Archive for June, 2009

Lisa Fyfe’s new site

Friday, June 26th, 2009

Lisa Fyfe, Art Director over at Henry Holt & Company, has new portfolio site up. You would do well to go give it a thrice over.





The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, an open question

Wednesday, June 24th, 2009

I’ve just added the Penguin Non-Classics cover for The Ballad of Abu Ghraib, and am curious to hear your thoughts on it. I find it timeless and wonderful, with a gravity rarely seen on the shelf. It is generic in its treatment in the same way that a Tschichold template is generic. Solid, well balanced, impactful. I wouldn’t be surprised in the slightest if someone pointed out that this was an obvious reference to an older cover. Fire away, if so.

What’s your take?

The Work of Iranian Designer, Parisa Tashakori

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Received an amazingly well-timed email this morning from the talented Parisa Tashakori, a graphic designer working out of Tehran. View all of her work here.

The political philosophy of feminism

Ordinary people of routine life

Your eyes are color’s spring

send Work of Dionysus

Jinns

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is looking for an Art Director

Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009

Anyone who’s in Boston or looking to be in Boston should give this a twice over. More details here.

(Thanks to Mr. Camlin)

2008 AIGA 50/50 Selections

Thursday, June 18th, 2009

The winners are up.

On the one hand, it’s just silly that the AIGA of all people can’t post larger images on their site. On the other, I’m not about to go through and track them all down, so I can’t point the finger too hard. Sorry about that.

Congratulations to all the winners.

One Bad Mother

Tuesday, June 16th, 2009

Metal Mother is the work of Matt Dorfman. I can’t find much information about the guy beyond:
(a) he’s a talented SOB, (b) he does a lot of editorial illustration work for Nicholas Blechman and Leanne Shapton at the NY Times.

His site
His blog.


















A brief note on blogging

Friday, June 12th, 2009

1) The Archive component of this site is doing its best to be a comprehensive resource for all the best contemporary book cover design available. This blog, however, isn’t. This is partly because I’m lazy and partly because there are other great book cover design blogs out there that I just assume you’re reading. Generally speaking, I try and avoid relinking news or designs from other sites. The community just isn’t large enough to merit that kind of redundancy (in my opinion).

I occasionally get worried that I’m not doing a good enough job posting the excellent work being featured on other sites, but I’ve recently come to the conclusion that that’s ok. God Bradbury invented RSS for a reason, right? So in case you haven’t seen it in the Footer of the main Archive, here’s a list of other book cover blogs you should really be checking:

Let me know if you notice any that I’m missing.

- – -

2) I’ve had a number of people ask me about my involvement with Covers, the blog I used to run at my old firm, Fwis. I did the majority of posts at Covers for over three years. It was and continues to be a great site. However, just to clarify, I’m no longer with Fwis and I’m no longer involved with their blog in any respect. I haven’t made a post there for going on 10 months.

Twitter on Paper

Thursday, June 11th, 2009

Sometimes book cover designer, Sam Potts brings you Twitter on Paper. It’s closing up shop for good this Friday, so better get your order in quick.

Harvard Review redesign, by Alex Camlin

Wednesday, June 10th, 2009

As someone who’s in Cambridge on an almost daily basis, I’ve been meaning to post this for a while now. Alex Camlin has outdone himself with this ridiculously nice redesign for The Harvard Review, a semi-annual(?) literary magazine out of ole’ Crimson.

The new covers are printed on a nice, toothy uncoated stock, and the books are bound with printed endpapers that repeat the pattern and color of the issue number (circle) that wraps around the spine.

Looking forward to seeing where he takes future editions.

Album cover for Outside Love, by the Pink Mountaintops

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Wave Books

Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009

Wave Books is an independent poetry press based in Seattle, Washington. Dedicated to publishing the best in American poetry by new and established authors, Wave Books was founded in 2005.

They’re doing an exemplary job of treating each of their books as a unique experience, with a huge amount of care put into each title. I can’t help but feel that books like this are a glimpse into the future of publishing. While most popular titles will go straight-to-digital, there will be a steady market amongst bookophiles who cherish the physicality of their collections, rewarding publishers like Wave Books for their infatuation with the printed word.

Oodles of respect to this small press for making design a priority.


Design by Stewart A. Williams


Design by Mary Ruefle, with J. Johnson


Design by Mary Ruefle, with J. Johnson


Design by Franck André Jamme & Wave Books


Design by Franck André Jamme & Wave Books


Design by Quemadura


Design by Quemadura


Design by Quemadura


Design by Quemadura


Design by Quemadura