The Book Design Review

And That, As They Say, Is That

2010-01-11T18:11:00.009-06:00

After almost 5 years and 1,112 posts, I've decided to put The BDR on indefinite hiatus.

It's been a great ride. I've enjoyed almost every minute of it. But the joy of discovering and sharing has, over the past few months, become the tedium of finding and posting. So it's time to stop. I might resurrect The BDR if it feels right, or I might blog about something else. It's too early to tell.

2009 was a wonderful year, and I can't thank you enough for showing up: a third of a million visits from 190 countries yielded just shy of 640,000 page views. 3 of those visits came from Nuuk, Greenland. Thank you, Nuuk :-)

Follow me on Twitter (@theBDR) for book-related (and other) stuff, and satisfy your book design jones over at The Casual Optimist, Faceout Books, and The Book Cover Archive. Those guys are the best.

Again, my heartfelt thanks for 5 fun years. Talk to you soon.

Peeing Hamsters

2010-01-05T08:28:00.002-06:00

(I'm on vacation this week, so posting will be limited. But I thought it might be fun to re-publish a favorite post and ask again: what book do you really hate?)

OK, enough of looking at book covers for a day or two. The Guardian's Stuart Evers has written a very, very funny article about "the good side of bad books." It's a hoot, and you should read it now.

But then you should come back here and tell us about the one (or two) novels that made you want to set yourself on fire, punch yourself in the face, or question why you learned to read in the first place.

I'll go first. After being hounded by my sci-fi-inclined friends for years, I read Robert Heinlein's Stranger In A Strange Land. When done, I immediately went out and bought two hamsters and a cage so that something could rip that book apart and pee on it. If there was an editor within 50 miles of that thing, I'll eat my shorts. I'll eat yours too.

I'm not anti-science fiction. I don't read a whole bunch of it, but I don't have a problem with it per se. J.G. Ballard holds a special place on my bookshelves. But this book? Ugh. I wish I remembered more about why I hated it so deeply, but I do trust my memory of discomfort and loathing.

OK. I'm done. Your turn.

My Favorite Book Covers of 2009

2009-12-22T06:12:00.002-06:00

In no particular order, here are my favorite book covers of 2009. (And here are the 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005 lists.) Titles are linked to the original post, if one exists, and there's a poll.

A big thank you to The Book Table, RiverRun Bookstore, and WORD for their lists.

And thank you, readers, for a great '09.

The Great Perhaps, design by Jamie Keenan:

The Double Life is Twice as Good, design by Rex Bonomelli:

Cheers! A History of Beer in Canada, design by David Gee:

Tiepolo Pink, design by Peter Mendelsund:

The Penguin Book of Gaslight Crime, illustration by Jaya Miceli:

Perforated Heart, design by Jason Heuer (some great photos here):

The Book of Dead Philosophers, design by John Gall:

Experimental Geography, design by Kelly Blair:

Valkyrie, design by Jason Booher (better image here):

K Blows Top, design by Pete Garceau:

Nineteen-Eighty Four, UK edition, design by Gray318 (full wrap, etc. here):

Impossible Motherhood, design by Carin Goldberg:

How to Be Inappropriate, design by Alvaro Villanueva:

Columbine, design by Henry Sene Yee:

Chronic City, UK edition, design by Miriam Rosenbloom:

But If We Were Looking at Spines, This Would Be The Best Spine of the Year

2009-12-14T00:22:00.009-06:00

I didn't want this to get lost in The Book Table's favorite covers of 2009 post. Jason from The Book Table wrote this; I love it. Jason, have you seen this?

"Our assignment was to pick 15 covers and comment on them if we wished. We think the covers speak for themselves, so instead of talking about them, we want to mention what we think was the most amazing piece of book design of the year. As much as we'd like to choose Chip Kidd's design of The Original of Laura, which we loved, or any of the designs done by Chris Ware, Oak Park's very own genius, we think the design of The Hemingses of Monticello is the best design of the year.

We know that most books that we sell in the store are sold because of their spine and we know that of the thousands of books in our home, only a few at anytime have their covers displayed. Because of this, we spend a lot of time thinking about spines. The Hemingses of Monticello is the first book that we ever remember seeing that has award medals on the spine. It's a brilliant idea and makes it irresistible to everyone that goes near it."

Favorite Book Covers of 2009, Part Three: The Book Table, Oak Park, IL

2009-12-13T23:13:00.016-06:00

The third and final list of favorite covers from independent booksellers, in this case, hometown favorite The Book Table in Oak Park, Illinois. They've chosen some wonderful covers from small, university and foreign publishers, so help me out with the credits if you can. In most cases, the titles are linked to The Book Table's online store, in case you're in a shopping mood.

Again, as in past weeks, there's a poll at the bottom. Vote for your favorite.

After the Fire, A Still Small Voice, designer credit to come:

Waltenberg, designer credit to come:

Never Trust a Thin Cook, designer credit to come:

What I Talk About When I Talk About Running, designer credit to come:

The Prince, design by Jaya Miceli:

We Saw the Light, design and illustration by Brad Norr:

Land of Necessity, design by Heather Hensley:

The Interrogative Mood: A Novel?, design by Alison Forner:

Hysteria Complicated by Ecstasy, design credit to come:

Invisible, design by Lisa Fyfe:

Planisphere, designer credit to come:

Arcana & Other Poems, design by Tony Frazer, photo by Alex Nikada:

Absinthe and Flamethrowers, design by Joan Sommers Design:

Nineteen Seventy-Seven, design by Gregg Kulick:

Nineteen-Seventy Four, design by Gregg Kulick:

Which cover selected by The Book Table do you like the best?(polls)

Favorite Book Covers of 2009, Part Two: RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, NH

2009-12-06T22:00:00.018-06:00

Here's the second of this year's Favorite Covers of 2009 posts, chosen by some of the staff members of RiverRun Bookstore in Portsmouth, NH. Some contributors chose to let the covers speak for themselves, others provided some words about their choices.

The first post is here. And like last week, there's a poll.

RiverRun's favorites are:

Time, design by Henry Sene Yee:

Let the Great World Spin; design by Robbin Schiff & Anna Bauer, drawing by Matteo Pericoli (full wrap over here): "The delicately drawn city cuts a slice in the cover, much like the beautiful slivers of lives inside the book."

