Book Cover Archive blog

Love this simple book graphic featured in the latest issue of Matériel. Graphic by Steven Reimuth (I’d link to his site but there’s nothing on it.)

I’ve just posted a few thoughts on whether or not it is legitimate to feature advertising the Book Cover Archive.

If this topic is of interest to you, head over there and let me know what you think.

I admit I shed a mental tear when YouWorkForThem announced they were killing off its book section for good, so I rejoiced a bit when they released the Book Archive this morning. A massive collection of all the books you were always trying to get your relatives to buy you for the holidays.

Semirelated: you may have heard that Mike Cina left YWFT/WWFT. An amazingly talented guy, I’m sure he’ll blow us all away with his solo work sooner than later.

Online Universities(.com) has a post about their favorite covers of all time. Lots of the usual suspects with a few classics interjected here and there.

By Way Shape From, 2006

Lovely new site. Talented SOB.

We added a “random” function to the Archive last week. I have to say that it is pretty glorious.

Quick, someone use this on something. A collage of fireworks compiled from over 50 photos

Love this artist series from the Creative Superstore. Illustrations by Ed Templeton, Tim Biskup, Cleon Peterson, Marke Newton, Deedee Cheriel and Ramsey Dau.

20×200 will be selling a print by book cover designer (among other things) Stefanie Posavec later today.

A Literary Organism was first used in a project where I explored methods of visualizing the writing style of Jack Kerouac in On the Road. For this piece, I analyzed Benjamin’s essay for word count per sentence and by themes within its structure, and I did it all by hand. Some people knit, I enjoy the act of painstakingly analyzing text with a pen and a highlighter, as to me, the process of gathering the data is as equally important as the visual outcome.

The print will be available in a few hours, with a special coupon code embedded somewhere in 20×200’s mailing list.

The print:

Some more of Posavec’s work:

Have a nice weekend

An amazing student project from designer Tom Petty (best URL ever?)

…I therefore decided to hand-draw the type in a traditional style seen on signs of the period, so I had to cut all of the letters by hand with a scalpel out of 400 gsm (140 lb) board and run it through a traditional press.

See more over at For Print Only.

Thanks Alison!

To summarize a decade’s worth of brilliant design with 20 covers is little more than an exercise in futility. We can all agree, however, that the best part of passing into a new digit bracket is the lists that come with it. This collection is little more than a representation of my own tastes, but I tried to choose works which were representative of their respective years.

I beat myself up quite a bit when putting this together, but there are still a handful of notables worth mentioning:

- Any of gray318’s covers for Safran Foer.
- Any of Kidd or Gall’s covers for Murakami
- Anything from Henry Sene Yee
- Anything from Paul Buckley or Darren Haggar over at Penguin US.

The Abomination, Chip Kidd
Art Direction by Carol Devine Carson

Runner-up
Faster, Jamie Keenan
Art Direction by John Gall

A General Theory of Love, John Gall
Photographer, Boris Schmalenberger

Runner-Up
The Darkness and The Light, Chip Kidd

The Egg Code, Evan Gaffney
Art Direction by Carol Devine Carson

Runner-up
Lullaby, Rodrigo Corral

Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid on Earth, Chris Ware

Runner-up
Oryx And Crake, John Gall

A Shortcut Through Time, Peter Buchanan-Smith

Runner-up
Killing the Buddha, Paul Sahre
Photograph by Jason Fulford

Murder, gray318
Representative of the Penguin 70th anniversary box set.

Runner-up
Book One, Mark Melnick
Art Direction by Chip Kidd

The Prisoner of Guantanamo, John Gall

Runner-up
Race Riots, David Drummond

Exile and the Kingdom, Helen Yentus
Art Direction by John Gall
Representative of the Camus Series

Runner-up
One Perfect Day, Evan Gaffney
Art direction by Darren Haggar

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, David Pearson
Representative of the Penguin Great Ideas series.

Runner-up
Obsession, Isaac Tobin
Illustration by Lauren Nassef

The Way Through Doors, Helen Yentus, Jason Booher
Art Direction by John Gall

Runner-up
The Original of Laura, Chip Kidd

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Feel free to tell me how wrong I am in the comments.

In honor of this momentous occasion, I give you two great covers:

Photograph by Mike Venables. Seen at CCC.