-
The Casual Optimist, one of my all time favorite blogs, passed it’s 4th year in existence last week (blog birthday or blog-iversary?), and Dan celebrated by posting 50 memorable book covers from 2008-2011. The above are just 9 personal choices from that selection, all 50 are brilliant so go and have a look.
And if you don’t know about it, or aren’t already a reader, definitely be sure to check out The Casual Optimist. It really is a fantastic blog, always full of interesting things literary and design related, perfect for stoking my own interest in books and their covers. Plus check out @CasualOptimist for lots of literary links on twitter, and tumblr too for images; http://casualoptimist.tumblr.com/
-
I’m just back from an unplanned long weekend in Athens, Greece. Luckily in the 24 hours I had to get ready I managed to pick up the 2 books above. I’d had my eye on them both for ages, partly due to the stories but also thanks to the really eye catching and well designed covers!
It’s also worth mentioning that beyond the covers these are 2 really well designed books on the inside. Which you don’t see that often, usually they are very uniform. Boxer Beetle has this and a double page of press quotes in big letterpress type. While The Sisters Brothers has nice simple illustrated chapter title pages, a few random typographic intermissions and the whole body type has a vaguely Western feel which is appropriate but still very readable.
Design aside they were both very good books, would definitely recommend them, real page turners! I’m looking forward to Ned Beauman’s next book The Teleportation Accident which looks really good, and has a nice cover by La Boca.
-
Last thursday at D&AD New Blood I was lucky enough to attend an event run by publishers Laurence King. It was mainly a discussion between a few of the in-house team there, Laurence King himself, part time creative director Angus Hyland (also Partner at Pentagram) and the illustrator/author Marion Deuchars.
Was great to find out more about how a book gets published, from it’s initial conception to the final design. As well as hearing their thoughts on how the publishing industry is changing. My particular highlight was hearing advice from Angus (pictured above, with his book cover designs below that), who is a bit of a hero of mine, not just for his work but also the wide range of other things he is involved in. Anyway his advice was;
- Keep trying until you get a rejection, be persistent but not an annoyance.
- Always spell check everything and make sure you have the name of someone to contact (and spell that right too).
- Dig a little deeper when complimenting someone on their work, don’t just say you like the last few things they did.
He also said the 3 things he looks for in a designer;
- Good craft skills
- Creativity
- Enthusiasm
Overall it was a great event, and lovely of Laurence King to have some students along. Go have a look at their website and buy some books! Would recommend some, but there are far too many great ones to choose from, so go see for yourself.
-
Wow, so tomorrow I find out the result of my degree in graphic design! I believe this means I am no longer a design student (not that designers ever stop learning). I’ll be honest I came to uni having done barely any design, and without even much knowledge of the subject. I’ve been lucky enough to be at a great university, with a design philosophy that really suited me, and in the past 3 years I’ve learnt so much in both practical skills, and knowledge. Seems a good time for me to post the books that I think someone about to study graphic design or currently studying would really benefit from reading;
A Smile in the Mind and The A - Z of Visual Ideas will help you understand the concept of ideas in graphic design (look at the covers for a start) and A Technique for Producing Ideas might help you have some. The Art of Looking Sideways will show you that as a graphic designer it helps to be fascinated by everything, and Graphic Design: A Concise History will give you a really great start in understanding design history.
It’s Not How Good You Are, It’s How Good You Want To Be, Whatever You Think, Think the Opposite and The Medium is the Massage are short books that will make you think, and maybe see things differently.
Generally my advice if you are at uni now is read as much as you can while you have access to a library, especially in your first two years. I wish I could have had time to read more in my final year! I have a few more book recommendations here. I know not everyone likes reading as much as me, and it’s no guarantee of anything, but personally I’ve found it beneficial to my course and I wish I’d read some of these books a lot sooner!
-
Book covers designed by the super talented John Gall, whose work I meant to post about ages a go, but I totally forgot. Was reminded today by the news on twitter that he is the new creative director of Abrams books.
Oh and he has a tumblr where he posts collage work - http://nearlywaves.tumblr.com/
& just a regular tumblr blog too - http://johngall.tumblr.com/
-
Existential Ennui- Beautiful British Book Jacket Design of the 1950s and 1960s
See a lot of book covers like these in second hand bookshops, something so British about them. Very different from American or European book covers of the same time. They are quite hard to place in the overall history of graphic design, must be somewhere between the transition from commercial artists to modernist graphic designers.
Check out the original blog post by the collector of these books for dates and designer credits.
-
Last week the D&AD awards 2012 winners, nominations and longlists were announced, some brilliant things so im going to post my favorites this week.
