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Thursday, August 09, 2007

Spook Country, US and UK

US design by Nicole LaRoche; UK design by Angus Hyland and Masumi Briozzo

Put this one in the "you've got to see it in the bookstore" category. There's spot varnish on the buildings, which only adds to the irreal, somewhat harsh, computer-generated feel of this US cover (first image, below). The Publishers Weekly review uses phrases long familiar to Gibson readers, such as "mysterious, yet not actual," "exists only in virtual reality" and several "may or may not"s to describe the plot and characters, and those phrases can definitely be seen in this design:


The UK cover seems pedestrian (no pun intended) by comparison:


Buy this book from Amazon.com

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

if you swapped the type treatments from the UK to the US version it would work better. These are both really boring to look at, but I guess you have to see it in the bookstore as you say...

Chris Boone said...

The book design and jacket graphic illustration are by Nicole LaRoche.

Joseph said...

Thanks! Designer noted.

jasfitz // the daily frolic said...

I agree with you, Ian...

The type on the UK version is too large for the space. It's not a good tension created, but an uncomfortable tension, between the buildings and title.

Anonymous said...

The UK version was done by Pentagram

Unknown said...

In the US version the interline

spacing is almost double spaced,

which makes for a most awkward

reading experience. Nice cover.

Unknown said...

I did the jacket illustration, but not the design. I designed the interior and created the illustration specifically for the title page. I prefer the type treatment I did there.