The Death of Bunny Munro, design by Charlotte Strick: "An evil bratty bunny! In no way does this indicate that it will garner a "Bad Sex in a Book" nomination."

Animals and Objects In and Out of Water, illustration by Jay Ryan: "Are they animals? Or are they stuffed animals come to life? Are they sweet, or evil, or both??"

Yummy, illustration by Lucy Cousins: "Incredibly kinetic, this cover let's you know it's not going to be fairy tale business as usual."

Pictorial Webster's, design by John Carrera:

The Great Perhaps, design by Jamie Keenan:

The Housekeeper and the Professor, design by Henry Sene Yee (full wrap here):

The Gone-Away Word, design by Evan Gaffney (full wrap here): "Equally as awesome as the fuzzy pink and green hardcover, this zooming orange design perfectly sums up the ride you're taken on."

Chronic City, design by Rodrigo Corral:

Beat the Reaper, design by Ploy Siripant:

The Bedside Book of Beasts, design by CS Richardson:

The Anthologist, design by Jason J. Heuer: "Simple, elegant, and the plum is actually referred to in the story."

Alphabeasties, design credit to come:

Which cover selected by RiverRun Bookstore do you like best?(polling)

Favorite Book Covers of 2009, Part One: WORD, Brooklyn, NY

2009-11-30T22:31:00.008-06:00

As announced a few weeks ago, I've asked three independent bookstores to contribute to this year's Favorite Covers of 2009 coverage. Here are the selections from the staff of WORD in Brooklyn, NY. Three more lists (including my selections) are on the way.

The only guideline I asked the good folks at WORD to follow was to limit their selections to books published this year, so I was glad to see them include some YA and children's books -- I don't get around to discussing either genre very often.

I couldn't chase down all the design credits, so if you know something I don't, please set me on the right track so that I can give proper credit for this fantastic work. And of course correct me if I've gotten something wrong.

There's a poll at the bottom of the post: vote for your favorite. The top three vote-getting designs from this list will eventually join the other favorites from the upcoming lists in a final poll.

Lastly: each title is linked to WORD's online store. Something tickling your fancy? Support indie bookstores and buy from them.

WORD's favorite covers of the year, in no particular order, are:

Wuthering Heights, design by Ruben Toledo: "This is our favorite of the three covers Toledo did for Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions."

The Sickness Unto Death, design by David Pearson: "This is really a shout-out to the entire line-up of the newest installment of the Penguin Great Ideas series, though this is probably our favorite cover of the bunch. These are some of the most irresistible book covers I have ever seen. They're all embossed. Almost everyone who looks at them touches them and then moans ecstatically."

There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, design by Christopher Brand: "This made our top 10 last month, probably solely on the strength of the cover."

The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, design by Barbara de Wilde: "We love the new Nabokov covers, and this is our favorite of the bunch."

Seven Nights, design by Rodrigo Corral: "Love this so much that I continually re-display it just to look at it."

Pure, design by Cara Petrus: "a teen novel about purity rings and the girls who wear them (and a girl who breaks her pledge). "

The Book of Fathers: design by John Gall, collage by Nicole Natri: "The men and the arms on the cover are raised. It's possible we just like this because it looks like the art of a former employee. Didn't love it at first, but it has really grown on us since it came in, to the point that now we love it."

Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image; design by Mark Abrams, cover image by Jim Fitzpatrick, original photo by Alberto Korda: "There could be no better cover for a book about history's most reproduced image."

The Children's Book, design by Stephen Parker, "adapted by Gabrielle Wilson" (per the jacket): "A beautiful cover that only gets more beautiful after you've read the book."

(I snapped this to show some of the detail; there's a much better photo here):

The City Out My Window: "The only die-cut we will ever like in this store (we hate die cuts because they inevitably rip on the floor, no matter what you do with them, and then nobody wants to buy them). But this one is thick cardboard, and obviously a perfect choice of a book of window pictures."

The End of Food, design by Mark Robinson: "Love when the paperback is way better than the hardcover."

The Lion and the Mouse, designer by Saho Fuji: "Not sure if this one counts, but we love it."

The Most Beautiful Book in the World, design by Emanuele Ragnisco: "Even though it feels kind of busy on this cover, the image is just so great."

Never Smile At A Monkey: And 17 Other Important Things to Remember, design by Scott Magoon, illustration by Steve Jenkins: "Even though it kinda scares me."

Carrion Comfort

2009-11-30T06:07:00.001-06:00

Design by Lisa Marie Pompilio
Photograph by Ken Rosenthal

The first of this year's favorite covers posts will appear tonight (I have to chase down a few design credits). In the meantime, feast on this, before it feasts on you.

Now That We're Done Gorging Ourselves...

2009-11-27T11:12:00.005-06:00

Thin is in.

(The Pattern in the Carpet designed by Martha Kennedy; Changing My Mind designed by Richard Bravery and illustrated by Si Scott; Memoir designed by Rodgrigo Corral and illustrated by Corral and Ben Wiseman)

I Am Thankful For...

2009-11-25T10:54:00.004-06:00

Dionne Warwick riding on top of a big turkey balloon.

Happy Thanksgiving. Back on Monday with the first round of this year's favorite covers, as selected by the staff of WORD Books.

Cash vs. Zeppelin

2009-11-24T06:21:00.001-06:00

A Heartbeat and a Guitar designed by Shepard Fairey
When Giants Walked the Earth designed by Orion Books

I don't do snarky very well, but on the way to see the new Shepard Fairey-designed book about Johnny Cash, I saw this new clearly-not-designed-by-Shepard Fairey book about Led Zeppelin. You get what you pay for.

UPDATE: Orion Creative Director Lucie Stericker was nice enough to point out that images of all four members have been produced as posters; here's everyone else:

Something New for This Year's Favorite Covers Post

2009-11-19T07:00:00.001-06:00

Each year since the BDR started, I've written a "my favorites of the year" post (here are the 2008, 2007, 2006, and 2005 lists.)

This year, I've got something different in mind.

