The Book Design Review

This Time Is Different

2009-11-08T22:19:00.005-06:00

Design by Karl Spurzem

Having just watched the season finale of Mad Men, it's hard not to think of that show's opening credit sequence when looking at this cover for an examination of financial crises.

As series creator Matthew Weiner states (at about 2:15) when talking about the sequence, "American businessman jumps out the window, that is a statement...it's part of our iconography."

Five for Friday, 11.06.2009

2009-11-05T23:03:00.003-06:00

Perfect Rigor; design by Martha Kennedy:

Cockroach; design by Albert Tang:

The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights; design by Jaya Miceli:

Too Many Murders; design by Jason Gabbert:

Some dude named Chip Kidd talking about book covers:

Obamanos

2009-11-05T06:46:00.000-06:00

Designer credit to come

I know he's just waving.

But here's where my mind went immediately:

Anyone else?

Our Hero: Superman on Earth

2009-11-03T06:06:00.011-06:00

Designer credit to come

I'm dying to know how far you can push Superman iconography before hearing from the law firm of Siegel, Shuster & Luthor.

(FWIW, the same author's It's Superman! novel has a trademark disclaimer right on the front cover.)

Random Monday Stuff

2009-11-02T06:23:00.001-06:00

Had family in town this weekend. Thus:

Unpublished concepts for Bill Bryson's Mother Tongue and Troublesome Words. Via The Casual Optimist.

The new Penguin Podcast features Ron Currie, Jr., author of Everything Matters. I loved that book.

Old dust jackets. I mean really old. And most likely, pretty dusty.

Late '80s Harry Crews Harper Perennial Fiction editions

2009-10-30T06:26:00.000-05:00

Illustrations by George Corsillo

A busy week has kept me out of the bookstores, so here are a few from home. Frequent BDR readers know I'm a big Harry Crews fan, constantly on the prowl for that copy of Naked In Garden Hills that *isn't* $150. (Should you ever see this at a garage sale or whatever, can you pick it up for me? Seriously.)

I'm not sure how many Crews books were published in this series; these are the ones I own. Two thoughts popped into my mind when I was scanning these:

1) Man, 1988 was a long time ago in book-cover-years.

2) Wow, these aren't just yellow. They're YELLOW. But yellow books don't sell...right?

Discuss.

Ten Storey Love Song

2009-10-27T23:11:00.008-05:00

Design by Milan Bozic

I hope there's a word or a name for this -- and by "this" I mean a novel that starts on the front cover of the book. It's been done before (on a few older Penguins(?)), but can't put my hands on any other examples at the moment. Anyone got any? (UPDATE: See the comments for ~~at least one other example~~ several other examples.)

And the coolest thing about this, BTW: verso pages are even-numbered, and recto pages odd-numbered, right? Are you sure? Click the images to enlarge and check.

Hummingbirds

2009-10-27T06:56:00.001-05:00

Design by Jarrod Taylor

Flirtation and the competition among students and teachers at an Upper East Side prep school is the focus of Hummingbirds; the jacket is beautifully whimsical and (sorry for the tired phrasing) jumps right off the shelf.

That vibrant blue really pops, just like it does on Digging to America. I've come to have such a low opinion of blue -- too many years spent in Web design -- but these restore my faith :-)

Five for Friday, 10.23.09

2009-10-22T20:42:00.010-05:00

Loser's Town; design by Ben Wiseman:

Money; design by Bert Krak, art direction by Paul Buckley:

This Is Where I Leave You; design by Gray318:

Chicago: A Biography; design by Matt Avery:

Can Capitalism Survive?; design by Milan Bozic:

Penguin Great Stars

2009-10-21T00:36:00.000-05:00

Design by Stefanie Posavec

New from Penguin, these covers for David Thomson's books about movie idols comprise what good series design is all about: beauty in the aggregate, with enough abstraction and variation to render each unique. Has anyone seen these in person? I so want those marquee lights to be spot varnish.

R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis

2009-10-20T00:52:00.005-05:00

Just got my copy of R. Crumb's The Book of Genesis. It's unbelievable. Some highlights:

Back cover:

The front case:

The Serpent on the back case:

Detail of the flood:

UPDATE: The Serpent? Awesome:

Buy this book from Amazon.com

They're Not Booing, They're Saying Boook

2009-10-18T00:40:00.000-05:00

Designs by Robert Jensen

"A BüK is an inexpensive pamphlet—just $1.49—containing one provocative essay, short story, portfolio of pictures, collection of poems, or other surprising entertainment, readable in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee" (from the BükAmerica Web site).

We don't talk about the business of publishing much here, but I wonder if (and hope that) there's room for this kind of chapbook meets the Pocket Penguins approach. Thoughts?

(PS: I did ask publisher Lisa Lyons about the use of everyone's favorite typeface, Comic Sans. Through her, designer Robert Jensen said: “It seemed apt. And as Vincent Connare, its creator, has written: "If you love comic sans, you really don’t know much about typography. And if you hate it, you really don’t know much about typography either." That quote always makes me giggle; here's a great article about Comic Sans and its creator.)

