Earliest Known Book Jacket Discovered

Oxford University’s Bodleian Library discovered what it thinks may be the oldest known book jacket. LINK

Early book jackets were not treated as the marketing pieces they are today–instead they were meant to be a means of protecting the book’s delicate binding from dirt and abrasions, which it fully covered much like the wrapper of a package… hence the term “dust jacket” I suppose?

New Cover—Classic Toys Hall of Fame Book

I recently finished work on a complete design for a book produced in conjunction with Running Press and the National Toy Hall of Fame in Rochester. You may remember the Toy Hall of Fame from recent news, where they inducted a “stick” into their permanent museum exhibit. Curators ”praised its all-purpose, no-cost, recreational qualities, noting its ability to serve either as raw material or an appendage transformed in myriad ways by a child’s creativity.” Amen.  This was a really fun job to work on, and the Running Press folks helped turn it into a seriously nice end result.

 

Favorite Book Cover Designs of 2008

The Book Design Review has posted the winning cover designs for 2008, as voted for by readers of the BDR blog. The winning choice certainly isn’t the one I would have picked, although it’s certainly a nice enough cover. My fave–Obsession–did at least rank, although it didn’t make the top 3. I was also glad to see Against Happiness rank as well–both of these are ultra-simple designs that distill the greater idea down to its purest essence–which in my opinion often makes for quick communication and an excellent cover.  But, some very nice work overall by everyone involved!

David Drummond Interviewed by Tobias

One of my most favorite book cover designers–David Drummond–is interviewed by another excellent designer–Christopher Tobias–on Books Covered, Tobias’ personal blog. It’s a wonderful interview, and provides some great insight into the inner mind of yet another wonderfully creative individual. Chris has done some other good interviews as well, but Drummond happens to be a guy whose work I’ve followed for a number of years. Good reading for anyone interested in cover design–and thanks to both Chris and David for taking the time to put it together.

1930s – 1980s Pelican Covers

A very nice array of old Pelican book cover designs ranging from the 30s up to the 80s, hosted by (and thanks to) Things Magazine. Pretty amazing changes in design styles, especially within the last 20 years. The next logical thought is what will design styles look like in another 20 years? Good luck trying to figure that out. Whatever… for now, Enjoy!

Book Design Winners–Their Top 10 Typeface Choices

The American Association of University Presses (AAUP) holds an annual juried design show cataloging the best designs from across the country. FontFeed tallied the typefaces used from the past three year’s winners, and came up with a Top 10 list of fonts. The only surprise is… that there’s no surprise: classic choices top to bottom. While I wholeheartedly agree that there are lots of other choices out there, the alternatives aren’t typically going to show up in a Top 10 list. The classics are classic for a reason: they’re readable, predictable (in a good way), don’t draw too much attention to themselves, and work well in a variety of design situations. But trends do change, and I’m sure another review in a year or two will yield a couple new names. Meanwhile, you won’t go wrong with any on this year’s list.

A Fine Collection of Old Book Trade Labels

Excellent collection of old book trade labels can be found HERE, with thanks to SevenRoads.org for compiling all of these little gems in one place. Several really good designs, along with a bunch that are only average–but all of them interesting and worthy in some small way. “Publishers, printers, binders, importers, distributors and sellers of books–new, second-hand and antiquarian–used to advertise in this way their contribution to bringing the book to market.” The intention is to grow the collection, so it’ll be worth checking back in every so often.

Digging Deeper into the Art of Book Cover Design

A really excellent blog was recently started by Jason Gabbert at the DesignWorks Group: Cover Design Issues FaceOutBooks.com. The stated purpose is clear and simple:  ”This venue has been created to appreciate the practice of book cover design.”  An excellent designer in his own right, Jason has taken on the task of interviewing various cover designers about how they handled the design of various book covers, and then posting the responses on his blog–great insight for people such as myself who don’t work in a group environment every day. LINK  Keep up the good work, Jason.

Readius Book Reader’s Flexible Screen: Size Matters

The New York Times‘ technology section reports on the Readius reader–an electronic device that’s the size of a cell phone, but utilizes a flexible fold-out screen to allow viewing on a more convenient size window. The device is made primarily for reading books, magazines, newspapers, and mail. 

I’ve been watching the technological changes in electronic book readers with a curious eye. At some point, sooner rather than later I think, someone will enter the market with one that is compact and easily portable–and yet enough like a real book in the ways that are important to people–that the scales will finally tip, and the world of books and publishing will be forever changed, almost over night. Or at least, it will seem that way. The Readius is certainly approaching that milestone in some areas.

More to come on this in the near future, I’m sure. Thanks to Karen Horton at design:related for the post.

Penguin’s Wonderful “Great Ideas” Collection

Masterful design & typography displayed on David Pearson’s site showing all three volumes of Penguin’s “Great Ideas” philosophy collection. Beauty in simplicity… just magnificent. Volume 1, Volume 2, Volume 3. Thanks again to BoingBoing for the find.

Book Reader Buying Survey Provides Interesting Results

The New York Daily Star provides some recent survey results about book readers that you might find interesting:

–11 percent of people like to read digital books.
–13 percent of those who would consider digital books are under age 30.
–6 percent of those who would consider digital books are over age 65.
–43 percent of people visiting bookstores go there looking for a specific title.
–77 percent who are looking for a specific title then go on to purchase more books.
–52 percent buy a book for its cover art (who says you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover?).
–49 percent are influenced by book reviews in their purchases.
–60 percent of purchases are influenced by recommendations from family and friends.
–35 percent of purchasers bought a book because of the quote on the cover.
–86 percent of purchasers buy books written by authors they like.
–49 percent of shoppers buy at both physical and online stores.

———————

I’d be willing to bet that more than 52% buy a book for its cover, or are at least swayed heavily by the cover art… I know I am. It makes a difference, even though it probably shouldn’t. But I’m glad it does.

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.

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

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.

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? 

For Love of the Ampersand

Can you believe it?  I can… a blog devoted entirely to the art & beauty of that little character, the ampersand. Enjoyable, interesting, and just the sort of thing that the Web is so good at:  allowing us all to follow the rabbit hole to whatever minor little niche interest that might attract us on any given day. This one’s certainly worthy of a glance.

In Case You Need a New Design Trick…

…this one’s already been used. And used, and used, and USED. The “A-Frame” it’s called. Human legs, spread in the foreground, usually viewed from behind, framing the greater scene in the distance. Some excellent images in this group.