I've asked the staffs of three independent bookstores to contribute a list of their 10-15 favorite book covers and jackets of 2009. I'm really looking forward to seeing what they pick. It's a big, big publishing world, so I'm hoping their involvement helps reveal the wide range of fantastic design out there.

Here are the participants and the dates on which their selections will appear:

WORD, Brooklyn, NY: Monday, Nov 30
RiverRun Bookstore, Portsmouth, NH: Monday, Dec 7
The Book Table, Oak Park, IL: Monday, Dec 14

I've run a poll the last two years, and based on the large number of people who voted for their favorite, I think I'll do that again. Perhaps I'll take the top three for each store's list (as voted by you) and put them all into a super duper mega poll.

Does this sound fun?

In Cold Blood, Magnum Collection Edition (and a few others)

2009-11-17T21:48:00.011-06:00

BDR reader Cynthia pointed this out to me this morning; it's one of six in the Penguin Magnum Collection published earlier this year. Click for a much larger version -- and note the removable sticker. Cool.

Penguin has published a number of different editions over the years; here's a few. The first is designed by David Pelham (1970); the second is uncredited and is from 1966. (The first two images are from Seven Hundred Penguins.) Anyone know anything about the last two?

Illustration by Andy Bridge:

UPDATE: I missed this one, designed by S. Neil Fujita. (Read about the hatpin and Capote's reaction to it here):

On the Road

2009-11-15T12:47:00.003-06:00

Apologies for the lack of activity here; I'm traveling on business. Regular posting should resume in a few days, hopefully with an announcement about 2009's favorites of the year post. It's going to be very different, and hopefully entertaining for y'all.

Off to eat more carne asada fries...

How to Be Inappropriate

2009-11-11T23:54:00.004-06:00

Design by Alvaro Villanueva

This is so spot on: it really is inappropriate to forgo a belt when wearing a nice pair of trousers.

Not Everyone Loves the New Nabokov Editions

2009-11-10T21:33:00.015-06:00

Lots of folks are talking about the John Gall-curated Nabokov redesigns. And well they should -- it's not often that we see an author's entire body of work redesigned by such an impressive cadre of designers.

Three days before Gall posted the series at Design Observer, though, a BDR reader wrote in about the "best Nabokov cover I've ever seen--blows the sh**ty Vintage/Random House motif out of the water." His words, not mine. Here's what he sent in (source here); if anyone's got any info on this cover, please pass it along.

(UPDATE: "(the designer is) Jerzy Faczynski, a well-known Polish ex-pat who not only did book design, but built a few churches, painted watercolors, made prints, and fought wars. He died, I believe, in 1994.")

Here's Carin Goldberg's new cover for Pnin:

Oh, and what the heck: via Wikipedia, here's another:

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 :-)

Five for Friday, 9.25.09

2009-09-25T06:21:00.001-05:00

Homo Zapiens; design by Darren Haggar:

Long Past Stopping; design by Mary Schuck, photograph by Jennifer Kennard:

The Wildfire Season; design by The Heads of State:

The Gastronomy of Marriage; design by Anna Bauer, photograph by Mark Weiss:

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell; design by Holly Macdonald:

Impossible Motherhood

2009-09-23T23:08:00.000-05:00

Design by Carin Goldberg

You might have heard of this book; if you haven't, you will. It remains to be seen if there's a more polarizing book published this fall season. If you're not familiar with it, read the description on the publisher's Web site.

Earlier this week, I twittered the following:

A number of my Twitter followers replied, and all of them encouraged me to post this for discussion. One noted that "design is about message, and this is a very excellent example of committing to a visual messsage using the most simple tools." I couldn't agree more. But what really stuck in my head was something someone else offered: "That's brave, expressively strong, yet quiet." It was the adjective "quiet" that stuck in my head as this design's most important attribute, probably because reaction to the book has been and will be anything but.

I wanted to know more, so I asked designer Carin Goldberg a few questions, and she was gracious enough to reply:

The BDR: Did you consciously design this with a sense of quiet or calm in mind? So much about it *is* quiet, even delicate: the colors, the weight of the female form, the type. Is your design solution a conscious effort to suggest "really...please give this book a chance?"

Carin Goldberg: Yes, the subject matter of this book is very sensitive and potentially controversial. And yes, of course it was important to design a cover that wouldn’t frighten the audience or misrepresent the author and her complex story. The design was not meant to provoke in an overt or gratuitous way.

The BDR: The tally marks are small and thin, but less quiet, and suggestive of more than just simply keeping count, espcially as they're placed on the body. Did you hesitate using the red tally marks as a design element?

Carin Goldberg: No, I never hesitated. They marks were my first idea. And yes, they are meant to have a double meaning, or maybe even a triple meaning. Not only do they tally the number of the abortions she has had and suggest a woman’s pubic area, but they might also be seen as prisoner tallies. The author was imprisoned by her psyche and by her compulsion to have multiple abortions.

I think Carin hit the nail on the head by stressing the need not to misrepresent the author and her story. In following that simple-to-understand but not always simple-to-produce idea, she's designed an amazingly effective and resonating cover.

What do you think?

Something to Tell You

2009-09-22T07:06:00.002-05:00

Because I won't be blogging next week -- others will -- I've been cleaning house, reviewing a bunch of half-written posts that had been languishing in draft mode.

I had intended to publish Rex Bonomelli's design for Something to Tell You (top) after featuring the Faber & Faber UK edition (middle; original post here), but I never did. Jennifer Heuer's design for the forthcoming US paperback (bottom) is a good enough reason to post all three.

PS: Check out Faceout Book's interview w/ Rex.

Designated Drivers @ the BDR Next Week

2009-09-21T07:05:00.000-05:00

The Book Design Review will have guest bloggers from September 26 to October 3. I'm handing the keys to:

Austin Kleon: Austin is a writer, cartoonist, and designer living in Austin, Texas. A collection of his newspaper blackout poems, Newspaper Blackout, is forthcoming from Harper Perennial in April 2010.

Eve Siegel: Eve is a freelance book cover/interior designer in Ridgefield, CT who does work for Oxford University Press, McGraw-Hill, and Lippincott.

