still manages to blow the first and second houses away, those pigs running to the homes of their brothers. Not able to huff and puff his way through the third Fallingwater<\/a><\/strong>-inspired home, the wolf tells the third pig to meet him the following morning at Farmer Wright’s, “and I’ll show you a fine tomato greenhouse.” The pig, as you may have guessed, gets there early, picking the best tomatoes in the greenhouse before the wolf even arrives. Same goes for Farmer Johnson’s apple orchard the next day and Frank’s Flea Market the following. However, instead of a barrel, the third pig hides himself in a fine rug he admires at Frank’s Flea Market — and rolls right towards the wolf, who ends up in the predicament you see in the spread opening this post. <\/p>\n Kirkus<\/em> writes, “Guarnaccia’s illustrations are quirky and stylish, incorporating notable 20th- and 21st-century architecture and interior design elements,” Publishers Weekly<\/em> adding, “{h}e plays to design fans, decorating the pigs\u2019 homes with objects by the likes of Noguchi and Starck, and his endpapers provide a visual index to the allusions.” While this is a picture book more suited to older readers, those endpapers do serve as a guide for your younger, more design-minded children. Hey, it can happen. I’m sure they’re out there. <\/p>\n And for us grown-up readers and illustration junkies, particularly those who like to see contemporary twists on these age-old fairy tales, it’s fun stuff. I’ll leave you with the final image, the tail-singeing. <\/p>\n (The three little pigs, of course, eat a supper of tomato soup and apple pie, living happily ever after. I hope your lunch later today is just as satisfying.)<\/p>\n![](\"http:\/\/blaine.org\/jules\/ThreeLittlePigscover-small.JPG\")
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