Entertainment Weekly’s Top 25 “Classic Covers”

For their 1,000th issue, EW has gathered up a slew of “classics” from the past 25 years, from movie posters to television to music… to book covers: the top 25 in each category. Being a designer, specifically a book designer, I’ll stick with the one category.

Unlimited room for agreement and disagreement / arguments and complaining for the covers on this list. Some don’t even make sense to me, but that happens most of the time when I walk into the bookstore, so why should this list be any different? One thing’s for sure: Chip Kidd gets kudos for making the list an amazing 5 times. Also very glad to see Rodrigo Corral’s A Million Little Pieces make it high on the list… always been one of my favorite covers.

Don’t have time to scare up images of these, but I’m sure someone will before too long. For now, you’ll just have to live with a simple listing, and Google the titles if you don’t know what the cover looks like…

1. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood (Designer: Fred Marcellino, 1986)
2. A Million Little Pieces, James Frey (Rodrigo Corral, 2006)
3. Everything Is Illuminated, Jonathan Safran Foer (Anne Chalmers, 2002)
4. Born to Kvetch, Michael Wex (Jennifer Carrow, 2005)
5. Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton (Chip Kidd, 1990)
6. Jimmy Corrigan, Chris Ware (Chris Ware, 2000)
7. The Wind-up Bird Chronicles, Haruki Murakami (Chip Kidd, 1997)
8. Prep, Curtis Sittenfeld (Allison Saltzman, 2005)
9. August, Judith Rossner (Fred Marcellino, 1983)
10. Oh The Glory Of It All, Sean Wilsey (Non-Format, 2005)
11. Glamorama, Bret Easton Ellis (Chip Kidd, 1998)
12. Holidays on Ice, David Sedaris (Rymn Massand, 1997)
13. The Fuck-Up, Arthur Nersesian (Deklah Polansky, 1997)
14. High Fidelity, Nick Hornby (Archie Ferguson, 1995)
15. Bright Lights, Big City, Jay McInerney (paperback original) (Lorraine Louie, 1984)
16. Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser (Martha Kennedy, 2001)
17. Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno (Pirate Signal International, 2004)
18. Presumed Innocent, Scott Turow (Tom Tafuri/One Plus One Studio, 1987)
19. A Wolf at The Table, Augusten Burroughs (Chip Kidd, 2007)
20. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, J.K. Rowling (Mary GrandPré, 1997)
21. Blindness, José Saramago (Claudine Guerguerian, 1998)
22. All The Pretty Horses, Cormac McCarthy (Chip Kidd, 1992)
23. Geek Love, Katharine Dunn (Chip Kidd, 1989)
24. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, Mark Haddon (Michael Ian Kaye, 2003)
25. The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, Michael Chabon (Will Staehle, 2007)

Amazing War of the Worlds Cover Collection Spans Decades

A truly astounding collection of War of the Worlds cover designs:

“… the covers represent a huge swath of graphic design, from 1898 to the present, across languages and through the effects of radio, movie, musical, and television re-interpretations.”  To say the least.

The 1953 Heinemann cover art is borrowed from a movie of that vintage; if my memory serves me correctly, it’s the same movie that scared the absolute piss out of me when I was a young lad. Still haunted by those creatures.

Thanks for sharing, Dr. Zeus.

Helvetica Film Available on DVD

I hadn’t realized it, but the Helvetica documentary film that’s been selling out in cities all over the world is available on DVD–which also means NetFlix, of course. I’m putting it on my queue right now, since I missed it when it came through Nashville.  See the screening schedule here.

Bond Bound: Ian Fleming Books All Covered Up

The Scotsman notes that the “Ian Fleming and the Art of Cover Design” exhibition makes its way to Edinburgh July 5. (This is old news to Bond freaks out there.) The show “charts the role artists and designers have played in developing the Bond image from the 1950s to the present day.”

The exhibition “includes film posters, letters and previously unseen archive material. However, the book covers give the greatest insight into how attitudes to Bond–and to sex and violence–have shifted over the past half-century.”

They take us through a series of cover designs of the first Bond novel, Casino Royal, with a bit of interesting social commentary by the exhibit curator. Fun reading, and not often you get to compare decades of changing social trends through a single book title. LINK

Charles & Ray Eames Stamps Arrive at the Post Office

 

As of June 17, the commemorative STAMPS celebrating the designy husband and wife team of Charles & Ray Eames are available from your local post office. They were some of the most important and groundbreaking designers of the 20th century, and their work has seen some serious resurgence in recent years. I was mostly familiar with their furniture designs, as I grew up with several pieces of Eames furniture in our 50s ranch house in Nashville, but they were heavily involved in architecture, industrial design, film, and exhibits as well. My dad still owns an original bent-wood Eames chair (see lower right corner on the stamp sheet).

I was the first person to buy a sheet at the 37027 post office, according to the clerk that waited on me. Wow… that and a dollar might get me a half-cup of coffee at McDonalds.

Go grab a sheet or two… well worth the $7 bucks.

 

Quick Trick for Creating Distressed Type

I know, I know… it’s been done and done and done to death.

But still, there are times when you really need a couple of words in just the right font to have that convincing “distressed” look. I stumbled across THIS quick little method of distressing type in Photoshop that’s easy to do and offers options for adjusting the level of distress as well. Won’t take that long to do, and gives the type a pretty convincing letterpress or rubber stamp appearance. Hope it’s helpful.

Author Sues Bookstores for Selling His Book

COPYRIGHT FOOLISHNESS that defies logic reported this week in Publishers Weekly: several bookstores (including Amazon and Barnes & Noble) are named in a lawsuit filed by an author for selling his book. Nice way to make friends and influence people.

Shakespeare was right. About the lawyers.