Let’s Make Some Great Art by illustrator Marion Deuchars and published by Laurence King won a yellow pencil in the illustration category.
It’s hard to do it justice online, but it’s a really great and lovely looking book, full of interactive activities to get creative juices flowing and teach you about art and drawing. Marions work is always brilliant so great to see her win for this really interesting book, plus I love her handwriting! One of the best! Bit of trivia here, Laurence King creative director Angus Hyland is her husband, and also a partner at Pentagram London, talented couple!
-
Last week the D&AD awards 2012 winners, nominations and longlists were announced, some brilliant things so im going to post my favorites this week.
The above covers for author Don DeLillo won a yellow pencil in the book design category. They are published by Picador, with illustrations by negative space supremo Noma Bar! Who is definitely a very worthy winner!
Interestingly he was hired by the people who art directed the project, none other than INT Works the design studio arm of awesome magazine/blog It’s Nice That.
-
Scans from a vintage illustrated kids book I bought recently called The Bus That Went To Church by Jill Tomlinson. As usual I bought it for the illustrations rather than the words, but the story is kind of quirky but religious! It’s illustrated by Alan Howard, who I hadn’t heard of before but I think he did a lot of work for Faber Books over the years.
Great illustrations! Got the right sort of Mid-Century Modern feel that I’m into, but also a very definite sixties vibe (not surprising since it was published in 1965). You can see more from it on my flickr here
And if your into this sort of thing don’t forget to follow my other blog; http://midcenturymoderndesign.tumblr.com/
-
Book covers designed by Nathan Burton.
Great range in his work, and the 9 above are just a selection. The way the series design section of his website is pretty clever too, virtual spines!
-
On the Strand, the tumblr blog of the the publishing house Penguin, has been posting the new covers from the Penguin Essentials 2012 range, a new cover every day. Above are the seven they have released so far. Designed by (in this order); Apfel Zet, Sarah Watts, Luke Pearson, Nathan Burton, Maria Rivans, Martha Rich and Leanne Shapton.
You can see the spines of the whole set of books in a sneak preview here. Or you can look at the other covers that On the Strand hasn’t posted yet (as well as the 2011 covers) here, few of the remaining ones are great, especially liking the look of 3 Men In a Boat!
I think it’s great that Penguin let designers and illustrators have free reign like this every year, has some amazing results. It’s also pretty cool that they have a tumblr, so go ahead and follow it;
-
Book cover designed by Gray318 (website isn’t much use so look here for more). Nice cover, has a real classic feel to it!
Joe Dunthorne also wrote submarine, which I haven’t read or seen the film of, but I gather he is pretty good!
-
This looks really nice! Young Colossus is an illustrated book with a 6 song soundtrack, with music by Orlando Weeks (who’s out of the indie band The Maccabees) and drawings by Robert Hunter (who is awesome).
The website is rather good too; http://www.youngcolossus.com/
-
Book covers by American design duo The Heads of State.
Never knew they designed book jackets until I saw this interview on the blog Faceout Books;
“How did you become a book cover designer? What do you enjoy about your job?
We found our way to book cover design through poster design and
editorial illustration. Book covers are sort of close cousins to posters, especially illustrative posters. Designing covers is always a big honor
and an even bigger challenge. We’re both avid readers, so seeing
our work wrapped around a bound book is always quite a kick. But it’s
a unpredictable challenge. Digging in and finding the right cover for a
story is a different errand every time and that is what makes it terrifying
and exciting..” -
Last Thursday and Friday I was very lucky to have book designer David Pearson visiting NUCA for a design workshop. Above is a selection of his covers, mainly for the Penguin Great Ideas Series, for which he is best known. I’m an admirer of his designs, so It was really exciting to have the chance to work with him. Last year he came and did a lecture about his work, which you can read about along with a few other past posts about him here.
As for the workshop itself, it was brilliant. David is a very humble and friendly guy, totally enthusiastic about helping people with their work. He always saw the positives in everything everybody did, even when they were at very early rough stages. I had hoped to ask him some pertinent questions to post on here, but we ended up just chatting about other book designers and blogs and that sort of thing. I’m pretty pleased with the work thats come out of it as well, I had expected more input from David but he liked them and didn’t want to meddle in my work, but I guess thats a pretty good endorsement!
I don’t need to waste any time telling you how great he is at book cover design, because his work speaks for itself! But I can say he is also a really nice guy and refreshingly optimistic, his attitude was that less books are being published so all the more reason (and demand) for them to be more beautiful and better designed! Sounds like he has a very busy schedule, so its not all doom and gloom.
I still hope to post an interview with someone on here one day, but if you fancy reading an interview with David Pearson why not read this one here from The Casual Optimist