Five for Friday, 10.16.09

2009-10-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

Gimme Something Better; design by Jen Wang:

Love and Obstacles; design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich:

The Education of a British-Protected Child; design by Barbara de Wilde:

Sex With Kings; design by Faith Laurel:

Nothing to Be Frightened Of; design by Megan Wilson:

Who's To Say What's Obscene?

2009-10-14T06:56:00.001-05:00

Designer credit to come
Cover art by Wally Wood

Wally Wood's "Disneyland Memorial Orgy," first published in The Realist in 1967, is reproduced (in part) on the cover of counterculture icon Paul Krassner's recent collection of essays.

I didn't really think about this or see it at first, but it's pretty cool how the design reiterated the question asked in the title. What's covered up by the other design elements? Why are *those* things covered up? Oh, because they're obscene. But says who?

If you want to see Mickey shooting up and Dumbo pooping on Donald Duck (among other things), check out the uncolored original.

We Are Doomed: Reclaiming Conservative Pessimism

2009-10-13T07:11:00.001-05:00

Design by W.G. Cookman

John Derbyshire sounds like a total jackhole, but he's got to have a sense of humor, because this is one of the funniest author photos I've ever seen. Not sure if that's supposed to be him on the button on the cover (probably not), but both of them have the Republican frown down pat.

Five for Friday, 10.09.09

2009-10-08T10:46:00.008-05:00

The Amazing Absorbing Boy; design by Jennifer Lum, illustration by Michael Cho:

The Journey Prize; design by Leah Springate:

Automatic World; design by Kelly Hill:

Strange Things Happen; jacket design by Mary Schuck, photograph by Sheila Rock:

Morbid Curiosity; design and illustration by Ben Gibson:

A Better Pencil

2009-10-08T00:14:00.002-05:00

Designer credit to come

Am I alone in digging the simplicity of this?

Crane Your Neck to the Right. No, Your Other Right

2009-10-05T23:31:00.001-05:00

A question: does one of these look more "right" to you?

Your answer most likely depends on where you buy your books and the language they're written in. There are very few rules in design, but there are conventions, and it's the norm for those of us in the States to crane our necks to the right in order to read the text on a book's spine. Readers of French, among others, have to tilt their heads to the left.

There are some interesting theories about the advantages confered by each design convention; this Metafilter thread lays out the arguments:

When text on a spine reads from top to bottom, as it does on US, UK and Canadian (and some German?) books, the text is readable when the book lays on a table.

But then there's the "Harry Potter / encyclopedia argument" for bottom-to-top text: "Say you have a set of volumes...with the North American convention, on the shelf you have 1-5 from left to right, and the cover is always pointing right. Take them off the shelf and place them face up on a table, and you have to reverse the order if you want volume 1 on the top. Flip the spine around and the cover will point left on the shelf, but you can't see the cover, so who cares? Take that stack off the shelf and place it face up on a table.. Voila, volume 1 is on the top!"

Anyone else heard or have other theories?

PS: This post was inspired by a lunchtime walk during which bottom-to-top signage was jumping out at me. The sign for the Wit Hotel seems especially odd to my eye:

PPS: the second book cover -- bottom to top -- is the published cover.

King-Cat Comics by John Porcellino

2009-10-03T10:57:00.016-05:00

Hey y'all, Austin here. I wanted to take my last day here at the BDR to blog about one of my favorite cartoonists, John Porcellino, and his amazing life-long work, King-Cat Comics and Stories.

For over 20 years, Porcellino has been drawing and releasing his self-published comics. They're all handmade: photocopied black on white paper, folded and stapled, with a consistent and instantly recognizable cover design.

In 2007, Drawn and Quarterly released a book collection of the comics, King-Cat Classix, perfectly translating the Zen/punk/DIY aesthetic of the comics to book form:

A new collection, Map of My Heart, has just been released, and again, Drawn and Quarterly has succeeded with their formula: add one simple color to the black and white, retain the King-Cat design. (HUGE thanks to my online buddy and cartoonist/writer Derik Badman for taking these pictures for me...go visit his site for some of the best writing about comics on the 'net!)

I love the map included on the inside cover! (For more examples of maps included in books, see my post, "Maps of Fictional Worlds")

I hope y'all will go check out John P's work.

Thanks to Joe and to you, his dear readers, for indulging me this past week! Stop by my blog sometime or say hello on Twitter.

Happy October 1st

2009-10-01T12:37:00.010-05:00

Eve Siegel again. It's a cold fall day here in southern New England. So, a couple of warm-colored covers whose titles are appropriate to the season.

Designer: Amy Rose Grigoriou

Designer: Edel Rodriguez

Does anyone know of other covers that could be included?

