Okay, I Was Wrong
EVERYTHING YOU SAY
EVERYTHING YOU DO
WILL COME BACK
TO STAND WITH YOUEVERYTHING YOU TRUST
EVERYTHING YOU FEEL
WILL COME BACK
TO KNEEL WITH YOUEVERYTHING YOU SAY
EVERYTHING YOU TRY
WILL COME OUT
SOUNDING LIKE A LIEEVERYTHING 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 piecesOPEN 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 heavinessoh 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 aroundoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my BrotherYOU‘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…BACK1. 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 OWNmama mama
please come quick
take me home from school
I feel so sickmama mama
something’s wrong
my heart is breaking
but I don’t know whyoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother5. 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 OWNmama mama please come quick
hold my head I feel so sick
mama mama let me come home
wrap me up I can’t get warmoh my…oh my my my…oh my Mother
oh my…oh my my my…oh my Brother13. 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 OWNmama 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 hoI sure miss that little lamb
that little lamb called Puff
or…was it…Poof? or…
well, anyways, I sure miss that sweet lamblay down upon your pillow…
just live all you can knowing that’s all
you have to givemama mama I almost did it
I almost carried myself up the mountainside
In my own arms
And laid myself downthere a New Strength nearby, I know
And as soon as I find my Bottom Line
I’m gonna turn my life aroundI 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.
Posted by Giles, Monday, December 31, 2007, at 1:20 PM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Personal | Site news | Whatever
Falling Behind
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.
Posted by Giles, Friday, July 20, 2007, at 12:00 AM.
Posted to Book design
Stauffacher Slideshow
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.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 12, 2007, at 11:05 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Libraries | Photography
The World Without Us
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…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 2, 2007, at 8:58 PM.
Posted to Book design
A Thousand (Okay) Suns
New and being heavily advertised:
I like the previous title much better; it felt more real.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 24, 2007, at 8:31 PM.
Posted to Book design
Wooden Hysteria
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.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 13, 2007, at 3:06 AM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Photography | Site news
Cover Design: The Nasty Bits
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?
Posted by Giles, Saturday, February 3, 2007, at 1:24 PM.
Posted to Book design
Friday Strings
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.…
Posted by Giles, Friday, January 26, 2007, at 10:43 AM.
Posted to Book design
Foreword Salutes: The Book Design Review
…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!!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 25, 2007, at 4:42 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design
Weekend Research: Font Management Applications
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!
Posted by Giles, Sunday, January 7, 2007, at 12:04 AM.
Posted to Book design | Computers | Design | Type and typography
Covers I Like Today
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!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 4, 2007, at 11:32 AM.
Posted to Book design
The God Delusion
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…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, January 1, 2007, at 9:02 PM.
Posted to Book design
Covers in Yellow
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!
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, December 20, 2006, at 11:33 AM.
Posted to Book design
Cover I Like Today
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!
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 12, 2006, at 8:46 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Design
Ode: Challenging
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.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, December 7, 2006, at 10:04 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Books, design, art | Type and typography
Comments Requested
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?
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, December 5, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Book design
Cover I Like Today
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!
Posted by Giles, Monday, November 27, 2006, at 12:33 PM.
Posted to Book design
Two Projects to Go...
…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.…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, November 16, 2006, at 5:22 PM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Site news
Scary-Bad Book Design
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.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 31, 2006, at 10:17 AM.
Posted to Book design
Heist
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?
Posted by Giles, Monday, October 23, 2006, at 10:08 PM.
Posted to Book design
NYT: Ode to Joy
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!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, October 19, 2006, at 7:43 AM.
Posted to Book design | Books | Personal
Covering Photography
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”.…..)
Posted by Giles, Saturday, October 14, 2006, at 11:51 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Photography
GalleyCat Penguin Poll
[…] 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.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, October 5, 2006, at 1:23 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book design
Is it a great cover? I'm in a...
…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!
Posted by Giles, Sunday, October 1, 2006, at 10:57 PM.
Posted to Book design
Aperture 1.5
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.…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, September 28, 2006, at 9:45 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Photography
Artdaily.com on Books
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.
Posted by Giles, Friday, September 22, 2006, at 3:59 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book design | Books, design, art | Libraries
Cover I Like Today
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:
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, September 20, 2006, at 9:46 PM.
Posted to Book design
Cover I Want to Like Tonight, Except...
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?
Posted by Giles, Monday, September 4, 2006, at 9:47 PM.
Posted to Book design
"Woeful"
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?
Posted by Giles, Saturday, August 26, 2006, at 11:44 AM.
Posted to Book design
Yet Another Personal Post: Why, #12
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.
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
Software Creativity 2.0, Again
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.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 23, 2006, at 4:38 PM.
Posted to Book design
Amazon: Yuk
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.…
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, August 16, 2006, at 10:32 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Business | Ethics | Personal | Technology
In the Drink: HC, PB, and Something I Don't Do Well
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.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 10, 2006, at 10:59 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Personal | Photography | Whatever
A Skeleton in the (Large Type) Closet
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.
Posted by Giles, Friday, August 4, 2006, at 11:20 AM.
Posted to Book design
"Good Grief!"
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.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 3, 2006, at 3:20 PM.
Posted to Book design
NYT on HDR
One of the many benefits of Flickr is seeing trends in imagery before they get out into the mainstream. HDR, or “high dynamic range” photography, has been around for a while on Flickr — but the article in today’s New York Times definitely means it’s hit the mainstream.
They have uses on book covers, but so many that I’ve seen are just overdone — the “high” range produces something that looks artificial. (We’re used to seeing range constrained to the “usual” range offered by cameras, among other reasons.) Plus, far too many people are enamored with the process, producing images that neither need nor work with the HDR technique.
Both of the examples in the Times article and many of the images in Flickr’s HDR group are fall into that “too much” category, in my opinion. But before you dismiss the technique and something that’s only good when “artificial” is appropriate for your book cover, consider that it’s useful for helping “pull” an image from flat into something more, well, dynamic:
From Waxy Poetic. Says “postcard” to me — even some months later, this was one of the first images that came to mind when I read the article. Improved, not overdone.
