Jackets Required: Extended Mix
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 5/11/2007 7:06:00 AM
The cover story of today’s issue of PW looks at jacket art from a design perspective. In a PublishersWeekly.com exclusive, bloggers Christopher Papasadero of the design firm Fwis's Covers and Joseph Sullivan of the Book Design Review give their opinions on works by Robert Bolaño, Miranda July, Mark Lynas and Henry Shukman.
| No One Belongs Here More Than You: Stories by Miranda July Designed by John Fulbrook III, Scribner  "I wouldn’t even pick it up off the shelf. Well, I might if I knew how twisted these stories are, but I’ve seen much creepier and distorted stories treated simply and elegantly without being so bland. This book deserved better."—Covers"A lot of folks won’t like this cover, but I was lurking near the new releases table at Borders and saw three people pick this up in less than five minutes. They were clearly intrigued by what they saw, or in this case, what they weren’t seeing."—BDR |
| The Savage Detectives by Roberto Bolaño Designed by Rodrigo Corral, FSG  "Its hard for me not to fall in love with anything hand-made these days, even if it’s as fast and simple as this. The lines wrap the otherwise pulpy type treatment with geometry and reason, creating a much more contemporary feel. A very effective treatment conceptually and very relevant to the book. The grapheme ñ really helps create further implications for the viewer."—Covers |
| Mortimer of the Maghreb: Stories by Henry Shukman Designed by Helen Yentus, Vintage  "I absolutely love this cover. Everything about it is pretty much perfect, with the exception of the newspaper. It seems scanned. Its placement and composition and type are all delectable, but the production seems a little quick. Conceptually, it’s elegant and risky."—Covers "Nicely illustrates one of the stories in the collection, and this is the kind of cover designers love: asymmetry and white space galore."—BDR |
| Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark Lynas Designed by Fourth Estate  "This book examines the consequences of global warming degree by degree. Using an older illustrative technique like woodcut hints at the nasty future while referencing the past. In other words, that Mac Pro ain’t gonna work under water. And the slightly askew text bobbing on the water clearly nails the premise of the book: shape up or—literally—ship out."—BDR |
