Harvard Business Lessons Learned Series
Design by Roberto de Vicq de Cumptich
We don't look at a lot of business books here. That's my fault: I don't really seek them out, and sometimes I fall into the "they're all ugly" trap that the Signals vs. Noise blog fell into a few months ago. Of course, that's stupid: Kelly Blair's designs for the Harvard Business Review Classics series are razor-sharp, and "ugly" sure isn't a word that came to mind when I saw these at in an O'Hare Airport bookstore the other day. I don't know that I get all of them (see the entire series (small thumbnails) here), and I don't know if they're too close in spirit to O'Reilly's iconic animal covers (one example here; many others here), but then again, what I don't know can fill a friggin' ocean. So, readers, what's up with these? 
7 comments:
Not sure what's going on with the elephant one. That's got me stumped. Unless it is making reference to advice from the GIANTS of the business world. The busy as a bee and butting heads ones seem obvious, along with the spider's web. I'm liking the deer one. Although I'm wondering if the silhouetting out of one of the figures leads to abiguity on the message. Am I meant to be the animal, filling in the blank? Or is it there just for visual interest?
This is edgy and unexpectedly in this genre. Very nice, I love it.
I think it works best as a series instead of one individual book. Seeing them one after another helped me with the pattern. I'm with Nick on being initially confused by the elephant. It seemed a bit arbitrary.
Oh man, reading the dunderheaded comments following that Signal vs. Noise blog entry makes me want to throw my computer in the river.
I wonder if the elephant one means to suggest the elephants-standing-on-each-other circus trick to illustrate one's move up the career chain.
yeah, very unexpected. I guess only sales will tell if it's successful to depart this much form the business book "look".
Would the elephant one be better if it had something to do with "linning up your ducks in a row"?
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