HDR is definitely a tool worthy of photographers’ and book designers’ attention. Please, though, do it well.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, August 3, 2006, at 2:00 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Flickr | Photography
Winner of "Most Annoying Stuff on Otherwise Okay Cover" Award
…Kite Runner:
More than a few similarities in color and “feel” to Field of Blood, below (a winning color combination, striking photo, etc.). However, like that, Kite Runner is compromised — this time by not only by questionable font choices, but also by all the, well, crap. C’mon, folks — isn’t all that stuff a little excessive?
Spied while waiting for an oversize color printout in Kinko’s. Who knew Kinko’s carried bestsellers? Candy, too. Bought neither…;)
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, August 1, 2006, at 11:06 PM.
Posted to Book design
Commenting Problems -- and a GREAT Redesign
Yeah, so I’ve been yapping for a dog’s age about upgrading the server. It’s honestly pretty daunting to move all the stuff, so it’s been lurking on the “to do” list for a while. Not really an issue — until there are problems.
Right now, trying to leave a comment results in an “internal server error” about 90% of the time. Not sure of the cause, and rebuilding doesn’t help. Going to upgrade to Movable Type 3.3 (a new release) ASAP. Maybe that’ll work — update as I can.
In the meantime, check out Dystopos’ subtle-yet-oh-so-effective redo of The Dead Hour. Nice!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 27, 2006, at 1:24 PM.
Posted to Book design | Site news
Mina Covers
These fall into the “covers I’d like to like but can’t” category. They succeeded in catching my eye:
…and the older title,
Unfortunately, they don’t seem to hold up under closer examination. Establishing a “look” for an author is an interesting idea — but forcing a white title onto a picture too light for it, for instance, doesn’t work.
Put it this way: I like the photo choices, but think the graphic design could be better.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, July 26, 2006, at 9:25 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Design
Second Part of Paul Buckley Interview Up
…over at Hear, Hear. Tons of great insights and stories behind covers — including some frank talk, mind the youngins — with this wonderful Penguin designer and art director.
Check out his office, too:
Always like to see someone’s office. Neat offices scare me — glad to see one that looks worked in.…
Enjoy!
Special kudos to Hear, Hear for publishing this great interview. Thank you!
Posted by Giles, Friday, July 21, 2006, at 12:41 PM.
Posted to Book design | Books, design, art | Design | Publishing | Type and typography
'Nuther Entry in the DIY Book Market
…but this time, the design’s included. More from today’s NYTimes:
When Steve Mandel, a management trainer from Santa Cruz, Calif., wants to show his friends why he stays up late to peer through a telescope, he pulls out a copy of his latest book, “Light in the Sky,” filled with pictures he has taken of distant nebulae, star clusters and galaxies.
Mr. Mandel, 56, put his book together himself with free software from Blurb.com. The 119-page edition is printed on coated paper, bound with a linen fabric hard cover, and then wrapped with a dust jacket. Anyone who wants one can buy it for $37.95, and Blurb will make a copy just for that buyer.
The print-on-demand business is gradually moving toward the center of the marketplace. What began as a way for publishers to reduce their inventory and stop wasting paper is becoming a tool for anyone who needs a bound document. Short-run presses can turn out books economically in small quantities or singly, and new software simplifies the process of designing a book.
As the technology becomes simpler, the market is expanding beyond the earliest adopters, the aspiring authors. The first companies like AuthorHouse, Xlibris, iUniverse and others pushed themselves as new models of publishing, with an eye on shaking up the dusty book business. They aimed at authors looking for someone to edit a manuscript, lay out the book and bring it to market.
The newer ventures also produce bound books, but they do not offer the same hand-holding or the same drive for the best-seller list. Blurb’s product will appeal to people searching for a publisher, but its business is aimed at anyone who needs a professional-looking book, from architects with plans to present to clients, to travelers looking to immortalize a trip.
Interesting. An amalgamation of iPhoto’s book design templates with Lulu’s printing capabilities — available to anyone, Mac or PC.
On the one hand, it’s nice to see a decentralization of the publishing world. Print-on-demand allows all sorts of projects, including academic and documentary pieces, to be published that wouldn’t have been otherwise. So this is another in a long string of Good Things™.
On the other, more people without taste — or a clue — will be able to publish their stuff, cheaply and easily. Perhaps less of a Good Thing.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 20, 2006, at 11:30 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book printers | Printing | Publishing | Technology
Interview with Penguin's Paul Buckley
…over at Hear, Hear:
No matter what you’re selling - a product, an idea or a skill - the presentation is just as important as the thing itself. Your customers will only do so much research (if at all) when purchasing your product, and when presented with similar choices, they will choose the one they feel most comfortable with. And that decision is most likely based on the packaging. Nothing illustrates this better than the experience of shopping for new books: before we even bother to read the description on the back of a book we have never heard of, we need to first notice the book and have enough desire to pick it up. And that decision is based on the book’s cover.
In this interview, Hear, Hear chats with an expert in book cover design - Paul Buckley, a veteran art director of one of the largest book publishers in the world, Penguin Group.
The interview will be published in two installments; the first went up yesterday (thanks for letting me know, Shawn!), while the next will be next Friday.
Some great stuff here, too, including a bunch of click-for-larger covers to get in to.… Hear, hear — nicely done!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, July 13, 2006, at 9:39 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Book people | Books | Business | Design | Publishing | Type and typography
Software Creativity 2.0
One word can summarize the past few days (and weeks, for that matter): busy. Sorry for the lack of posting — didn’t even get a breather over the weekend to wander the web, check the NYTimes covers, etc. Sheesh.
Did finish up the next title in this series:
Based on Software Conflict 2.0, I’m happy with how these look next to one another.
More later tonight.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 11, 2006, at 12:04 PM.
Posted to Book design
The Secret River
Chong, a reader in Austrailia, writes:
I was wandering through Foreword for refreshment [thank you!] and pulled up short at your posting for June 25th.
That picture, the title!
I had recently reworked a title from its dreamy hardback look into a much more commercial jacket for the paperback edition.
