EVERYTHING YOU SAY
EVERYTHING YOU DO
WILL COME BACK
TO STAND WITH YOU

EVERYTHING YOU TRUST
EVERYTHING YOU FEEL
WILL COME BACK
TO KNEEL WITH YOU

EVERYTHING YOU SAY
EVERYTHING YOU TRY
WILL COME OUT
SOUNDING LIKE A LIE

EVERYTHING YOU TRUST
EVERYTHING YOU KNOW
WILL TURN TO DUST
WILL BLOW
AWAY

…Oh My My…

I’m cracking
I’m cracking
cracking
I’m cracking into a thousand pieces

OPEN UP YOUR EYES

mama mama please come quick
something’s wrong I’m feeling sick
mama mama I’m in a mess
I can’t lose this heaviness

oh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother

mary had a little lamb
little lamb
little lamb
mary had a little lamb
its fleece was…oh…

mama mama
I searched these hills for my sweet lamb
I carried myself up the mountain
And 5 men came out
And I laid myself down
And I looked around
And I couldn’t find my sweet lamb
I’m looking for my Bottom Line
And as soon as I find it
I’m gonna turn my life around

oh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother

YOU‘RE FLOATING IN A HARBOUR
IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT
AND YOU‘RE LOOKING ALL AROUND YOU
AND YOU CAN‘T SEE ANY LIGHT
AND THE BLACK AND STARLESS HEAVENS
WEIGH DOWN UPON YOUR SOUL
AND YOU FACE THE OPEN SEA
AND YOU‘RE NOT SURE THAT YOU WANNA GO
AND YOU SCAN THE HORIZON
BUT THE ONLY LIGHT YOU FIND
IS IN THE PLACE YOU CAME FROM
THE PLACE YOU LEFT BEHIND
OH SO YOU‘RE MOVING OUT
MOVING OUT
MOVING OUT
CUTTING THE CORDS
YOU DON‘T KNOW WHERE YOU‘RE GOING
AND YOU DON‘T HAVE ANY MAPS
AND THE ONLY THING YOU‘RE SURE OF
IS YOU AIN‘T…GOING…BACK

1. YOU WILL BE BORN INTO A STRANGE AND DESOLATE PLACE.
2. IT WILL BE CALLED “THE AVERAGE HOME.“
3. THE TIMES WILL BE RESTLESS AND FULL OF UNCERTAINTY.
4. YOU WILL SILENTLY QUESTION THIS OF YOUR MOTHER AS YOU WATCH HER MOVE AWAY.

Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN
Is LIFE not Precious?…
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN

mama mama
please come quick
take me home from school
I feel so sick

mama mama
something’s wrong
my heart is breaking
but I don’t know why

oh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother

5. THERE WILL BE NO ANSWER.
6. YOU WILL BEGIN THE LONG PROCESS OF SHUTTING DOWN.
7. YOUR COUNTENANCE WILL REFLECT LESS LIGHT AND LATER WHEN YOU LOOK
AT PICTURES OF YOURSELF YOU WILL WONDER.
8. YOU WILL GIVE UP YOUR BACKBONE TO THE T.V. AND ACCEPT A VALUE SYSTEM
9. PUTTING FORTH LIES, HATRED AND INTOLERANCE IN THE NAME OF LOVE AS ACCEPTABLE.
10. NO ONE WILL STEP FORWARD FROM THE SHADOWS SAYING: “EXPECT THIS, IT IS PART OF THE PATH.“
11. YOU WILL DISCOVER DRUGS AND ALCOHOL.
12. YOU WILL INSTINCTIVELY MOVE TOWARDS YOUR OWN BOTTOM LINE.

Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN
Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN

mama mama please come quick
hold my head I feel so sick
mama mama let me come home
wrap me up I can’t get warm

oh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother

13. YOU WILL RUSH HEADLONG TOWARDS YOUR BOTTOM LINE IN AN INSTINCTIVE ATTEMPT TO HEAL.
14. YOU WILL GO TO AA TO LEARN WHAT YOU SHOULD HAVE LEARNED IN SUNDAY SCHOOL.
15. AND THEN YOU WILL GIVE YOURSELF PERMISSION TO CRY. AND YOU WILL CRY AND CRY AND CRY.
16. AND YOUR FRIENDS WILL MOVE AWAY NERVOUSLY AND YOU‘LL FEEL LIKE A FOOL.
17. AND NO ONE WILL STEP FORWARD FROM THE SHADOWS SAYING
18. “THE JOURNEY FORWARD INCLUDES MOVEMENT INTO DESPAIR.“
19. AND YOU WILL BE GATHERING STRENGTH
20. EVEN AS YOU DON‘T UNDERSTAND.
21. AND CERTAIN WORDS LIKE LOVE AND…
22. INTEGRITY WILL BE DRAWN INTO YOUR SPINE.
23. AND THEN ONE DAY…
24. YOU WILL TURN OFF THE T.V.

Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN
Precious Candles
YOUR LIGHT IS YOUR OWN

mama mama something’s wrong
there’s only silence where there once was song
I keep hearing all these bells
am I healing or dying? I can’t tell.

hey ho
sail on out
sail all night
sail on with all your might
land ahead
land ho
land ho
land ho

I sure miss that little lamb
that little lamb called Puff
or…was it…Poof? or…
well, anyways, I sure miss that sweet lamb

lay down upon your pillow…
just live all you can knowing that’s all
you have to give

mama mama I almost did it
I almost carried myself up the mountainside
In my own arms
And laid myself down

there a New Strength nearby, I know
And as soon as I find my Bottom Line
I’m gonna turn my life around

I sure miss that little lamb…

here I go

Jane Siberry, Oh My My

Yeah, absolutely the intention was to bring everything here — and do interesting things with it.

Alas, if only life worked out that way.

Meanwhile, check out the new digs.

Note: This is the final post to this site (and blog). I’ll leave it up — for learning, for fun, whatever — as long as possible.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Monday, December 31, 2007, at 1:20 PM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Personal | Site news | Whatever

With a title like that, I bet you expect a(nother) whiny personal post. Nope! It’s book design:

What do you think?

I like it a lot. Kudos on this one.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Friday, July 20, 2007, at 12:00 AM.
Posted to Book design

Bill Drenttel wrote to let us know of this:

When I look at my bookshelves, I see my life. Whole glimpses of previous interests are represented, from my collection of Latin American fiction to the many reminders of the years I spent living in Italy (the novels of Primo Levi and Italo Calvino). […]

Prized among these are many books by Jack Stauffacher — the legendary San Francisco designer and printer. So it is perhaps not surprising that when the photographer Dennis Letbetter sent me these 60 images of Stauffacher’s bookshelves, I immediately wanted to compare notes. I quickly spotted his complete run of The Journal of Typographic Research. And more: Loeb Classics, Italo Calvino, Stop Stealing Sheep, Hermann Zapf, Horace, Goethe, James Agee, African Socialism. There are books I also own, and others I only dream of owning. It is like my library, only so much better, and I instantly recognized these books for what they are: a touchstone of someone else’s life. “Without this working library,” notes Stauffacher, “I would have no compass, no map, to guide me through the density of our human condition.” I can not think of a more fitting description of a library, or one that so aptly describes a collector’s approach to the world.

Great, great stuff, including sixty photos — check it out.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 12, 2007, at 11:05 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Libraries | Photography

Interesting idea: what would happen if the human race suddenly vanished? No corpses like in Stephen King’s Stand (a favorite when I was younger — seriously creepy), just gone? Explore that idea in:

I want to like it. It’s a good concept for something that could be done a hundred ways — it strikes a balance between something academic (read: boring) and what Hollywood would do with it (read: garish/over-dramatized).

But for me, the quote kills it. It’s way too big — you wind up reading that first, and it’s not strong enough for that. It dulls down the cover, and the illustration especially — because you’re thinking about the quote.

Two bases for the designer, then. Would have been a triple if the quote were smaller.

Found via Kottke, who mentions a similar article in New Scientist from last year. If you want to read further on the subject, that is…;)

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Monday, July 2, 2007, at 8:58 PM.
Posted to Book design

New and being heavily advertised:

I like the previous title much better; it felt more real.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 24, 2007, at 8:31 PM.
Posted to Book design

Finally.

The big news: I’m not dead. Although, for the past few months, it’s certainly felt like it.

Like this guy, I’ve been stuck: fire lapping at my feet, in near- or total panic, desperate to do something — anything — but unable to do so. It’s been some of the hardest months of my life, and it’s taken a tremendous toll on both Osprey Design and me personally.

However, the recovery begins soon: almost four months on, the final divorce agreement has been signed. There are details, but for all intents and purposes, it’s done. At long last, I can move on with my life.

[Pause for deep breath.]

Time for some announcements:

- The recent outage was spambot-related, and took days to fix. Some things — notably my mail — still aren’t working. (For cryin’ out loud. I so didn’t need this extra stress right now.)

