How’s this for a job that sucks? For the July 2009 cover of Esquire, graphic designer James Victore had to hand-letter the sell copy on the naked body of Israeli supermodel Bar Refaeli. (Yes, Leo DiCaprio’s Bar Refaeli.) “She ignored me completely,” Victore writes in his coffee-table design compendium Victore, or Who Died and Made You Boss? (Abrams, $40). Appropriately, there’s not much text in the book, just lots of glorious illustrations printed on thick paper. At tonight’s talk, the New York artist will show examples from his book covers, CD jackets, magazines, advertising, surfboards, china, and illegal subway posters of the ’80s. He’s a proud, vociferous leftie who’ll gladly use images of sex and death to grab your attention for a good cause. (Safe sex and opposition to capital punishment are two of his strongest campaigns.) But for writers, too, he has some valuable advice: “Examine the cliché, then dig deeper into the idea, then do that again and again, turning and twisting it each time. The hell with genius. Work hard.” BRIAN MILLER

Thu., Sept. 16, 6:30 p.m., 2010