The book: The Secret River.
I love it. Thanks for sending the hi-res, Chong — I apreciate being able to post it!
Kudos to Judith for also catching this.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, July 4, 2006, at 2:36 PM.
Posted to Book design
Artist I'd Like to Work with Soon
Meet Els Overkleeft, a photographer and graphic designer from my old stomping grounds of Maine:
In addition to wonderful photos like the one above, Els uses a combination of photos and overlays on some of her work that’s just beautiful — check out many more examples at her web site. Check out the book she’s put together, too.
I especially enjoyed seeing some of the places I’ve known well in the past — it’s been too long since I’ve been back to Maine. Thank you, Els, for the mini-vacation down memory lane.
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 3, 2006, at 12:18 PM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Book people | Books | Design | Photography
Cover I Like Today
Water for Elephants:
While I understand the book is predictable — some might even argue sappy — the cover is wonderful, with a superlative circus photo and sophisticated-yet-approachable title treatment. Well done!
Posted by Giles, Monday, July 3, 2006, at 12:12 PM.
Posted to Book design
Microsoft Buys iView
Now here’s an interesting change to the digital-file/media-management landscape:
iView said on its Web site that Microsoft has many plans for iView’s technologies and product line, but those plans would not be announced right away.
iView made a point of noting that its Macintosh versions will continue to be made available and supported.
“Microsoft will fully support the existing Mac products, will continue to sell Mac versions of the current iView product line and will offer upgrade pricing to all Mac users of future products that may be available based on the iView products,” said notes on the iView Web site.
I worked with iView MediaPro at the juice company, and found it great for nearly everything except EPS files, which is what we used most. I looked at it again just recently, but decided that Aperture was the better route for my digital media workflow. Glad I did.
This comes hot on the heels of Adobe’s announcement yesterday of the purchase of the RawShooter conversion engine for use in the Lightroom product. The big boys are definitely solidifying their positions — seems like the battle for who “controls” the media market is just heating up.
Notice that iView promises an upgrade path, not a Mac one. Peter Krogh, author of a digital management book for O’Reilly, calls it a good move — but cautions M$ to keep Mac support.
Time will tell.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, June 27, 2006, at 6:49 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Computers | Photography | Technology
"Better Than Suicide"
ArsTechnica has posted a comprehensive review of Quark 7 — from an InDesign user’s perspective:
With a new face, you would hope that there would come a new heart for Quark, one capable of stopping the flow of customers it once so confidently thought it would never lose. The new text engine is a welcome, but long overdue change, and it’s hard to call things like full Opentype support and decent onscreen rendering “features” in this day and age. The addition of powerful transparency options are a boon but otherwise, the main new features in XPress 7—Collaboration Setup and Job Jackets—are not going to appeal to every user and the latter feature even misses the mark as a substitute for a preflighting tool. This while Quark still avoids basic features like drag-and-drop that people have been waiting on for years. It’s not encouraging and doesn’t say “we’ve clued in to your needs” to me.
[…] In the end, XPress 7 is good for QuarkXPress but not great compared to the competition and while I enjoy using it much more than previous versions, it doesn’t have me excited or itching to leave InDesign.
See the rest, including screen captures, specific features, and a good comparison of Quark 7 and InDesign CS2, here.
Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 8:50 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book design | Computers | Design | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography
That Reminds Me....
Many, many moons ago, I posted on a cover that wound up being abandoned in favor of another designer’s work. I promised an update, but, as often happens, life moved on and I forgot.
However, I was at the Online Photographer, reading a satire post — with serious implications, of course — this morning, and it featured an image that triggered that memory.
So, finally, what I presented (again):
And, what the author went with:
One word: Ew.
I’d leave a comment on the Online Photographer, but it suffers the same fate as Joseph’s NYT Covers blog and everything else from Blogger: it doesn’t allow me, using Firefox on a Mac, to enter the necessary letters to approve comments — just keeps asking for ’em over and over. Unfortunately, the Online Photographer doesn’t have a contact form for me to let him know.
Blogger: Enough already. Please Fix That!!
Posted by Giles, Sunday, June 25, 2006, at 1:28 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Photography | Type and typography | Whatever
FotoExpresso
…has a new issue out, which offers some good tips for color correction, if anyone’s after a refresher. Note that English isn’t the author’s native language, but the info’s still clear and easily understood.
They review and point to a new product I wasn’t familiar with (and might pick up): Pantone’s Huey. Nice. (And cheap!)
Posted by Giles, Friday, June 23, 2006, at 11:54 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Photography | Printing | Technology
Darknet
Speaking of politics, Adam C. Engst writes on Tidbits:
As someone who earns a living from the written word, I keep a close eye on all that’s happening in the copyright wars, that is, the ongoing skirmishes between the large companies that own the copyright on various types of media and the general populace who consume and use such media. I fundamentally disagree with the way these companies - known by some as the Content Cartel - conduct their business and treat their customers, but I’m far more worried by the ways in which they use their deep pockets to affect legislation such as the truly troubling Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). But as much as I’ve participated in innumerable online discussions in which theoretical situations showing the inanity of the current copyright regime are batted back and forth, I’ve never actually collected real-world stories in which copyright, the DMCA, and the tactics of the Content Cartel impinge upon the media-related activities of normal people, activities that meet the common sense standard of fair use.
Luckily for me, well-known blogger J.D. Lasica spent two years amassing those stories, and he’s woven them into a book, “Darknet: Hollywood’s War Against the Digital Generation.” Lasica does a fine job of explaining the DMCA and other efforts to clamp down on any use of media the Content Cartel doesn’t want to see, and I’d recommend that anyone who is unsure of the harm being done in those ways read the book for that reason. But what made it a compelling read for me were his stories of the real people who have run afoul of the copyright regime in various different ways.
Interesting indeed! Read the rest.
Now if only the cover were up to the content…:
Posted by Giles, Friday, June 23, 2006, at 11:38 AM.