- The main ospreydesign.com site is down for a complete redesign. It’s bloody well overdue, and, hopefully, I can do it properly this time — such that the spammers will lose.

- Foreword is also on the redesign list. Further, more than just the look will change — the focus will shift slightly, too. Fewer entries strictly on book design — although there will still be plenty — and more on use of photography in book design, advertising, and other design mediums.

Why? Well, that’s the most important announcement of all.

Simply put — someday, I’ll share more of the sordid details — having my primary business at risk of being lost to the divorce has led me to spend as much or more time doing photography as design, especially book design.

And darned if I didn’t get good at it. Enough so that people started asking me to do stuff. Then hiring me. A decision was necessary: just do design, or both photography and design?

Yeah, you saw it coming. Introducing Giles Hoover, Photographer.

Don’t get me wrong: I’ll still be here, designing books — and yapping about book design — for a long time to come. Indeed, stay tuned for more on both book design and photography next week. Then, shortly after, some semblance of regular posts.

Finally.

As always, thanks for stopping by.

Comments: 11. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at 3:06 AM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Photography | Site news

There were mixed feelings about Heat a few weeks back, so when I bumped into another big-chef-in-print title, I couldn’t resist taking a second look:

The Nasty Bits, with thanks to Scott

Is it better than Heat? I believe so, in nearly every way. In fact, I would have no problem posting this in my gallery had I done it. But is it superlative? Eh, not so much. Some nice touches with the box, type and matte finish, but ultimately predictable and a little overcrowded — this taken to “11” would be ideal, IMHO.

Chefs, whip that up for us, won’t you?

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Saturday, February 3, 2007, at 1:24 PM.
Posted to Book design

I love an intelligent question in the in-box first thing in the morning:

I’m reading a book and I actually noticed the cover design (thank you for allowing me the presumptuousness to judge a book by its cover). I thought it was an excellent design, but I wanted to get your opinion on it - which may or may not enable me to improve my objectiveness when looking at a cover. Entitled, The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next, it’s a mind-blowing read…

Here’s the cover:

I admit to not being a big fan of the cover (in its electronic form, anyway — if it’s a matte finish, I’ll allow a couple of extra points…). The string laces are cool, but the overall effect isn’t one that would jump off a shelf at me.

Phillip also sent the Amazon link, which included, in its list of “customers also bought…,” this title:

Somewhat more traditional in its approach — “Wrong” aside — I had hopes that this would be an example of what I do like in this sort of title. Nope. While I believe it has better shelf appeal than the first cover, it’s still ultimately unexciting.

Physics is a difficult area. If ever there were an abstraction, it’s string theory — and visualizing that for a book buyer isn’t an easy task. Both of these titles tackled the question head-on, and I think both pass, but neither deserves a top grade. After all, how do to visualize string theory?

Anyone got another physics title you want to share? Leave a comment or send me an email! Or, if you’re a publisher with a title on string theory, send it along — I’d love to put my money where my mouth is.…

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Friday, January 26, 2007, at 10:43 AM.
Posted to Book design

…and Joseph for finding this:

Joseph says,

I say this is friggin’ brilliant and my favorite of the short year so far. I don’t think I’ve wanted a poster of a book cover this bad in a long time. Please, someone run to the bookstore and get me that designer’s name! :-)

Seconded, agreed about the poster, and seconded. Anyone know the designer?

The Book Design Review continues to improve its scope, and the great coverage (pun intended…;) keeps coming — outstanding. Go, Joseph!!

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 25, 2007, at 4:42 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design

We’ve covered ’em before — but not on this level:

Well, it was a long time coming, but I’ve been through the trenches and come up, sucking chest wound and all, with the Ars review of font management programs. I’ve also succeeded in not completely losing my mind while the developers updated the apps, nullifying half my criticisms in the process. Giving a lot of time to these programs in a production setting is crucial to seeing how they perform on a daily basis, and I am confident I’ve thrown enough varied scenarios at each to find out where they succeed and fail.

To people outside of design and typography, I’m sure that the words “font manager” sound like something taking itself way too seriously—like some sort of gilded spice rack—but for those that need to work with fonts on a daily basis, the font manager is serious business. To prepress houses and service bureaus, it is the pit stop: you turn it on, hit Print, and go deal with the real work—the more time you have to spend dealing with the font management/activation process, the less money you are making. For designers that juggle a range of clients and projects, working with fonts is more a nebulous creative ritual of feeling a brand, and it demands a tool worthy of the task.

