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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.
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 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.)
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)
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.)
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.)
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!)
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.
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