Posted to Book design | Freedoms and rights
Stairstep Resize Myth Debunked
For years now, ever since a Photoshop World conference back in my juice-label days, whenever I’ve had to resize an image up — make larger file from a small original, I mean — I’ve used the “stairstep” method. I’m pretty sure it was Scott Kelby whose presentation started the trend for me, followed by another Photoshop “guru” afterwards cementing the method; others have been heard to say the same thing.
By “stairstepping,” I’m referring to the practice of sizing up an image in 10% jumps. I’ve even added actions to Photoshop to do this, so it’s just a matter of a few clicks to get an image to a size I might need. By and large, it’s worked pretty well.
Well, no longer — it’s been proven the less effective method:
Stairstep upsampling on the left; bicubic (with smoothing) on the right.
[I]t’s pretty easy to see that this method doesn’t hold a candle to the bicubic smoother method. Look at the differences in test patches 0/4, 0/5, 0/6. They’re no longer clearly resolved, because the aliasing that I feared has messed them up. The same aliasing has the effect of ‘enlarging’ each of the dark areas, so that the Stair Interpolation version seems to ‘bloom’ slightly compared to the bicubic version.
Read the rest, including some nifty mouseover comparisons, here. (And check out some of Paul’s portfolio — nice.)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 21, 2006, at 11:11 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Computers | Design | Photography | Technology
Artists I Love Tonight
Craig Hamilton. I’ve been fortunate to work together with and, more importantly, learn from this amazing comic arts genius (Aquaman is among the many characters he’s worked on), and can’t resist the temptation to post his take on a Peter Pan cover:
It’s for sale, too; alas, my art budget at the moment is about equal to my font budget — which is to say, zero. Good news for someone out there, though.…
Meanwhile, there’s a comment on that page from Michael Bair. Who’s responsible for this:
Oooooooo. In layout, even! Love. Want a big-scale print of that, but it’s not for sale. Just as well.
Click on either illustration for a larger version, more information, and samples from both artists.
Next up on the comic arts front: a history. Too much I don’t know about an area of design with pretty astonishing depth.
Need more time to feed these obsessions. The curse of the curious, someone once told me. I’m sure I’m cursed daily on all sorts of fronts, so adding another to the list doesn’t seem so bad.…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, June 15, 2006, at 12:40 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Books | Books, design, art | Personal
Couple of (Photo) Quickies
Company in town, so light on the posting this week — but wanted to cover these couple of photography-related items:
— PDN 2006 Photo Annual Gallery, especially the Photo Books category.
From Aftermath: Bosnia’s Long Road to Peace. Just one example of powerful and wonderful, wonderful stuff here — well worth the few minutes you’ll take going through the whole thing. (It’s hard to stop once you’re in there.…)
— Adobe’s released the third beta of Lightroom, for those interested. I’m going to go with the Aperture path here at Osprey Design, but will definitely check out the new version of Adobe’s photo management/retouch/process/kitchen sink application.
The latter notation is from the Online Photographer, one of my favorite photo blogs, run by Mike Johnson, who’s been in the biz a long time. He’s highlighted a comment he got, that I’d also like to:
Is digital photography finally exiting its infant years? That a program originally designed for graphic artists, and not photographers, remains the preeminent software for photo editing shows the need for something like Lightroom. Photographers need software designed for photography, and it’s about time we got some. As amazing as Photoshop may be, its complexity and host of unneeded features make it a compromise solution. We don’t know yet if programs like Lightroom and Aperature are the answer, but at least the software makers are finally looking in the right direction.
As a graphic designer going into photography, I can agree with this — for the longest time I couldn’t understand why anyone would want anything other than Photoshop. It’s a great program, with enormous capabilities! But it’s also for jobs of one. Try 1500 of anything in PS and you’re in trouble. Aperture’s notion of stacks works especially well for me — but it’s great to see competition in this area, so the features and power in these programs will keep growing.
Thanks, Mike! Thank you, Photo District News. And Apple, thanks for Aperture, but get the auto-run ads off the front page of your website. They’re offensive.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 14, 2006, at 10:30 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Photography
American Empire
As I mentioned, while hiking around the Georgia mountains, there was a project simmering that I wanted to share: American Empire. This is the latest in a string from this publisher that I’ve had a great time with.
First, the “loser:”
And, the cover selected:
It was a toss-up for me in terms of preference, even if the latter cover is based on an original photograph — I would have been completely happy no matter which they chose.
Special kudos to comic artist and genius Craig Hamilton, who graciously let me intrude into his Lego collection with my camera. Thanks, Craig!
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, June 7, 2006, at 4:52 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design
BEA Podcasts Available
If you weren’t able to attend BookExpo America 2006 in Washington DC this year, we now have a valuable FREE service from the show — Podcasts from BEA.
We have recorded approximately 24 of the favorite events and sessions and will release them as podcasts over the next couple of months.
Plus, our roving reporter has captured some special interviews in his quest to find out “What’s the Buzz” at BEA this year.
Please visit www.bookexpocast.com where you can subscribe to our podcast by email, iTunes or other popular podcast software. We also have a complete list of our scheduled podcast events under “Upcoming Podcasts” on the site.
I’ve spoken with a couple of people who went to BEA this year; both said it was “underwhelming” and “not as busy as usual.” Anyone else want to venture an opinion?
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, June 6, 2006, at 12:40 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Book sellers | Books | Books, design, art | Business | Jobs | Publishing
Penguin's Great Ideas
The Orlando Sentinel column Shakespeare’s Coffee notes:
A year ago, Penguin publishing came out with the Great Ideas series, inexpensive paperbacks featuring some of the most significant ideas, essays and philosophies just made for reading in a conspicuous public area and looking cool.
Yesterday, Penguin released the second batch of books from the series, which features a nice array of titles including Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women, Plato’s The Symposium, Francis Bacon’s Of Empire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s The Social Contract (ooo! French Revolution!), existentialist philosopher Soren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling and more. We’ll kindly ignore the “so over it” inclusion of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.
This is actually a quasi-review, though: You don’t need me to tell you things like “Wollstonecraft’s essay on the inequality of the sexes is still as relevant today as it was when it was first published.” Rather, I like the idea of this series. […]
Besides, I’ve got a major yen for the Great Ideas book design — simple black-and-white with blue spot color and classic illustration, very old-school book style.