Eve's expressed an interest in starting a discussion about purely typographic cover designs, but other than that, I don't know what they'll be blogging about.

This should be fun.

Five for Friday, 9.18.09

2009-09-17T13:32:00.014-05:00

The Basketball Diaries (1978 edition); designer unknown, photo by Rosemary Carroll:

The Basketball Diaries, 1987 Penguin edition; design by Melissa Jacoby, photo by Rosemary Carroll

Nineteen Eighty; design by Gregg Kulick:

The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2009; illustration by Banksy:

Bicycle Diaries; line art by David Byrne, design by Paul Buckley:

Fever Chart

2009-09-16T06:46:00.001-05:00

Cover art by Ron Rege

Some really quick 'n crappy iPhone pix of Fever Chart from the McSweeney's Rectangulars series. These are quickly becoming favorites of mine. Remember God Says No?

There's some great stuff at Rege's blog too.

Casablanca: Movies and Memory

2009-09-14T21:10:00.002-05:00

Design by Quemadura

Gun to my head, if I had to pick a favorite principle of design, repetition would win hands down. That's why Casablanca: Movies and Memory caught my eye.

I have to say, though, that Peter Mendelsund's design of K. pretty much sets an unmatchable standard. Man, I love this cover:

American Fantastic Tales: Terror and the Uncanny from Poe to Now

2009-09-13T23:10:00.001-05:00

Design by Chip Kidd
Buy this from Amazon.com

Refreshingly different design by Chip Kidd for this Library of America collection; he did the slipcover as well, which you can see here and for which I'll try to get a better image.

I don't read horror and fantasy fiction, but these I like, if only because it makes me think there's been a been a shift in how such fiction is written. The image on the first volume suggests something that's objectively scary: ghosts with clanging chains and all that. The image on the second strikes me as more anticipatory and psychological, perhaps suggesting that horror doesn't find you, but that you find it. Probably a false bifurcation, but maybe someone who reads about things that go bump in the night can shed some light on these.

Three for Friday

2009-09-10T22:55:00.015-05:00

It's usually Five for Friday, but a man's gotta sleep. Good night.

Crude World: The Violent Twilight of Oil, design by Peter Mendelsund:

Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, design by Philip E Pascuzzo:

Cutting Up Playgirl, designed by Dan Mogford:

Juliet, Naked

2009-09-09T23:35:00.005-05:00

Design by Keenan

Finally: Apple* earbuds are good for something.

*OK, bad audio purists: Apple-ish :-)

UPDATE: "How about the UK edition? It's also iPod related..." So it is:

Eating Animals

2009-09-08T13:36:00.008-05:00

Design by Gray318

So simple and so packed with meaning, and guaranteed to leave you with the certain knowledge that you wouldn't have thought of this, unless you're Jon Gray. (Click the image for a larger view.)

Buy this book from Amazon.com

Transit Maps Meet Book Covers

2009-09-08T06:15:00.005-05:00

Green Metropolis designed by Gray318
Underground designed by John Gall and Jamie Keenan

I'm a chump for transit map-related designs. I know there are tons more. Do you have a favorite? Send it in (thebookdesignreview@yahoo.com) or leave a URL in the comments and I'll post it.

UPDATE: Sent in by readers:

Five for Friday, 9.4.09

2009-09-03T23:10:00.002-05:00

Five for Friday #3. You know what to do.

The Death of Bunny Munro designed by Charlotte Strick:

The Monster Variations designed by Ben Gibson:

Miss Lonelyhearts & The Day of the Locust designed by Carin Goldberg:

Cheap designed by Ben Wiseman:

Raising the Perfect Child Through Guilt and Manipulation designed by Jeff Miller:

The Picture of Dorian Gray

2009-09-02T13:46:00.009-05:00

"For this new edition of the book, artist Gareth Jones re-imagines the story as a costume drama set in 1970s Paris, in a large format edition (roughly 11 x 14 inches -- ed.) that returns the book to its origins in a magazine." (Click on the last two images for jumbo versions.)

Some production details (typefaces used, etc) can be bound on the Four Corners Books Web site. And why didn't someone tell me The Financial Times reviewed (really well, I might add) book cover designs? Their review of this appears here; grab the RSS feed here.

Me Don't Write Too Good

2009-09-02T07:11:00.008-05:00

Yesterday an anonymous commenter noted the similarity between the designs for Chronic City and the anniversary edition of Bonfire of the Vanities.

I've seen the Bonfire cover previously but didn't think about it as I posted the design for Chronic City. A reader or two was quick to point out the similarities.

This (similar, contemporaneous design solutions) happens. It just does. But the following comment about Chronic City was posted: "It looks like a blatant rip-off of Henry Sene Yee's earlier design (for Bonfire)."

Here's where the "I suck at writing" part comes in. I replied:

"It might be unfortunate, but it's not a ripoff. I doubt very much Rodrigo Corral rips anyone off. Quite the opposite, I would suspect."

"Quite the opposite" was in no way meant to be a comment directed at Henry or at the design for Chronic City. Rather, it was a ham-fisted and poorly-worded attempt to say that it's designers like Yee and Corral whose work inspires others and, occasionally I'm sure, is "ripped off."

Apologies to all for the sloppy writing.

Chronic City

2009-09-01T00:14:00.006-05:00

US Design by Rodrigo Corral, Photograph by Scott Peterman
UK design by Miriam Rosenbloom

My jaw dropped when I found out the image gracing Jonathan Lethem's forthcoming Chronic City was a real photograph, taken from the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building. Does Manhattan really look that isometric from that far up?

The New York Observer has a nice piece on the history of the image, and notes that "Mr. Peterman’s photo...was altered in the course of the design process, using 'shadowing and other special effects'.” But as far as I know, the (small) original on Peterman's site is the real deal, and not a trick of Photoshoppery. Amazing.

Buy this book from Amazon.com or from IndieBound.

~~PS: Check out what's on Amazon UK (but not, FWIW, on the Faber and Faber site). Whoa!~~ Designer Miriam Rosenbloom sent in a better image: "The job is printed three colours with a fluorescent pantone orange and yellow so it is tough to get the tones right online." Thanks, Miriam!

