Books Covered by Tobias

CHECK OUT

... what books to give as gifts this year, according to the Times.

... these lunch bags that this talented and devoted father creates for kids every day on his lunch break. [via]

... i love typography

Deep Thoughts

"One of the things that I find most people misunderstand about cover design on 'the outside' is that so much of what happens is determined editorially, or in a marketing meeting. You try your best, but at the end of the day, most things are not going to turn out the way you liked. That’s why it behooves one to do a high volume of work. The law of averages suggests that you’ll end up with something to be proud of amongst the dreck at the end of the day."—Peter Mendelsund

Is this available on Amazon?

Michelangelo: La Dotta Man has arrived at the New York Public Library as a gift from the book's publisher. The $100,000 Italian handmade book has a cover of marble and weighs 62 lbs. Twenty copies of the tome have already been sold. Christmas is coming... 

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... things magazine's collection of Pelican covers from the 1930's to the 1980's.

... Peter Mendelsund's new endeavor.

... Brand Images' 360 Paper Water Bottle. Amazing.

CA Design Annual, Book Winners

I personally think there are too few winners in the Books category of the Communication Arts 2008 Design Annual. But these four are deserved winners:
• Wet Apples, White Blood (Cover: David Drummond)
• All the Sad Young Literary Men (Cover: Paul Buckley/Jason Kernevich/Dustin Summers)
• The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (Cover: Anne Twomey)
• Sedaris (Cover: David Drummond)

O.C.D.—Obsessive Cover Disorder

Magazine publisher Kenneth Whyte writes an insightful account of his obsessiveness with the cover of his first book, "The Uncrowned King: The Sensational Rise of William Randolph Hearst". Whyte's tale confirms what I have always surmised about the relationship between an author and his cover:

Yet I couldn’t help thinking that I’d spent five years writing The Uncrowned King and that I might never feel up to the chore of writing another book. If this was my one shot, I should do my best to get the cover right, on the assumption that covers are every bit as crucial to books as to magazines. I told myself that my input was important: if I know magazine buyers, I know book buyers—readers are readers.

I also knew, better than anyone else, the story that the cover was supposed to reflect—how in 1895 a wealthy young Californian, William Randolph Hearst, bought a feeble New York daily and engaged Joseph Pulitzer, the undisputed king of American journalism, in the most spectacular newspaper war of all time. By 1898, Hearst had supplanted Pulitzer as the dominant force in New York publishing, and was on his way to becoming one of the most powerful and fascinating private citizens in 20th-century America. It’s a big sprawling story with drama, romance, murder, prizefights, jailbreaks, literary scandals, enormous fortunes, brilliant new technologies, genocidal wars, the most exciting election in American history (with fascinating echoes of the Obama campaign)—and it all raises crucial questions about the role of journalism in our lives. Who, if not me, was going to capture all that in a single cover?

At one point Whyte becomes disgusted with Random House's refusal to listen to his "suggestions", that he stops taking call from the publisher, much to the chagrin of his agent. In the end Random House procedes with their choice for the cover and Whyte concedes. He confesses:

Foiled, chastened, I returned to my endnotes and resolved from that point forward to do with professionalism and good cheer everything asked of me by my editor, and I’m proud to say that some days I did.

CHECK OUT

... Imitation, Influence... and Coincidence, a show exploring the history of photography's relationship with book covers. Or visit in person.

... the story behind this quote: "Fans wanted pics with me, wanted to touch me, we posed with our hands cupped to copy the cover," she said. "I feel like I'm part of a movement somehow." The end is near.

... where to track how much time you spend on facebook, blowing your nose, or reading stories about hand models

Roughed-Up

Font Feed has a nice little tutorial (*link fixed*) on how to give your type a nice roughed-up or stamp-like feel. Sure, you can buy fonts that have the effect, but usually the effect looks unnatural.

So, you can see on the header of the post that the effect worked pretty well. Though, this would have been more helpful to know about three years ago as I reckon this trend has already overstayed its welcome.

Check out

... anything by David Drummond. You will walk away amazed and questioning how you can call yourself a designer.

...The Little Know-It-All. A book for designers, reviewed on a blog about books for designers.

... Whatever Martha. The funniest show on television.

A Fresh Bible Cover

It is rare for a Bible cover to be illustrative of the content. Except for a few children's Bibles, most of the covers gracing the Holy Bible are reflective of the market: photos of coffee cups and flowers and faux leathers are the rage. So, it is unusual to see a well-designed cover that illustrates a bit of the Scripture's message.

In this colorful, full-wrap, illustrative cover for UK publishing house Hodder & Stoughton, design studio Crush has depicted a mirrored image of creation. The top being before "the fall" (though technically incorrect since Adam and Eve had no reason to cover-up before their sin), and the bottom being the effects of sin (death and decay) on both first parents as well as the creation itself.

It is a great attempt to illustrate the beginning of the story of redemption, though the climax doesn't appear—that being the restoration of all things in Christ. But, overall it is a refreshing change to the warm-and-fuzzy seeker-friendly covers that sell most Bibles today.

More discussion and photos at fontfeed.