In simpler times, you pulled open a drawer, chose between the three sets of steel blocks, said “I don’t care who you are, you’re getting Garamond,” and that was that. Nowadays clients are wiser and choosier, fonts are cheaper (not making them out of steel helps), and everyone and their dog is making fonts (the dog fonts are terrible; you really don’t want to use those). The result is a need to handle and navigate the abundant libraries available while not stifling that creative process. Now, years after Suitcase started the ball rolling on System 6, we’re lucky enough to have some very mature font management tools for Mac OS X. The big three reviewed here—Insider FontAgent Pro, Linotype FontExplorer X, and Extensis Suitcase Fusion—are now all Universal Binaries for Intel Macs. After a slow and rocky start for font management on Mac OS X, it’s now good times for font junkies. So with the stage set, let’s see how they fared.

Read on for those results.

…Unless you’d prefer to cut to the chase. They gave Font Agent an 8 (out of 10), and Suitcase and Font Explorer both 7s. All have plusses and minuses, none enough to make working with one application over another anything more than choosing which application works best in your workflow.

P.S. Be sure to check out the cache deletion utility mentioned in the article — good for when those fonts aren’t behaving the way they should!

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Sunday, January 7, 2007, at 12:04 AM.
Posted to Book design | Computers | Design | Type and typography

Had an opportunity to lounge in B&N for a few minutes the other day.

Let me start by bitching slightly, if you’ll forgive: The current bestseller lists are crowded with books whose design is really mediocre. Nora Ephron, mentioned back in November, stood out like a sore thumb, its design was so eye-catching compared to the rest.

That said, there were are a couple I did enjoy. From the kids’ bestseller list:

Carl Hiaasen always has interesting covers. No designer listed, alas. This title’s more than a year old, yet still feels fresh — dare I say — near perfect?

Also: This was the table right inside the door — another crowded with a lack of good cover taste — and jumped off a lower shelf like, well, a…:

Too good to foot-stomp, though. Thumbs up to William Staehle for a creative cover job, and extra points for using the jacket’s wrap effectively. Nicely done!

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 4, 2007, at 11:32 AM.
Posted to Book design

Blogged on this a while back — under the title Scary Bad Book Design — and have seen it a couple of times since, including in a busy, pre-Christmas Barnes & Noble. Not impressive.

I bumped into it last night at a New Year’s party, however, and it looked much better. Great? No, but I liked how, from some angles, the “God” disappeared into the cover’s background. Nice touch.

(Photograph retouched for more, um, omnipresence…;)

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Monday, January 1, 2007, at 9:02 PM.
Posted to Book design

One I like, one I don’t. Let’s start with the not-so-good.

Heat. I totally see what the designer was going for here, but I don’t think it pulls it off — seems like it doesn’t fit the subject matter as well as it could. I feel a photography-based look would be better here.

This one, American-Born Chinese, is more interesting to me. The illustration “look,” the placement, the different use of a title, all add up to a cover that works well. There might be some squinting involved, as the title’s too small to read at a glance, but I feel that the cover is enough of a draw that people wouldn’t mind getting a little closer to read the title.

Both titles are from Amazon’s “Editors’ 50 Best” book list — which has far too few great covers on it!

Comments: 3. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Wednesday, December 20, 2006, at 11:33 AM.
Posted to Book design

House of Meetings:

Wonderful indeed — even if it’s not up to the standard set by the absolutely brilliant UK version.

Cribbed from Joseph’s always-smart Book Design Review. Check out the selection of great covers there ASAP!

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 12, 2006, at 8:46 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Design

Latest from Vertical:

Cover design by Chip Kidd. He’d just started work with them when I met him many moons back, and was genuinely excited about it — glad to see the collaboration continues to flourish.

And an interesting cover it is. Two different fonts, so close to one another, yet different. Spacing that doesn’t, at first glance, have alignment. A sliding slipjacket for the title. Like a good deal of Chip’s stuff, it pushes the boundaries — and begs examination.

The Toon Zone had more to say about the book and design. Here’s a highlight:

Vertical would earn kudos simply for bringing such a challenging and uncommercial project to press, but their edition of Ode to Kirihito is exemplary. Vertical presents the work in “flipped” format to allow for a left-to-right reading style more familiar to Western eyes and commissioned an excellent translation by Camellia Nieh. Normally, the binding isn’t something that calls attention to itself in a book, but it proves to be exceptionally noteworthy when the book is 800+ pages and is still easy to open and read. The only criticism of the book’s design comes from designer Chip Kidd’s use of a separate half-sleeve on the cover, similar to the colored bands he used on Vertical’s Buddha hardcovers or the half a dust jacket on DC’s Batman: Year One deluxe hardcover. These design elements may look wonderful on a desk but are often far more trouble than they’re worth in bookstores or on bookshelves. However, the one on Ode to Kirihito isn’t quite as fragile as those on Kidd’s earlier books, and also serves an interesting artistic function as it slides back and forth on the cover.

