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Monday, November 24, 2008

Microserfs and Girlfriend in a Coma, new Harper Perennial editions

Design and illustration by Milan Bozic

I saw these recently and asked Milan to give me a few words of explanation:

About the design for Microserfs: "As Amazon says, 'Microserfs is not about Microsoft--it's about programmers who are searching for lives.' I've always imagined any Silicon Valley complex full of faceless, like-minded programming drones, and I assume that's what most other people imagine as well. So, it's not a far stretch of the imagination to go with pixilated peeps."


And w/r/t Girlfriend In a Coma: "We chose to go with pixilated on Girlfriend in a Coma so that both of the covers kind of match. Plus, it's a nice contrast between a busy cover, and one that's very understated."


What does Milan like best about these? "What I'm most proud of is getting away with no title on the cover — oh, and that pixilated penis."

What, you missed it? Click on the images for more detail.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Two of my all-time favorite books... can't say I really like the new covers. They may or may not be nice design-wise, but they just don't look appealing or interesting to me, too gimmicky.

Anonymous said...

These are awsome except for the terribly designed PS logos. Nothing wrong with the PS but whoever designed it is a moron.

Ian Koviak said...

Ha! That's great...

Unknown said...

Douglas Coupland is one of my favorite authors, and Girlfriend in a Coma may be my favorite book. These covers don't work for me, though. I get the idea of the Microserfs cover, but I don't get that they're not fully clothed - I think suits, or at least computer programmer casual wear would get the idea across more effectively. And Girlfriend in a Coma makes no sense at all as a pixelated image. And for me, that book is about all the stuff that happens around the girlfriend, so the isolated image goes contrary to my sense of the book.

T-Bone said...

hmm, i don't think "getting away with no title on the cover" should be a goal for cover designers unless there's a brilliant and bulletproof rationale, but these are pretty cool nonetheless.

Unknown said...

Wow look at the work inside to find out what it is about. The old saying one can not judge a book by its cover has come to life.

Anonymous said...

I love them both. I will buy each of them.

Anonymous said...

The Microserfs cover is very similar to cover posted on Sunday, July 15, 2007!