So, my question is, do you agree about the covers? Here’s an example:
Hmmmm. I like, but not thrilled. What do you think?
I’ll be away from the computer again this weekend, working on a photography project. Please forgive the lack of comment moderation until late Sunday night. Thanks. Have a great weekend!
Posted by Giles, Friday, June 2, 2006, at 12:24 PM.
Posted to Book design
Speaking of Joseph,
…must give credit for this wonderful find — and his notation of the “little plastic people” trend:
Good stuff. I like ’em all — Sarah Vowell and Will Self included.
Nicely done, Joseph!
(For the record — pun intended — the first thing that went through my mind when I saw the phrease “little plastic people” was a Little Plastic Castle. Heheh.)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, May 31, 2006, at 11:54 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Publishing
Uktu Lomlu
For the second year in a row, Uktu has captured the Turkish Society of Graphic Designers “GMK”, TÜYAP Book Cover Design Award — with this:
I like, but have to second Joseph’s question: What’s the white thing in the middle?
Bunches of other cool covers on his blog, which we’ve mentioned before. One of the recent posts stands out, though — with a rejected yet very fun cover design:
See how that cover turned out, and another rejected cover I also like, under Şarkılar bizi söyler… on the main blog page. (Apologies for the lack of a direct link — his blog doesn’t seem to use individual archives.)
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, May 31, 2006, at 11:40 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design
Chip Kidd, Book One
Spent this long weekend crossing a few items off the mighty “to do” list, finally, finally consolidating it onto one page. First time in almost two months. It’s nice to begin to catch up a little…!
I’d be father along, except Chip Kidd stopped by. No, not the man himself — I’m sure he’s in Middle Georgia constantly — but the book: Chip Kidd, Book One. Bookslut was wrong, frankly; this book is neither indifferent nor awkward.
In fact, it’s brilliant on a level that I’m only going to blog about it a little tonight and let it rest for a few days — I bet that a second thorough run through this title will reveal all sorts of hidden gems I missed the first time. ’Cause, y’know, nothing is ever what it seems at first glance:
Heheh.
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 29, 2006, at 11:31 PM.
Posted to Book design
On Photography and the Canon Digital Rebel XT, Part 1
Phew: Survived. The last six weeks have been out-of-control busy, in case you couldn’t tell by the lack of posting (or comment moderation). Why? Well, six book covers (including the two Bush covers I’ve posted about), two magazine ads, a new edition of a 56-page catalog, and 100+ hours into this POD project I yapped about a few days ago now. Speaking of which, I’m starting with this because it’s fresh on my mind, then will work my way backwards through my list of once-intended posts over the next few days.
This post is a little off-topic for a book design blog, but I’m posting it for two reasons: One, uh, well, I can. Great thing about blogs — built-in soapbox…;)
Two, some of our “regular” readers might be interested either in this particular camera and how it worked (and didn’t work) for me in a very demanding test, or might be thinking about professional protography and are interested in the opinion of what amounts to an amateur shooting his first wedding — with a camera he’d used for only a few hours, didn’t have a manual or more than one effective (in my hands) lens for, and who undertook this project more than a little ragged after weeks of eighteen-plus-hour days.
Am I glad I did it? Yes. Absolutely, emphatically yes. I learned more about the hoops necessary to do this effectively than a thousand lectures from the best professionals in the world could have given; got to gift a good friend with more than a thousand photographs of his bachelor party, rehearsal dinner, wedding, reception, and a kickin’ party afterwards; and find out under the most grueling conditions possible whether a certain camera system will work for me before I put down the investment.
Couple of notes before I get the review proper underway: Product reviews are not my forté, so I’m hoping you’ll forgive a bit of a haphazard style. I’m going to give you good and bad, followed by a sample gallery of photos, posted through my Flickr account. Some photos are straight out of the Rebel XT (or my current Sony f828), some are altered in Photoshop. No matter what, it’s my opinion. There are Canon vs. Nikon wars aplenty; we don’t need one here. I’m not qualified to speak with authority on anything other than how I feel about this camera equipment, relative to what I have now, as someone serious about taking the step from “amateur” to “professional” photography. (I’ll explain that better, too.)
Continue reading "On Photography and the Canon Digital Rebel XT, Part 1"
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 22, 2006, at 4:24 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Flickr | Personal | Photography | Site news | Technology | Writing
My Bad: Wonderful
Few Tuesday updates for folks:
- Joseph, this is right on several levels. Thank you for posting about this. And, yes, I do think “Horsemen of the Esophagus” is a great title. We’ll leave whether something’s wrong with me for later, perhaps…;)
- Stephen Fraser of Lulu, apologies for not getting to posting Lulu’s take on POD. I owe BookMobile an email, too, and just haven’t had the time to do either. Uh, “My Bad.”
- An update on the POD question is coming soon — as soon as I can put together a few minutes. This project, which started as a cool idea, has suddenly snowballed into something quite huge. Plus, it’s local — my first non-internet client in a long while — which means meetings instead of quick emails, making for some very long days indeed.
Although, one of the joys (and curses, for those with schedules as insane as mine) of Macon is that a meeting just isn’t a couple of rushed minutes in some office, it’s an event, often involving a meal or at least some sort of tasty treat. (I had my first Mint Julep the other day — oh, a delightful drink — served at a sweet-tea refill rate. With lunch. Sheesh.)
It could even be said that the move South — from Florida, LOL! — continues to bring surprise. Absolutely not complaining.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, May 16, 2006, at 11:29 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book printers | Books | Printing | Site news
Cover Design Competition: Results
Remember this?
The results are in. Vote for your favorite here.
Further comment withheld…;)
Posted by Giles, Thursday, May 11, 2006, at 10:29 AM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Ethics
Covers I (Don't) Love Today
One of the worst I’ve seen in a while. So bad, I gotta point it out:
Ew. Far worse than the last one, even.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, May 10, 2006, at 11:54 AM.