Someone else is challenged, it would seem…! What do you think? Leave a comment.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, December 7, 2006, at 10:04 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Books, design, art | Type and typography

I’m unsure whether solicited cover reviews are adherent to blog etiquette [they’re welcome anytime here…!], but I have attached a jpeg of a cover I am currently designing. This is my second cover, though this lack of experience may well be offset by the fact that I happen also to be the author. The font is Boris Black Boxx about which I can’t say enough good things. There are lengthy explanations behind all of the design choices, should you find them necessary.

P.S - If you’re worried about the large empty space between title and author, it’s been reserved for a blurb.

Here ’tis:

Lucy, Lacy [bad, bad typo — I apologize] there are some elements that I really like on this cover. The script fading into your photo, for instance, and I’m not adverse to mostly- or even all-white covers.

That said, I’ve got to take issue with your love of the font — and how its used. It’s hard to read on-screen, is likely going to be harder to read on a crowded shelf, and isn’t going to meet with the kind of success I imagine you’re hoping for.

My advice? Keep the illustration and script montage — and redo everything else.

What does everyone else think?

Comments: 8. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 5, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Book design

I love this:

Design by Abby Weintraub, photo by Oote Boe.

Nice highlight on Travis Smiley’s PBS show, too:

Tavis: Jonathan, can you put that cover up again? I wanna know how close we can zoom in on that. I love this – yeah, there, nice picture.
Ephron: Isn’t it a good cover?
Tavis: That is a great cover.
Ephron: I know.
Tavis: (unintelligible) (Laugh)
Ephron: It’s one of the miracles of your life, when they do a good cover for your book.
Tavis: That is a great, so you’re happy with this.
Ephron: Yeah, I am.

Congrats to all. Nicely done!

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Monday, November 27, 2006, at 12:33 PM.
Posted to Book design

…and I’ll be caught up on the to do list and have more time online. Coming soon.

Meanwhile, a new assignment’s just landed on the desk: War, Citizenship, and Territory, where the design guidance is, in its entirety, “Perhaps an image of patriotism during war?”

Nothing like open-ended possibilities! This one’s gonna gnaw at my soul until I get to it next week, I can feel it.…

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, November 16, 2006, at 5:22 PM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Site news

Otherwise known as “Covers I Don’t Like Today”…!

Barack Obama is a rising political star, charismatic, articulate, and thoughtful. Why the cover to his latest book can’t be any of those qualities is a mystery:

Where to start? The portrait? How the title’s handled? The colors and placement? Ug.

Only the runner-up in the scary-bad category today, though. Today’s winner:

“Delusional” might be a good description, all right — of the cover.

Happy Halloween.

Comments: 3. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 31, 2006, at 10:17 AM.
Posted to Book design

Long, long, long couple of weeks — including email troubles again ($#^@* spammers) — and another long one on deck. Plus major events both of the next two weekends. I’m behind the curve, as you can probably tell. Apologies for the quiet.

Jack Abramoff is in the news these days — one of many items vying for attention among the headlines — and, as typical for this point in an election season, the “tell-all” titles are flowing fast and furious.

Heist caught my eye:

Political titles seem to be a little flat stylistically, I believe, but this one’s better than many. Far from perfect, though, including a perhaps questionable title choice and the two extra people on the cover many won’t recognize (can you name them?). Props to the designer to getting Abramoff’s name — which everyone will recognize — as big and as prominently placed as it is, though, and I love the “i” in the title growing out of Abramoff’s head. Heheh.

What do you think?

Comments: 5. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Monday, October 23, 2006, at 10:08 PM.
Posted to Book design

Joe M. writes,

Saw this on NY Tiimes Web site. Cool stuff. [T]he book has been very influential in my life. Good Eating!

Seconded from here, Joe — I’ve had, and heavily used, a copy for years. Nice to see that the new edition has more emphasis on the original recipes, too:

The new edition — a sort of greatest hits of home cooking — raises the interesting question of whether a cookbook covering sushi to ham loaf is relevant at a time when the cookbook industry is so fragmented by microcuisines.