Designing Women

2009-09-29T08:11:00.024-05:00

Eve Siegel again, filling in for Joe. I had the privilege, while at Oxford University Press, to work with two art directors whose cover designs were a constant source of inspiration to me. Cathleen Elliott, and Kathleen Lynch, have both gone on to open their own businesses.

I miss looking over their shoulders in the office, and asked them to send me a few of their most recent designs. I got an interesting result: 10 covers with images of women on them!

So, here's a virtual "looking over their shoulders" to see what they've been up to lately.

Cathleen Elliott (who has branched out into young adult and historical women's fiction):

and Kathleen Lynch (the third item is four covers together—a 4-volume series, with original illustration by Carole Henaff):

The Blogger's Kit

2009-09-28T09:39:00.005-05:00

Austin here. There were some very good comments on Saturday's post about Asterios Polyp and the need for 3-D views of book cover designs.

In one of the comments, I mentioned that publishing companies and authors should provide a "Blogger's Kit" for each of their books. Everybody's heard of press kits, but the aim of a Blogger's Kit is spreadability--images and videos that are easy to embed, post, disseminate on the web.

The best place I can see this happening isn't on a publisher's website, but on Flickr, the photo-sharing site. Flickr, unlike a publisher's website, is a destination--a place where people hang out, favorite photos and comment. People love Flickr. They go there for inspiration. Publishers should go there to meet them.

Using Flickr is easy. You can organize your photos into collections and sets. Each photo page contains an embed code, making blogging a snap. To top it off, Flickr also allows for 90-second videos. (For an example, see Fantagraphics' account.)

A pro Flickr account costs $25 a year, but a free account should suffice for most authors. Digital cameras and camcorders are cheaper than ever.

Here's what I think a Blogger's Kit on Flickr should include:

author photos
the book cover (front and back)
"3-D" shots of the book in space
excerpt shots of the book spreads
a video of someone flipping through the book

Each photo or video is easily labeled, so you can put all the pertinent information: bio, plot summary, design/editorial credits, and links for purchase.

The first pass of my book isn't quite finished yet, but I've already set up a Blogger's kit for author photos, free high-resolution scans of my newspaper blackout poems suitable for print, and other press clippings. This has helped me out tremendously when I need to provide a quick resource for bloggers and journalists.

I'd love to see other authors and publishers do the same.

What do y'all think of this idea? Anything missing from The Kit?

Type Only

2009-09-27T09:44:00.029-05:00

I'm Eve Siegel, filling in for Joe. I've been wondering how other book cover designers approach the assignment of "type only" cover design. Here are three that are probably known to all of you. I love the fact that all three convey a strong concept using only type, or type and color. And maybe that's always the answer—concept first, and it doesn't necessarily matter if you have a photo or illustration.

Designer: gray318

Designer: Jennifer Carrow

Designer: Peter Mendelsund

If all else fails, I could try these folks, and get the type in mustard, chocolate, leaves, or any number of materials.

What's your approach to this kind of assignment?

Asterios Polyp

2009-09-26T10:48:00.006-05:00

Design by David Mazzucchelli

Austin Kleon here, filling in for Joe.

Asterios Polyp is a gorgeous book, and one of my favorites of the year. Unfortunately, you'd never know how good-looking it is from just looking at a scan of the cover on Amazon:

Contrast that image with a few snapshots I took of the book on my coffee table:

The 2-D image is just so-so, but when you see the book in 3-D, the design makes perfect sense: the way the dust jacket plays off the muted book boards, and the strip of yellow on the spine around the author's name that perfectly balances the whole thing...

(When it comes to JPEG injustice, another cartoonist's work comes to mind: Jordan Crane's design for Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends.)

A few smart publishers online don't settle for mere images when it comes to showing off their book designs. The comics publisher Fantagraphics often posts videos on their Flickr stream of someone flipping through their new releases. (Examples: Michael Kupperman's Tales Designed to Thrizzle, The Sweetly Diabolic Art of Jim Flora, Tony Millionaire's Drinky Crow's Maakies Treasury.) In the age of YouTube, iPhone video, and cheap Flip camcorders, I'm surprised this isn't done more often.

What are some of your favorite book cover designs that aren't done justice in 2-D?

Something to Tell You, Danish edition

2009-09-26T00:41:00.008-05:00

Design by Poul Lange

Just a quick post before I turn this over for a week to some guest bloggers. Be sure to stop by to see what they do; I know I will!

Earlier in the week I posted three editions of Hanif Kureishi's Something to Tell You. This afternoon, designer Poul Lange sent in the cover for the Danish edition. About the design, he wrote: "Since the book centers around a psychotherapist and the frantic swinger's scene in London, I thought I could bring those two elements together by creating a Rorschach Inkblot test out of pornographic images...suprisingly, the cover was immediately approved by the Danish editor." The Faber UK edition plays up the sex aspect of the story as well, but not quite like this...

Click here for a larger version.

PS: This made me think of Keenan's design for Joe Meno's The Great Perhaps. And that's a good thing :-)