The F Word

2009-08-31T06:50:00.002-05:00

The F Word designed by Lisa Force

The design for The F Word (fuck; not feminism) reiterates the academic design treatment seen on On Bullshit. A slightly more provocative design was done by Faber about 10 years ago (bottom image).

(PS: Cunning linguists rejoice: MILF made in the 3rd edition of Sheidlower's book. The Book Bench previews some others.)

Five for Friday, 8.28.09

2009-08-28T00:02:00.002-05:00

The second "Five for Friday," a commentary-free* post featuring 5 covers that have recently caught my eye.

*That is, no commentary from me. You, of course, should comment. 9 comments last week? C'mon...start typing :-)

The Gone-Away World, design by Evan Gaffney:
(check out the entire spread here)

Ripped designed by Paul Sahre:

Timbuktu, designer name to come:

The Nightingales of Troy, design by Kelly Blair:

The Theatricality of Greek Tragedy, design by Isaac Tobin:

Jackie Under My Skin

2009-08-25T23:25:00.004-05:00

Design by Henry Sene Yee

Check out the crop of Warhol's "Red Jackie" on Jackie Under My Skin. What word comes to your mind? I can't get past sinister.

Uncropped:

(Wow, weird timing. RIP, Sen. Kennedy)

Rework

2009-08-23T23:08:00.007-05:00

Design credit to come
Buy this book from Amazon.com

Web applications company 37 Signals posted the design of their forthcoming book Rework on their blog Signal vs. Noise a few days ago. There's a pretty lively discussion going on, with a number of readers addressing the design. Folks are showing a little more love for the back cover than the front, a sentiment with which I agree, but perhaps that's because I'm still held in the sway of Gray318's towering, slogan-driven redesign for Nineteen Eighty-Four. The back of Rework would have made for a ballsy front cover, especially for a business title.

Front cover:

Back cover:

There's an interesting tangential discussion in the Signals thread about the absence and eventual placement of a bar code on the back cover. Removable stickers are mentioned, which immediately had me scurrying to my bookshelves to see if any books I own have a bar code sticker (in lieu of a printed-on-the-jacket bar code). I didn't find any, but I do have to ask two possibly ignorant questions:

1) Bar code stickers: if not, why not? Yes, someone can pull the switcheroo in a bookstore, but couldn't the person working the register be on the lookout for this?

2) Are bar codes ever placed on the inside front or back flap? If not, why not? (It's been awhile since I've bought a book that's shrink-wrapped; maybe shrink wrap is the reason. But that brings us back to the sticker...)

(Full disclosure, BTW: The Book Design Review is a 37 Signals affiliate program member.)

Five for Friday, 8.21.09

2009-08-21T06:32:00.003-05:00

A new, fairly regular (?) feature here at The BDR: Five for Friday, a commentary-free* posting of 5 covers that have recently caught my eye.

*That is, no commentary from me. You, of course, should comment as we here in Chicago vote: early and often.

The Confessions of Edward Day, design by Emily Mahon:

The Prince, design by Jaya Miceli:

The Time It Takes to Fall, design by Catherine Casalino:

The Act of Love, design by Catherine Casalino:

Marx's General, design by Charles Brock:

(PS: All these images come from portfolios on design:related. Got a portfolio there? Join The Book Design Review network so I can see it.)

The Natural History of Unicorns

2009-08-18T09:55:00.010-05:00

Design by Clare Skeats

Now this is smart. Would you want to be seen reading a book on the subway with a picture of a unicorn on the jacket? ~~Publisher William Morrow~~ Designer Clare Skeats wisely says no, you wouldn't.

Via The Book Bench's Well-Covered feature.

UPDATE: Designer Clare Skeats wrote in and provided some background: "I designed this originally for Granta here in the UK, and it was adopted by William Morrow for the US edition...The 3 illustrations that went into the ‘unicorn’ are from the London Natural History Museum collection and feature animals that the writer claims may have created the unicorn mythology. The brief was to avoid anything kitsch and mystical – for obvious reasons of taste!"

(PS: number of search results for "unicorn" in the books section of Amazon.com? 44,419 (!))

(PPS: Veer tweeted this today. Unicorns!)

Everything Matters!

2009-08-17T23:03:00.008-05:00

Painting by Amy Bennett
Design by Paul Buckley

"Do you read all the books you blog about?" is the question I'm most often asked about The BDR. It's also the most frequently-leveled criticism (yes, I get hate mail).

The obvious answer is no. I don't read all the books whose covers we discuss here, nor do I think I need to. But certainly there are times when the choices made in the design of a book cover only make sense with the understanding and perspective that comes with reading.

I started reading Ron Currie, Jr.'s Everything Matters! based on the strength of early reviews and my own literary predilection for pretty much anything with equal measure of doom and humor (yes, Harry Crews is a favorite). Long story short: while still in his mother's womb, Junior Thibodeau receives a prophecy that the world will be annihilated by a comet in a little more than 36 years. Currie's writing is glorious -- in one scene, after the space shuttle Challenger has blown up, the booster rockets "fly wildly away from the initial breakup, still under their own power, tracing slow, chunky vapor trails like illiterate skywriters" -- and there is more than enough sadness and ruin to keep someone with my tastes reading (I'm about halfway through the book).

But what of the cover? It's designed by the insanely talented Paul Buckley (great interview from '06 here), and clearly its greatest strength is its use of Amy Bennett's painting "Sleeping Separately." The painting is from a series called Neighbors, and Amy was kind enough to let me reproduce the painting in full (click the image for a slightly larger view):

Amy's process is amazing: she builds miniature 3D models that serves as still lifes which she then paints. Again, Amy was kind enough to give me permission to quote from her Web site:

"I constructed a fictional model neighborhood. I considered who lived in each home, their family dramas, and the way their private lives might spill into view of their neighbors. The model became a stage on which to develop the psychological implications of belonging to a particular family, with all of its dramas, struggles and familiar routines. I thought: this tree will be taken down after an old man crashes into it; a father will transform this lawn into an ice skating rink; this house will be abandoned after its residents are scandalized on the evening news."