In 1997, the last time Joy of Cooking was revised, things seemed to have gone terribly wrong. Recipes from professional food writers replaced many of the book’s old standards, food processors whirred a bit too much and the voice of the cookbook became subsumed. […] The new edition brings back the old voice and some favorites — like tamale pie — but also adds some new recipes, like Mediterranean short ribs with olives, and enchiladas verdes. But mostly it is basics, many of them beloved.

What I’m not necessarily going to do an ode to: the new edition’s cover design. I’m not sure about the big, even overwhelming, red circle — the previous editons’ white covers suited me better. And what’s with the text at the bottom? Sheesh.

No matter the cover design, I’m still glad there’s a new Joy in town. Thanks, Joe!

Comments: 3. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, October 19, 2006, at 7:43 AM.
Posted to Book design | Books | Personal

Okay, this is interesting:

Covering Photography is a web-based archive and resource for the study of the relationship between the history of photography and book cover design. Our database contains images of and information on approximately 1200 books so far, which may be accessed via Photographer, Author, Publisher, Publication Date and Designer.

Covering Photography is by it’s nature a work in progress, and meant to be interactive. Titles are added on a regular basis, and commentary is encouraged, whether it refers to the site as a whole, to individual phortographers or to any of the covers (every page, including the home page, contains a link to post comments). Because the site, due to my own background, emphasizes a photohistorical point of view, I am particularly interested in comments which approach the material from a literary or book design context. My hope is that this website and database may function as an alternative, albeit atypical, take on the nexus of literature, graphic design and photographic history.

Check it out. (And if anyone would like to redesign their “cover”.…..)

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Saturday, October 14, 2006, at 11:51 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Photography

[…] the two images that left the biggest impressions on me from the batch of books published this month, a mostly abstract cover for Gravity’s Rainbow by Frank Miller and Yoshihiro Tatsumi’s manga-style images for “Rashomon and 17 Other Stories,” and ask what you think.

I love ’em both! And said so, on their poll. Go vote!

Thanks, Ron.

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, October 5, 2006, at 1:23 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book design

…State of Denial:

In Bob Woodward’s highly anticipated new book, “State of Denial,” President Bush emerges as a passive, impatient, sophomoric and intellectually incurious leader, presiding over a grossly dysfunctional war cabinet and given to an almost religious certainty that makes him disinclined to rethink or re-evaluate decisions he has made about the war. It’s a portrait that stands in stark contrast to the laudatory one Mr. Woodward drew in “Bush at War,” his 2002 book, which depicted the president — in terms that the White House press office itself has purveyed — as a judicious, resolute leader, blessed with the “vision thing” his father was accused of lacking and firmly in control of the ship of state.

As this new book’s title indicates, Mr. Woodward now sees Mr. Bush as a president who lives in a state of willful denial […].

From the Times’ Book Review, but it was hard to go to any news outlet this weekend and not read about it. But let’s set the politics aside — as much as possible — and talk about the cover.

Is it effective? Yes. Likely to be quickly spotted on a shelf? Yes. Hot because of the news? Yes. Great? Not sure.

One of those titles, I guess, where the publicity is enough to not require an amazing cover. But here’s the rub: I’m not sure how I would make this an amazing cover. What a title to design for!

What would you do differently? Why? Or, give this cover some love. Leave a comment.

Note: I’m neck deep in projects and will moderate the comments as often as I can — likely early afternoon and then again in the early and late evening. Thanks for your understanding — and comments!

Comments: 13. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Sunday, October 1, 2006, at 10:57 PM.
Posted to Book design

Apple released a new version of Aperture this week at the Photokina show in Cologne, Germany. It’s a free upgrade for current owners, and should be available as a download today or tomorrow.

Rob Galbraith has a good overview:

The program can now work with pictures wherever they reside, not just on a single drive as before, the adding of metadata on import has been streamlined, RAW photos can be exported with XMP-format sidecar files, Aperture Library contents are accessible from applications in Apple’s iWork and iLife suites and a developer’s SDK enables third parties to create custom export modules.

There are important changes to the image viewing and processing controls too, but the most compelling aspects of the new release involving importing, tracking, exporting and sharing pictures. Here’s a look at some of what’s new.

Read the rest, and note the photos from the introduction — nice. (Thanks, Rob!)