Posted to Book design
An Approach to RGB-CMYK Conversion
A very interesting article on one approach to CMYK conversion has been posted over at The Luminous Landscape:
I have for many years worked in the CMYK colour space for press and printer image production. In doing to I discovered the most important area for me to consider when using Photoshop for RGB to CMYK conversion for printer or press printing, was the colour space conversion set-up to ensure the correct gamut on printers and printing presses is realised. As photographers are now encompassing Photoshop as their photo manipulation software of choice to process images, there is and will continue to be a service for printer and printing press ready CMYK files to be supplied. An understanding of the printing process and its relationship with Photoshop, will greatly assist in any a users abiltiy to ensure the maintenance of image quality and gamut control throughout the printing process.
It’s aimed at pro photographers getting stuff right for print, but it’s a great tutorial for those who need a refresher and contains some excellent tidbits for all so inclined on how the “color settings” palette in Photoshop can be a very big deal indeed.
Something to chew on if it’s a slow Monday for you…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, May 8, 2006, at 1:41 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book design | Book printers | Computers | Design | Photography | Printing | Publishing | Technology
Bush 2: Posted for Comment
Forked up:
Based on an original photograph. Have to say I like this one better than the last…;)
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, May 2, 2006, at 8:51 PM.
Posted to Book design
Friday Finals
Couple of events and a heavy weekend of design scheduled around here; please forgive the lack of comment moderation Friday and Saturday. Wishing you a pleasant weekend.
Remember these, Dan sent us a while ago? Here are the finals, thoughtfully sent along:
and:
Thank you, Dan. I like where they wound up, The West at War particularly.
Posted by Giles, Friday, April 28, 2006, at 10:11 AM.
Posted to Book design
Bush 2
It’s official:
A Pact with the Devil
The Bush Doctrine, and the Betrayal of Liberal Internationalism
…has landed on my desk. (The idea for the book started with this interesting Foreign Affairs article, if you have a moment.) Second chance, sure — but the deadline’s been moved up to next week. Gulp.
Will have to see whether I’m willing to post this one so quickly…;)
Meanwhile, “comment of the year” award goes to Jeff — on the first Bush cover:
maybe add butter and a lobster…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 27, 2006, at 5:08 PM.
Posted to Book design
More with Oote
Apologies for not getting this up yesterday; many moving goalposts. (Trend continues into today — took two hours to get this posted. Joy.) Thanks for your patience.
Oote Boe sends me emails regularly with photos attached, describing new events or galleries, physical or virtual. Those emails, along with other photographers’, have played a critical role in how I choose photos for use on book covers, where I source those files, and just as importantly to my goals, vastly improved my photography and photographic knowledge (lenses, angles, depth of field, and so on).
Another one of those goals is to work more with people and less with corporations, and keeping in touch with photographers is a way to get fresh, interesting, often fantastic photography that’s specifically not available from Corbis or Getty. Interesting, then, that I should hear back from him on this issue specifically when we started talking about Too Many Men. Bottom line: He hadn’t known it had been used on a cover.
Concerning the not knowing[…]: It is a book cover which went most likely through an affiliate of Nonstock. Some agencies consider info on where and how it is published client-agency confidential information. They are afraid the photographer is going to contact the end user directly.
I know this end user would contact the photographer directly. (Oote’s happy with his current representation, though, and that’s good.) Even if you purchase through an angency, one reason for direct contact is the (delightful) bonus tidbits:
Some other versions I shot during that moment. The quality is not so great, sorry, as I scanned them from the film strip. I never have printed them as photos.
and:
Seems we got him on the trail of other book covers, too — he found and points us to another:
A Dutch book, the title says “Playing inside”. (“This bundle consists of 13 stories, in which the central figure has sexual escapades with different living and not living well known figures. The writer, Alma Mathijsen, is 21 years old.)
If I look at the letter design it looks like the book is geared towards teenagers. What do you think: Is it Dutch design ?
I’d agree on the teenagers part, but can’t speak to Dutch design at all. Can any of our readers? Better still, anyone seen this title?
It’s from this series of photos, which Oote thoughtfully also supplied:
Kinda like the middle one, myself…;)
Seriously, as I work to improve my book design, it’s great to examine, learn about, and know the process that produces them inside and out. (And then blog about it!) Many thanks to Oote for not only his great photography but also his invaluable assistance in the process.
Meanwhile, we can look forward to more wonderful photos from Oote — he’s out and about this summer. And he has a request:
I will be from May 10 till September 11 in Europe. First 2 weeks Holland and from June 1st through August 30 in the South of France. If there is someone who works on a project on South France and needs a photographer, do not hesitate to contact me. I’m normal to reach through my phone (+1 718 395 2199) and I have Skype (ooteboe1) and email to stay in touch.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, April 26, 2006, at 11:00 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Personal | Photography
More on Richard Eckersley
…at the Design Observer:
That legacy is enormous. His books and jackets have been annually included as selections in the annual Association of American University Press competition, as well as frequently included in the AIGA “50 Books” competition, and among them are many that were instantly hailed as masterpieces of the publishing arts: Karl Bodmer’s America and The Journals of Lewis and Clark, of course, but also Jacques Derrida’s Glas and Cinders, Avital Ronell’s The Telephone Book: Technology, Schizophrenia, Electric Speech, Warren Motte’s Small Worlds, a steady stream of translations of contemporary French writers (including books by Marcel Benabou, Marguerite Duras, Jean Echenoz, Maurice Blanchot and Gérard Genette), and many, many more.
The article includes links, but in case you’re busy and need to get back to it, here’s a taste — also called out by Joseph in response to the original post — of Glas:
Thank you for the link, William. Been too behind the curve to surf and am sure folks appreciate the follow-up.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 25, 2006, at 6:37 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Computers | Type and typography
Bush: Okay. Not Great.
Well, finally:
My feelings could best be summarized as “a shrug.”
Continue reading "Bush: Okay. Not Great."
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 25, 2006, at 4:14 PM.
Posted to Book design | Flickr | Jobs | Personal | Type and typography
Monday Morning Updates
• Update, later Monday: Wrote the below before reviewing the weekend’s covers, and wound up “brightening” things at the last minute from just PMS Black 6 to more “blue.” Also discarded one of the (three) final draft attempts; it just wasn’t up to snuff. (There were more than a hundred different rough ideas.)