There's an initial peacefulness and traquility to this painting that's ultimately betrayed by loneliness and isolation and, ultimately, by the terror of the night sky and the destruction that it will bring. It's a staggeringly appropriate image for the cover of this book. Does the painting lose a little bit of its power with the crop and the title placement? Sure. But these are the realities of book cover design. Kudos to Paul Buckley for finding and using this wonderful image, and to Amy Bennett for painting it. It makes a lot of sense if you read the book :-)

See Amy Bennett's Neighbors series here, and Paul Buckley's Flickr stream here.

Buy this book from Amazon.com, or from Indie Bound.

The Slippery Year

2009-08-13T22:13:00.010-05:00

Design by Barbara de Wilde

I admit it: I'm a sucker for this kind of thing, if only because I wonder how many kegs one has to deliver to the marketing department to get this approved and out the door.

A unique twist on the cover-on-cover idea we've discussed before. I wonder what this would look like with stronger, bigger type and without the chair, letting the slipped cover do all of the work. I betcha the evolution of this one was pretty interesting. Who's got the comps? :-)

UPDATE: Reader Christopher King pointed this out (design by Post Typography):

Five Spice Street

2009-08-12T23:37:00.007-05:00

Cover painting by Yue Minjun

Five Spice Street's cover is notable because it features a portion of a painting called Look at the World by Chinese artist Yue Minjun. (Here's the whole thing, which is about 9 x 7 feet). I don't recall ever seeing one of his paintings used to illustrate a book cover. Anyone know of other examples?

Check out Flickr and the artist's site for lots more images of his work. But whatever you do, don't miss this one.

Hell

2009-08-08T23:56:00.023-05:00

Design credit to come

Robert Olen Butler has been tweeting as the Devil (hat tip to Jacket Copy), and there's some good stuff: "He once sold the Britannica door to door & betrayed a hundred fragile hearts & now he eternally reads lies about his sins on Wikipedia."

I love the Robert Goulet meets Bob Dobbs illustration (especially the horns & hair), and Hail Satan! for the restrained, non-combustible type.

But will the use of Twitter to promote books mean "illustration must scale down to 73 x 73 pixels" will become a design spec? 'Cause this looks pretty sweet:

Nineteen Eighty-Four Penguin UK Anniversary Edition

2009-08-06T06:56:00.006-05:00

Design by Gray318

Australian reader Mick sent this in. Orwell's books have gotten a good amount of coverage on The BDR; I think this could well be my favorite.

UPDATE: Check out the back, inside front and inside back covers. Wow. Hat tip to Alan Trotter.

Designing for Cultural Influence

2009-08-05T00:29:00.005-05:00

The Big Rewind designed by Jason Heuer
Everything Bad Is Good for You designed by Keenan

I post these next to each other -- or rather, on top of each other -- with no snarky intention. Jason Heuer is a friggin' rock star. But in both cases, and with very different books (Rabin's is a funny/sad memoir; Johnson's is sociological analysis), TV is the go-to design trope for popular culture. Should it be?

According to Homer, it's an uphill battle:

God Says No

2009-08-03T20:33:00.008-05:00

Art (belly band and casing) by Kevin Christy

Cover art that depicts Tinkerbell, Jesus, someone in Mickey Mouse ears, a dude in chaps and a cross is sure to grab my attention. I'll let you parse what's going on here; this review will help. Funny and quirky and referential and sacrilegious to some: this is how I like my art. More from Kevin Christy here.

And here's what's under the band:

Imbibe!

2009-07-30T23:27:00.005-05:00

Design by Ben Gibson

And after a 12-hour work day, I'm doing exactly that.

Jason Gabbert of The Design Works Group and Faceout Books sent this in. Not only is it a pretty fun cover, but it served as my introduction to The Museum of the American Cocktail. New Modern Wing at the Art Institute, you'll just have to wait your turn.

UPDATE: Jason points out there's a belly band on this book. Check out designer Gibson's site for a view of what's underneath.

1959: The Year Everything Changed

2009-07-28T23:30:00.006-05:00

Design by Susan Olinsky

What's special about 1959? According to author Fred Kaplan, it's when we shrugged off tradition and got our modern funk on: Miles Davis released Kind of Blue, Burroughs published Naked Lunch, the Guggenheim opened, and Searle petitioned the FDA for approval of the first birth control pill, among other things (history lesson courtesy of Publishers Weekly). Olinsky's minimal design respects the wealth of these achievements without resorting to the "photo quilt;" heck, I could have even done without the buildings.

Type geeks, chime in: what's the title typeface, and is it appropriate to the late '50s?

The Alternative Hero

2009-07-27T21:10:00.006-05:00

Design by Keenan

Sometimes it's worth waiting to see a book cover in the store -- and here's the important part -- among others. I saw Keenan's design for The Alternative Hero on the Knopf site before it was released, and just let it sit in the queue for awhile. Seeing it tonight on the new fiction shelf at Borders (I know...where's the photo? Bad blogger!) next to more pedestrian efforts underscored that this is really odd (in the best sense of the word), and that using a full facial photo would have lessened this design.

Friday Miscellany, July 24

2009-07-24T06:40:00.001-05:00

/1/ Over at Boing Boing, there's a fascinating, scary story surrounding the cover design of Justine Larbalestier's forthcoming Liar. Cory Doctorow's headline says it all: "Why is there a picture of a white girl on the cover of this book about a black girl?"

/2/ Unrelated but similar, from The Millions: "I love it! But why is the woman white?"

/3/ What doesn't Kindle provide? A nice hiding place for your ephemera. (Via Moby Lives.)

Slanted and Enchanted: The Evolution of Indie Culture

2009-07-22T22:01:00.005-05:00

Design by Rebecca Seltzer

The BDR's first mathematical equation*:

Hand job + flora (+/- fauna) + riot of color = the indie design aesthetic?

*The BDR is not a mathematician.

Ulysses and Us: The Art of Everyday Living (U.S. and U.K.)

2009-07-20T11:52:00.007-05:00

Designer credits to come
Marilyn Monroe photograph by Eve Arnold

Oh, I love this, from the Guardian review: "Unlike his snooty modernist peers, (Joyce) was a socialist and democrat who believed in mass literacy - and was happier discussing Dickens with post office workers than he was sitting in bohemian cafes. Reading Ulysses may be a challenge, but so are most jobs. We shouldn't need a sacred priesthood to interpret it for us."