Aperture has the potential to be a nearly-perfect application for sorting and preparing photos for use in book projects — its ability to organize is what got me interested in the first place. (After all, I love Photoshop. I’m not interested in “replacing” Photoshop, only streamlining the process — using something to organize and do simple adjustments to RAW files. Photoshop would still be the king for complex adjustments and all “artistic” stuff…!)

Note Apple’s section on books, too:

Presenting prospective clients with a handsome, bound and printed Stock Book sends a powerful message. And Aperture makes the production of such high-quality bound books both simple and affordable. To help you put a unique stamp on them, Aperture includes a sophisticated book-layout engine that offers significant design flexibility.

You can manually drag or have Aperture automatically place photographs in a layout for you. Double click on any photo, and you can zoom in or pan the image until it’s perfectly positioned. Aperture also lets you add both text and photo boxes; move, resize, and rotate photos; insert multi-columned text; even use your own photos as full-bleed, ghosted background images. Need another page? Add a blank one whenever you’d like or simply duplicate an existing page and replace its photos or text.

With Aperture, you have total control. And when you’re ready, you can print your completed book on your own printer, save it as a PDF, or take advantage of Aperture’s integrated ordering service to order hard- or soft-cover books printed at 300dpi for optimal print quality.

Would I lay out a photo book in Aperture rather than InDesign? Probably not. Will have to see, once I have the program.

…Which, unfortunately, won’t be immediately. It’s not just a matter of purchasing Aperture — it’s a matter of also purchasing a computer it’ll run on. My 20” iMac won’t cut it. Soon.…

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, September 28, 2006, at 9:45 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Photography

Book lovers and aesthetes alike will often cite the material qualities of a book, the cloth covers, glossy pages, rough or gilded edges, or the personal touch that one can experience through a book’s design — even more than a book’s contents — as the basis for the medium’s lasting significance in contemporary society. These characteristics add up to the overall significance of a book as an object to behold, rather than simply a source of information, something appreciated by artists and readers since the first illuminated manuscript was published over ten centuries ago.

From “the first art newspaper on the net,” Off the Shelf: New Forms in Contemporary Artists’ Books. Cool.

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Friday, September 22, 2006, at 3:59 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book design | Books, design, art | Libraries

Publisher’s Weekly:

The main points of this hard-hitting indictment of the Iraq war have been made before, but seldom with such compelling specificity.

Compelling cover, too:

Comments: 1. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Wednesday, September 20, 2006, at 9:46 PM.
Posted to Book design

Happy Labor Day to those in the U.S.…

This caught my eye tonight:

Okay, it’s a simple setup. But it made me look twice. Then a third time, after I’d read the description.

Why? The premise of this book is interesting (quoting the Amazon page):

In a not-so-distant future, a deadly virus kills off every human on Earth, except for Laura Byrd, a wildlife specialist on an expedition to the South Pole. Readers quickly learn that the dead move on to another life in a fantastic city on another plane of existence; there, they live out a second life free from aging and disease until every person who knew them on Earth dies. The chapters alternate between Laura and those in the city of the dead, often showing how these individuals connect to her.

So, my question is, eye-cathing as it might be, does this cover serve that premise? I can’t help but to feel like the cover should have been more, well, out there.

What do you think?

Comments: 2. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Monday, September 4, 2006, at 9:47 PM.
Posted to Book design

Rachel writes,

Gray318 recently did this ‘autoshapes’ cover for a friend of mine, a very serious and fine author. I think its woeful. He does, too. In fact he’s really upset about it but there’s nothing he can do.

Here ‘tis:

He and an artist friend got together and made a photo-based cover, which was rejected:

I’d like to see what the feeling is.

Well, “woeful” works for me on the first cover, too. Sorry!

The second cover is rife with possibilities, but is hard to read — especially when reduced to sizes displayed on Amazon pages, for instance. The concept is solid, though, if the details can be worked out.

What do others think?

Comments: 22. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Saturday, August 26, 2006, at 11:44 AM.
Posted to Book design

A client said something to me the other day that I hadn’t expected — and welcomed gratefully:

Giles … you nailed [this cover]. I didn’t expect to come home tonight and
find this gift. I’m downright excited about it.

Gift. Few things have made me feel as good about the work I’ve been doing recently, and emails like that are exactly the reason I’m a freelancer doing what I love, rather than sacrificing standards or autonomy to work at a firm or — gasp — publisher.

As most of you know, 2006 has not been an easy year; divorce aside, too many ospreydesign-related items have been started and not enough finished. A good chunk of that is because I always put my stuff at the bottom of the “to do” list, but I’d honestly rather do book covers than web site updates any day.