A decision’s been made. I’ll post the winner, the loser, and some thoughts about it tomorrow. (Along with Oote’s stuff.) Meanwhile, must sleep.
• On Bush: Pantone Black 6 to the rescue — blue enough to be blue, black enough to be dark and conservative. (Not implying that conservative is dark. Well, directly…;) The red was harder, but in the end I was able to make red-white-and-blue stick. I’ll post ’em in a day or two, as we work through the next drafts or changes needed. (Sorry. Want to give the editors a crack at them first. Heh.)
Whew. Looong one.
• Oote Boe’s sent me a couple of interesting items and some news, which I’ll post later today or tomorrow morning.
• ospreydesign.com will be moving to a new server in the next couple of weeks. Long overdue, I’ve settled on a new host and will be starting the move as soon as this coming weekend. With almost a gig of archives, though, it’s not going to be an overnight thing — especially given the current server’s penchant to disconnect after fifty files have been downloaded.
There have been some problems completing rebuilds (after comments, for instance), so if you run into problems, please reload the page and try again; if you run into a page that’s incomplete or missing content, please try that page again in a few minutes — you likely checked the site mid-rebuild and it just needs time to complete the cycle. (It’s up to about 25 minutes. Sheesh.)
Redesigning the rest of the site will follow the move; I think I’ve settled on a design. It’s a compromise between what I wanted to do and something functional and, hopefully, nice to look at. It’s a matter of time, really: the blessing and curse of the busy small business owner. Thanks for your patience.
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 24, 2006, at 7:56 AM.
Posted to Book design | Photography | Site news
RIP, Richard Eckersley
UnBeige notes:
Eckersley was born into a family of graphic designers in England and worked as a junior at Lund Humphries, which published the now-cult-classic Typographica magazine. He was in the US only one year before he took a job at the University of Nebraska, where he had lived since 1981. He focused on innovative book design, and was most famous for his typographic tricks in The Telephone Book, the first book he designed on a computer.
Stephen Heller wrote a nice piece for the NYTimes that also includes a wonderful cover. Here’s a larger version:
Rest in peace, sir. Your work will continue to be treasured.
Posted by Giles, Friday, April 21, 2006, at 12:00 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Computers | Technology | Type and typography
Update on Bush
Update, Friday noon: Going to go into the weekend. Would rather beg for an extra couple of days than not get this one right — and it’s proving sticky. I so want to use the red, white, and blue, all the type treatments I’ve tried are icky (and there’s a tone of type — long subtitle and two authors), etc., etc. Sometimes things just don’t “flow” the way you’d like.
Update, Thursday afternoon: Red, white, and blue definitely do not work. I’ve settled on a couple of different crops, but the colors and type are taking forever.
Original Post:
After a ton of culling through photo selections, the final three, uh, candidates were presented for this two-color, scholarly title yesterday:
The editors went with the first photo, which happened to be my favorite, as well. Alas, all three of the final images are from Corbis, so from here, it’s not a photoshop game but more a question of taking this photo and making a book cover out of it.
Parenthetically, I generally prefer to use cover subjects that are facing or whose action leads to the opening side of the book. The image chosen has Bush looking towards the spine. While in no way as powerful as the left-action image from Oote, for instance, Bush is well-known enough (heh) to attract attention to a cover no matter what.
Red and blue (with some paper showing through, for white) seem like the obvious choice for colors, but we’ll see how that plays out. Also, there’s deciding how to crop this photo; the title is 6×9, and the photo obviously isn’t — so do I use boxes, cropping, a combo? Time will tell.
Suggestions and “here’s how I would put this together” comments welcome.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, April 19, 2006, at 10:30 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Jobs | Photography
Happy Easter
The Easter Bunny made an early delivery here at ospreydesign: a title called Understanding the Bush Doctorine just landed on my desk. Gotta hop, hop, hop to it, too — due next week.
Thankfully, he also delivered chocolate. Might make it…;)
I’ll post the approved draft of this one ASAP. If anyone else is working on something juicy, something wonderful, or just something, let me know and we’ll have an “currently in progress” posing party next week.
Meanwhile, wishing you and yours a pleasant holiday weekend.
Posted by Giles, Friday, April 14, 2006, at 3:11 PM.
Posted to Book design | Jobs | Personal
Cover Design Competition
Mathias writes:
I am in the process of finishing my phd thesis and it goes to the presses in the middle of May (defence in September). Our institution allows the writers to design the book covers - with rather sad results.
So to try to improve on this situation I want to organise a design competition for the cover of my thesis.
I have put more information online here.
To get more contributions I have decided to publicise the competition by mailing (spamming?) some of the blogs I read and to see if this spreads.
To be honest, I wasn’t going to post this; there have been some pretty juicy conversations around here centering around design competitions and whether they’re a Good Thing™, and thought by perhaps not giving it attention, it might just quietly go away.
However, BoingBoing has since mentioned it, generating a discussion on the announcement page that’s, well, familiar.
Interested in the competition? Want to give him a piece of your mind, as a book design professional? Enjoy.…
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 5:13 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Book prizes | Ethics
Covered Forever: Germano Facetti
From the UK’s Guardian:
Germano Facetti - who died, aged 77, at the weekend - probably wouldn’t have liked the idea much, but he was the master of branding long before the word entered the popular consciousness. Facetti’s book covers for Penguin, where he was art director from 1961 to 1972, gave an extraordinary unity and unmatched visual impact to a publisher already regarded by readers as a vital part of British cultural life.
One of Mr. Facetti’s covers caught my eye (pun intended…;) early in my book design career:
Thoughtfully included in their extensive gallery of book he’d designed. Definitely worth a moment’s tribute.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 5:01 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Personal | Publishing | Type and typography
What Not To Do
Now if this ain’t the truth:
Found through a commenter, Tuesday Gutz, who listed a very nice blog with her comment. Thanks, Tuesday!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 13, 2006, at 4:54 PM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Business | Design | Personal | Whatever
Kool-Aid Never Had It So Good
Another week, another major hat tip to Joseph. This time for some Kool-Aid:
I haven’t seen it in person, But electronically — whew. That’s a 10 in my book. (Well, on my blog…;) Oh, and there’s this:
[Y]ou have to check out Toure’s Web site. How long has it been since you’ve seen the Web site-as-city metaphor? Yeah, me too. 1998.