I've seen this photograph before and it's wonderful; I wonder if Faber was tempted to use an image of someone less iconic, in order to further underscore the "Joyce is for the common man and woman" argument put forth by the author. And check this out: it's not the only time this image has been used on a book about Joyce.

The U.S. cover just isn't hitting the same notes for me:

UPDATE: The Caustic Cover Critic points out a few more examples of the use of this particular Marilyn photograph, in addition to the use of another similar photo.

The Double Life Is Twice As Good

2009-07-16T22:55:00.002-05:00

Design by Rex Bonomelli

A two-word critique: fucking kapow.

Two Covers Do Not a Trend Make

2009-07-15T22:54:00.009-05:00

Castle designed by Kyle G. Hunter; The White Mary designed by Kelly Blair
Buy The White Mary from Amazon.com
Buy Castle from Amazon.com

Two covers do not a trend make; let's get that out of the way. That said, these covers similarly portray the fearful exploration into the unknown that's at the heart of each novel.

In The White Mary, a journalist wanders into the jungles of Papua New Guinea to discover the truth about the alleged suicide of of her idol; in Castle, a private, awkward man buys over 600 acres in NY state only to discover there's someone living in the middle of his oasis.

Castle is definitely creepier, but both toy with representation and the anticipation that it brings to great effect.

Can anyone point out similar examples?

More Harvard Business Lessons Learned

2009-07-13T20:59:00.004-05:00

Wow, there are more of these than I first thought. And more to come in the next few months, too.

Crisis as Opportunity is the strongest of the bunch, I think, perhaps (?) because it breaks the rule of the series. (Doing Business Globally breaks it too, but I'm not sure what's going on there.)

Harvard Business Lessons Learned Series

2009-07-12T23:59:00.010-05:00

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?

A Reader Writes...

2009-07-09T15:27:00.003-05:00

(I'm currently traveling and caring for a sick family member so posts will be limited for a few days, but this landed in the comments on a recent post and it made me laugh, which is exactly what I need right now.)

"Auuuuugh!!

Listen People. Google “Book Cover Design Blogs”. This book blogging thing is getting way out of control. I’m all for freedom of speech but this market is more saturated than government TARP funds. The gig of promoting of one’s self or others through the guise of “information” is UP!

I know, I know, This blog was here long before others, but the spawned droids run amok!

OK, back to work!"

The Paranoid Style in American Politics

2009-07-06T09:37:00.005-05:00

Design by Brett Yasko

Because you don't really know what conspiracy is lurking around the corner...or do you?

A Cultural Dictionary of Punk

2009-07-05T22:29:00.005-05:00

Design by Sarah Rainwater
Buy this book from Amazon.com

Punk means different things to different people, which in a way is very punk. The cover of Nicholas Rombes' A Cultural Dictionary of Punk gestures away from politics and class and instead settles on the DIY aesthetic which for many is its defining characteristic. (Whether or not punk is dead was hotly debated over at the Jacket Copy blog a few weeks ago; check out their interview with Rombes and (especially) the comments.) I love the straightforward handbill look of this, and that there's no pink to be seen anywhere on this cover is a major plus in my book.

I don't discuss the interiors of books nearly enough as I'd like to or should (here's a notable exception), but I will note Rombes' book reproduces some pretty cool graphic design artifacts from the era, such as Linder Sterling's Buzzcocks poster:

W/R/T the above, Linder said of collage: "For a short period I'd found a perfect mode of articulation. Punk was cutting out the question, 'Can I do this?'"

The answer, of course, was (and still is) yes.

Laying Low for the Holiday

2009-07-03T18:09:00.005-05:00

Laying low for the July 4th holiday weekend, but if your book cover jones just won't quit, or you're new to the site, here are the most read posts of the year so far:

The BDR's Favorites of 2008

The BDR's Favorites of 2007

The BDR's Favorites of 2006

Books on Book Covers

The Craftsman

As always, thanks for stopping by. Traffic for The BDR is up 35% for the year so far, and I can't thank you enough for that.

Be safe, be nice, see you soon.

Ox-Tales Elements Series

2009-06-30T21:38:00.002-05:00

Design by Jonathan Gray

Rob Around Books beat me to it by a few hours while I was waiting for the designer's name from Profile Books, but since I already had it queued up, check out the design for this four-book collection of original stories meant to raise money for Oxfam. Rob's got the details, over at his post.

I Am Not Sidney Poitier

2009-06-30T06:19:00.002-05:00

Design by Kapo Ng@A-Men Project
Buy this book from Amazon.com

I love this cover for Percival Everett's I Am Not Sidney Poitier, about a man named Not Sidney Poitier (really) who is adopted by Ted Turner (yes, that one). There's much more to the story; Time Out NY's interview with Everett is a good place to start.

In less-skilled hands this could have gone wrong, with too much emphasis placed on the "Not Sidney" (I'm thinking about the usual suspects, like strikeout text or obscured faces). A book that deals with race and perception has to have characters who are out in the world; what better way to communicate this visually than with a calling card?

Burn This Book

2009-06-25T10:24:00.007-05:00

Designer credit to come
Buy this book from Amazon.com

Fellow book design bloggers Ben and Eric over at The Book Cover Archive blog posted the cover for the new paperback edition of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib earlier today, and I'm glad they did, as it gives us the opportunity (on two blogs) to discuss covers like the one you see below, the subtitle of which is "PEN Writers Speak Out on the Power of the Word."

Of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, Ben or Eric (sign your posts, fellas! :-)) writes "I find it timeless and wonderful, with a gravity rarely seen on the shelf...Solid, well balanced, impactful." As the day has drawn on I find myself agreeing with that assessment more and more, and it's helped me to see what's so strong about the cover for Burn This Book, a "collection of essays that explore the meaning of censorship and the power of literature to inform the way we see the world, and ourselves."

