Dale Orr and pen-and-ink artist Brian A. Martin will take Booth #966 at the LA Book Fair on April 18 to debut Organized Madness – Volume 1, a 200-page illustrated journal built around the kind of gothic imagery that tends to stop people mid-aisle.
Orr has a specific way of describing what he does. It is not selling.
“I don’t sell products,” he said. “I curate permanent additions to your life. Every item from Grimm House of Inc should feel like it’s always belonged to you.”
That philosophy produced Organized Madness . The journal runs to 200 pages, every one filled with original pen-and-ink illustration. No blank spreads waiting for a quote of the day. No motivational prompts. What fills the pages instead: mysterious characters, surreal landscapes, cryptic maps, playful gothic imagery, and the kind of visual density that rewards slow attention. Orr founded Grimm House of Inc around the conviction that most products arrive disposable and leave forgotten. His answer was to build something that felt permanent from the first page.
The visual execution belongs to Brian A. Martin, whose pen-and-ink work supplies the journal with its personality. Martin’s style sits at the intersection of dark whimsy and deliberate storytelling — ghosts, odd figures, cryptic symbols, shadows with a sense of humour. Each page functions as both illustration and invitation. Writers, artists and creative thinkers can use the space to write, sketch or brainstorm, but the journal works equally well as a purely visual object. Martin transforms blank paper into inhabited territory, and that distinction separates Organized Madness from anything a stationery aisle typically offers.
The project launched online ahead of the fair, with the journal already available through Amazon and other channels. But the LA Book Fair on April 18 and 19 marks its first public showcase. Attendees get the first chance to handle the physical object and move through its pages. Meeting the world of Grimm House of Inc in person rather than through a screen is a different experience altogether. Booth #966 will carry the journal alongside a growing line of merchandise featuring Martin’s artwork. Lifestyle items and collectible designs, all built around the same evergreen philosophy that shaped the journal itself. No trend-chasing. Nothing with an expiry date baked into its aesthetic.
Orr describes himself as a “hardcore sales guy” — a self-characterisation that sits in deliberate contrast with the Gothic art project he has chosen to back. The tension is part of the point. Orr’s background in sales sharpened his view of what most products get wrong: they optimise for the transaction rather than for what comes after. Organized Madness inverts that logic. The sale is the beginning. The journal should stick around.
Attendees at the fair will also get early visibility into what follows. Volume 2 — titled Organized Chaos — has entered development, suggesting Grimm House of Inc intends to build the project into a series rather than treat the first volume as a standalone experiment. The progression from Madness to Chaos carries its own internal logic, and Martin’s visual universe has enough range to sustain it.
The LA Book Fair takes place April 18 and 19. Grimm House of Inc occupies Booth #966. Anyone moving through the fair who loves illustration, unusual collectibles or serious journaling will find Booth #966 worth the detour.