Cool Old Collections Stickers for Those Really Stubborn Accounts

Ran across some very nifty old collections stickers in an article about collecting past due payments. With the economy getting rockier by the day, even some of your best paying clients may be getting a little slow, or even downright late.

Their advice in a nutshell: stay after your slow accounts, as the squeaky wheel tends to get the oil. People in the business of collections say starting out nice is always your best bet, and become gradually more aggressive as time goes along. Stay away from threatening language as long as possible, and always be open to some sort of payment plan so you’re at least receiving some money. Remember, these people are your clients, and you’re all in the soup together.

Heck, if nothing else works, maybe plastering one of these old reminders on your letter will get someone’s attention. Certainly can’t hurt to try!

Truly Fine Industrial Design, Hunter Style

We’re not about industrial design around here, but once in a while I run across a product that’s so well thought out that I have to rave about. Such is the case with my new Hunter oscillating fan, shown below–”The Rockefeller” they call it, and it’s a masterpiece of Art Deco design and quality execution. 

Very nicely made, and a fine addition to my office on these steamy hot summer dayz. Don’t know if the design is new or if it’s an updated variation of an old one. Whatever the case, the Hunter design guys did a fine job–it’s solid, sturdy, quiet, and man, it really blows!

FWIW, I looked at a Vornado fan that was similarly styled. Vornado’s an old fan company that I happen to be familiar with, and I was all set to buy theirs just for their logo alone (yes, I sometimes make buying decisions based on such silly things–oh well, I’m a designer and I appreciate good design.) However, after reading a comparative review, it was obvious it didn’t compare quality-wise to the Hunter, plus it’s not nearly as sporty looking, either.

So, I’m now a happy camper… and of course, I’m cooler than ever! ;-)

See Me on design:related

For a while now, I’ve been a part of a designer’s social networking site called design:related. Just in case anyone’s interested, you can see some of my work there, along with about a zillion other designers as well. You’ll see some very nice work by lots of very talented people. Check it out when you have a moment.

Quark 8: Wandering into Oblivion

CreativePro.com has an early peek at the upcoming Quark 8. The gist of the article: basically, Quark makes an effort to become “more Creative Suite-like”. Uggh.  I knew it was bound to happen.

OK, you may as well know: I’m a dinosaur…  I’ve been using Quark since my first days on a computer, somewhere around 1991 I believe. It’s served me well, and I consider it to be an excellent program. Yes, I know all the reasons why people have hated Quark: insufferable cockiness and arrogance, slow or invisible customer service, overpriced and unwilling to give reasonable educational or quantity discounts, blah blah blah…  Still, in my book, their program architecture has always seemed very intuitive and amazingly simple for what is a very complex program.  

Enter Adobe, a veritable marketing machine. They quietly and systematically rolled out their own “Quark Killer”, InDesign, grouping it with their existing programs to create a Creative Suite of designer’s software. Quark’s arrogance instantly became their feet of clay. Before they knew what hit ‘em, Adobe had repositioned themselves as the new professionals. Extremely competitive pricing and placement in colleges as the “standard” design software suite has moved Adobe to the… head of the pack? I’m not positive about this, but if it ain’t true yet, it likely will be. 

So now, Quark–feeling the pressure–is about to make themselves more “Adobe-like”. Uuh boy… for me it’s a sad day, a day I suspected was coming but one that I still held out hope would not. Don’t get me wrong: Adobe has great products, and they’re a great company. But they’ve never had the knack for the certain types of simplicity and intuitiveness that I’ve always admired in Quark. Adobe, by virtue of their sheer size and power, is now getting to create “the standards” in the design software world, and just like VHS vs. beta, I don’t think the best standard will necessarily win. (One statement in the article that really goads me: “The Bézier path toolset in QuarkXPress 8 has been updated to be more “Illustrator-like” and uses standard conventions for path editing.” Oh please. Quark has wonderfully simple Bézier tools that I consider far, far superior to those of that trainwreck of a program called Illustrator. But alas, I’ve just re-made my previous point.)

Well… nothing to be done from here. Quark and Adobe will continue to duke it out, but I fear that instead of ingratiating more people to Quark, this latest makeover will only serve to drive more people away. I firmly believe many designers and companies are just waiting for a good reason to ditch Quark altogether, and this may well be the trick that does it. After all, who needs (or WANTS) two layout programs? Furthermore, who needs two programs that are becoming more and more the same?  Why own some quasi-variation of InDesign, when you can just switch over to the “new standard” and have the real thing? 

1930s Marriage Test: a Blueprint for Happiness

Great fun, kids:  Rate your spouse by 1930s-era standards!

husbandwifetest.pdf

“A psychologist’s attempt to improve marriages provides an interesting glimpse into the social norms of the 1930s—and into one of the first scientific matchmaking services.” A hell of a good read for anyone who’s married, been married, or not the least interested in getting married! Note the icy gaze of the presumed Dr. Crane–difficult to say whether he’s dealing with wayward adults or a nasty clutch of errant school children…  a sure bet to put you in the appropriately somber mood for the Serious Business about to follow.

Side note: I’m not sure it’s fair for men to be whacked for a whole demerit for “Rolls in bed covers–pulls them off wife.” (#41, husband’s test)  Seems like a fairly minor crime.

If you’re looking for a bit more info on the source, go here. 

Peep Hole Marketing Gimmick is Hilarious

I gather from the comments on BB that this isn’t the first time the world has seen this visual trick.  Oh sure, it probably doesn’t really get any new business, and it very probably annoys the dickens out of a lot of people… but it’s STILL remarkably clever–and absolutely hilarious!  Bound to be lots of other clever/funny images you could put to similar use. Adding it to my list of things to do to torment my neighbors who have peep holes.