Thankfully, the quality of my book design continues to improve as I learn — from you, Foreword’s readers, from my fellow book designers, and from photographers. This is especially important to me; understanding the components I use most in book cover design is vital to where I want to go professionally.

So, a big thank you for your help — and patience — this year.

As a stop-gap measure ahead of the updated main site, which is still waiting on a related project (that’s been suffering delay after delay, grrrrr) before the almost-completed redesign can be finalized, I’ve updated the gallery with eleven new items. Most have been posted before, here or on Flickr, but some are new to all. Hope you like.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 23, 2006, at 8:06 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news | Whatever

A while ago, I posted a new cover in this series — but to be honest, I wasn’t all that happy with it. I understood why the publisher wanted it that way, but am glad that they changed their mind and went ahead with more drafts.

Because:

Much better. Think it does a decent job of avoiding the cliché surrounding fire and creativity — while still using fire to represent creativity…;)

Uses a photo from this weekend’s trip — of the campfire. Interesting that it worked out that way.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 23, 2006, at 4:38 PM.
Posted to Book design

As you’ll recall, I blogged on Kite Runner a while ago. As usual, when it came to finding a graphic to use for the post, I started with Amazon — because when they don’t use the “search inside” feature, their pictures are the largest and best quality. (The Kite Runner image wound up coming from elsewhere, FYI.)

Unfortunately, that also means that I get a ton of trash emails from Amazon. Why?

We track items that you may be interested in for price reductions so that you don’t have to. These additional savings on top of our everyday low price may only be available for a limited time, so act now to take advantage of this alert. Prices can go back up at any time and may never be this low again.

Here’s what they “encouraged” me to purchase today:

Yuk isn’t nearly strong enough. I’m glad I haven’t eaten yet.

There’s a dividing line between people who think that Amazon’s tactics are perfectly legit and those who think it’s invasive. I’m among the latter — especially since Amazon’s been rumored to want to include more personal info from third-party sources to create “super-profiles” of their shoppers, “protected” by privacy rules the company sets — rules not dissimilar to those at AOL, for instance.

I’d like to state for the record that I never purchase from Amazon. I use their web system for my own advantages — tracking bestsellers, looking at covers, researching titles sent to me, etc. — and then never buy from them. Heheh. Take that, Amazon!

Now if I could just come up with a similar way to take advantage of Wal-Mart.…

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 16, 2006, at 10:32 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Business | Ethics | Personal | Technology

Bumped into this title today:

I like it. It’s not great, but it’s eye-catching, almost there. The changes I’d make are all tweaks (I’m strongly dislike the author/novel font choice, for instance), and all on the periphery — the title treatment is perfect.

This cover represents something I don’t do well. It caused some reflection and a reminder to work on being better at the “style” this represents, especially in the subtlety of the background.

As designers, we all have our strengths and weaknesses. One of my biggest strengths, different, dynamic, or dramatic photography, can also be a weakness — in that I think of that sort of photography first, sometimes negating a simple solution like the one above, which, with the aforementioned tweaking, could be very good indeed.

The hardcover for this title goes in a completely different direction, more “photographic,” playing to the novel’s New York setting:

Again, I have font reservations, but although I’d make changes, the “style” is more in line with how I’d approach this cover. But is it “better?”

It’s a fine line between playing to your strengths and falling into the trap also known as “having a style.” Or is that okay, as long as the versatility to produce different styles well — and appropriately, as in when a book deserves it, instead of “forcing” your style — enough?

Thoughts as I stare at two different projects stuck on the desk for far too long, suffering from cliché hell.

Comments: 0. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 10, 2006, at 10:59 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Personal | Photography | Whatever

Here’s a tale of three different versions of a cover. Version one, a hardcover recently spied on the bargain list:

Version two, the paperback:

I like both — good examples of a great photo working together with text. So why, then, the large type edition?

Yuk.

Comments: 3. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Friday, August 4, 2006, at 11:20 AM.
Posted to Book design

We’ve all heard that expression a million times, even from some notable figures like Charlie Brown. It does not mean that it’s good grief.

Alas, neither is this:

Yet another great photograph with seriously questionable type choices adding up to a less-than-sterling cover. Seems to be a trend recently — hence the “good grief!”

I have to hope, too, that the Amazon scan of this is crooked. If it isn’t, well, this might have to fall into the “bad” category. Sheesh.

Comments: 6. Please add to the discussion. | TrackBacks: 0

Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 3, 2006, at 3:20 PM.
Posted to Book design