Both designs provoke us to think about definitions. Publishers Weekly calls The Ballad of Abu Ghraib "the complete story of Abu Ghraib." I'm old and cynical enough to know there's never a complete story, and I think the Penguin designer of The Ballad of Abu Ghraib knows this too. We're familiar with some -- but not all -- of the images of torture perpetrated at that prison, but no matter how "complete" the visual and historical record becomes, there will always be something about what happened there that is not accessible to us as readers or to designers who are tasked with defining, visually, what the book tries to communicate.

Americans throw around the word "censorship" like Krewe members throwing beads off a Mardi Gras float. You're not being censored if you can't wear shorts to work. You're not being censored if Apple doesn't sell your stupid app. Not being able to mourn your dead, getting shot for demonstrating election results, governments banning art and books as incendiary: that gets us closer to a definition. But what does it feel like? What does it look like? Again, wisely, Burn This Book's designer knows better than to try to reduce censorship to a single visual conventional image.

So. Check out the cover design for The Ballad of Abu Ghraib (and Burn This Book, of course) and tell me what you think about what I contend is thoughtful, brilliant design.

A Deadly Collaboration

2009-06-24T00:01:00.000-05:00

I've long been a fan of Gregg Kulick's quirky, funny covers and collage illustrations for Michael Largo's death-obsessed books.

Kulick recently designed This Will Kill You; different authors, similar aesthetic, same great result (actually, this might be my favorite of them all):

Her Fearful Symmetry

2009-06-23T06:22:00.000-05:00

Simon & Schuster tweeted yesterday that the cover for Audrey Niffenegger's second novel Her Fearful Symmetry is final; sorry but I couldn't find a larger image other than this one, from the S&S site. The book is set in and around Highgate Cemetery and there's a ghost or two, so this skyward view from a creepy place works real nicely, I think.

I couldn't help but think almost immediately of Jen Wang's design for In The Woods; anyone know if she's involved with the Niffenegger book?

A Writer Asks

2009-06-23T06:20:00.000-05:00

A BDR reader (who's also a writer) asked me a great question a few days ago:

"I think a great deal about what a book will look like when it's done. Ultimately, though, on my previous books, the jackets were done with little or no say from me. Now, as I finish up another, I wonder: How does a writer push his publisher to pay attention to design? Can a writer lobby to have one of these elite designers you talk about so often assigned to his book?"

Anyone care to jump in?

Black Postcards, Hardcover and Paperback

2009-06-21T20:35:00.002-05:00

Designer credits to come

On top, the hardcover. Below that, the paperback. I love seeing little tweaks like this. Wareham (Galaxie 500, Luna, Dean & Britta) is a musician after all; why hasn't the guitar been there all along?

Would You Like That With Fur, or Without?

2009-06-18T06:56:00.001-05:00

Designer credits to come

Jacket Copy recently asked: "Will there really be a fur-covered edition of The Wild Things?" Apparently, there will be. This was posted on Gawker and it's also in the McSweeney's store:

For those who like their books a little less hirsute, there's this:

Thanks to Theresa Evangelista for pointing out the Gawker post.

The Daydreamer, US and UK

2009-06-17T06:35:00.001-05:00

US design by Megan Wilson

Portraying what a daydreamer sees (the US cover, first image) strikes me as more powerful than an external view of the act of daydreaming (the UK cover, second image).

These Are Not Book Jackets

2009-06-15T22:15:00.009-05:00

We've all got our knickers in a twist over the future of book publishing and what it means for the book arts, but have you ever thought about the potentially lucrative future of this-is-not-a-book-cover book cover design? ;-)

(Top image is from Amazon.com, bottom from Amazon.co.uk.)

An Anthology of Graphic Fiction, Cartoons, and True Stories: Volume 2

2009-06-14T22:10:00.005-05:00

The Daniel Clowes-drawn cover draws you in, but under the dust jacket is the real payoff: two William Steig illustrations printed on the hard casing.

Anyone know if there are similarly delightful surprises on vol.1?

Friday Miscellany, June 12

2009-06-12T00:02:00.000-05:00

/1/ Video of Chip Kidd at Typo Berlin. Money quote: "I'd like to stay in book design; I don't know if book design wants to stay in the world."

/2/ Previously mentioned on the BDR Twitter feed, but worth pointing out again: the Australian cover for Nick Cave's The Death of Bunny Munro is, um, interesting.

/3/ Marie Mundaca on designing for David Foster Wallace. Will typing his name ever not make me sad?

Hamlet

2009-06-10T06:14:00.001-05:00

Design by W.H. Chong

Something tells me the young adults at which John Marsden's contemporary novelization of Hamlet is aimed -- even (especially?) those who agree with the mighty Couch Flambeau ("I hate Shakespeare / He's too hard to read / I wish he were dead / Oh, he is?") -- might give the Bard another shot when they see this. Yes, the placement of "a novel" is pretty horrible. But if you're a 13-year-old, do you care?

Before the Big Bang

2009-06-08T06:17:00.002-05:00

Design by Angela Goddard

I'd love to think for the sake of balanced scientific and philosophic inquiry there's a chicken on the back cover. But Stephen Hawking says it's all about the egg.

I'm Down

2009-06-04T13:27:00.008-05:00

Design by Rob Grom

I had to ask designer Rob Grom about his cover for Mishna Wolff's memoir of "(growing) up in a poor black neighborhood with her single father, a white man who truly believed he was black."

Says Rob: "I was provided with a bunch of photos from the author and the classic school portrait stood out from the rest. I originally wanted have a custom made gold chain with the title on it, or an embroidered hat with the title on it, but my creative director Steve Snider thought that it should have the same feel as the book cover for Born to Kvetch. So, we brainstormed and decided an afro was the way to go."

Jennifer Carrow's design for Born to Kvetch appears below. Both make me smile.

The Humbling

2009-06-03T06:09:00.002-05:00

Design by Milton Glaser
Buy this book from Amazon.com

Simply wonderful design by Milton Glaser for Roth's tale of "one of the leading American stage actors of his generation, now in his sixties, (who) has lost his magic, his talent, and his assurance." This aches: there's real sadness and loneliness and no joy here, and the spotlight shining through the stage floor reinforces that it is shining on nothing.

Some info about Glaser's relationship with Roth here, and a shout-out to The Oxen of the Sun blog, where I first saw this cover. (Check out his leather-bound copy of Murakami's After Dark.)