Bonus: Hardcover (left) and paperback versions of the author’s previous title.
There’s some (soul) food for thought!
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 10, 2006, at 7:09 AM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book design | Publishing | Type and typography
Preserved for Posterity
Found myself downright barking at a professional photographer tonight who had argued that restricting access to her work online was better than dealing with a few people out to cause trouble. I felt kinda bad afterwards; I was perhaps a little harsh. (Who? Me?)
I’m not a professional photographer, in the sense that I earn a living exclusively selling photographs, but I do sell photos, deal with photographers’ rights, and sell a creative, copyrighted or work-for-hire product/service that, while not as easily “stolen for use elsewhere,” is subject to a good deal of competition. Above-board, honest people and grab-your-ideas-and-undersell-you-later types alike.
Pushing your work farther and farther out into the world instead of walling it off clearly works. Foreword is my evidence.
Click through to Flickr and look at all the little notes by moving your mouse over the boxes on the photo. They’ll run you through all the stuff in the picture, including the icons, menu items, etc. (Warning: geek alert…;)
Sure, there are hassles. (Looking at new web servers [hosts] this week, for instance, so we can rebuild pages in the middle of the day without timeouts. You wondered why so few mid-day posts…?) It’s definitely a challenge to post regularly with the quality we’d all like to see — and that keeps traffic growing. Oh, and have I mentioned there’s still the rest of the web site to finish?
But it’s so worth it. Glad we can be here together, learning about book design. Whether it’s your first visit or your thousandth, thanks for coming by.
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 10, 2006, at 5:51 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Design | Ethics | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Jobs | Love | Personal | Photography | Public domain | Publishing | Site news | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever | Writing
Graceful? Yes. (In Hardcover.)
When I first saw this, it was at a distance — and I thought it was a piano. Then I realized it didn’t have black keys, and Grace sucked me in:
I didn’t love it. Then I did. It fascinates me, and I kept looking at it, and going back and forth, thinking about how it works with the story, until I had to blog it. Graceful indeed.
Its also oodles better — that’s an offical term, mind you — than the upcoming paperback:
Looks like a kids’ book.
Posted by Giles, Friday, April 7, 2006, at 2:30 PM.
Posted to Book design
Penguin Graphic Classics: LOVE
Penguin has updated a few of their Classics covers with illustrations by folks from the graphic novel/comic book industry — calling the new series Graphic Classics. Oh, yeah:
This one’s by Seth:
Seth is an illustrator whose work has been featured in such publications as the Washington Post, Details, Spin, and the New York Times. He is best known for his continuing comic book series Palooka-Ville.
Hats off to Penguin for this idea. Looking forward to more!
Many thanks to Mark for the link.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 6, 2006, at 12:08 PM.
Posted to Book design
Bookslut: Kidd Awkward, Indifferent
But somehow the book winds up with something resembling a positive review:
This awkwardly designed, slippery slab of a book, with a half-split cover and the wingspan of a raven, is a physical ordeal to hold and to read. But it’s a rewarding ordeal. Containing nearly 400 pages of book jacket designs by Chip Kidd, one of the pre-eminent designers of our time, Chip Kidd: Book One is an exhilarating chronicle of how one creative mind can transform a moribund art form merely by taking a slightly sidewise approach to its hidebound conventions.
[…] Kidd’s secret? One of them, at least, is that, as he relates in the accompanying copy, he actually reads the books he’s assigned, from beginning to end; the reason he’s not irritatingly literal is that he’s gratifyingly literate, as the encomiums from some of “his” authors included in this book would indicate. Even John Updike himself contributes a fine introductory essay. It’s too bad, then, that the rest of the book is indifferently written (by Kidd himself) and horribly copy-edited — “loathe” instead of “loath,” “it’s” instead of “its,” “premiere” instead of “premier,” and “who’s” instead of “whose,” to cite just four depressing examples. But if you can look past that and, ironically, this book’s own uncomfortable layout, Book One is a treasury of brilliant book design.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, April 6, 2006, at 12:00 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Book people | Books | Books, design, art | Writing
A Tale of Two Crops
Take a look both images of this cover:
The above, from Random House’s “official page,” and the below, from Amazon:
Saw the cover image on Random House’s site, took a closer look, and decided to blog on it — saying that I loved the cover, the typography, arrangement, everything except the crop. I wanted the boy’s eyes to reinforce the message, to add to something already good. (The book’s about an autistic child, by the author of Dying Young.)
So, as I usually do, I headed over to Amazon to see if a larger version of the cover was available for posting here. It was — but there’s the different crop.
I’m going to write Random House in a minute for an answer. In the meantime, anyone know the story? Is it a mistake? Updated image/draft with a different crop? (Note the callout, for instance. Pub date’s this month.) And, of course, which do you prefer?
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 4, 2006, at 8:51 PM.
Posted to Book design
Reordering Needed, Please
Bumped into this today:
From last year, it’s a collection of her poetry. And an absolutely wonderful photo — the angles, her look, and she’s so inviting you to occupy the empty chair, sit for a spell, and just listen. The photo literally jumped out of the crowd and pulled me over.
But. But oh, that crop; but, the title treatment is, well, boring; but, that box just sinks it (the price of a tie to an earlier title, apparently); but, but, but.
So, let’s assume that the original designer’s hands were tied. Imagine the possibilities this title could offer. Now — anyone have a minute to redesign this?
Please. Madeleine would appreciate it.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, April 4, 2006, at 7:44 PM.
Posted to Book design | Personal | Type and typography
NYTimes Covers
It’s Monday, which means a trip by Book Covers from the NYTimes Book Review around here. Missed last week, so double the fun today!
Including this gem:
J’adore. Spacing, aging, colors, amazing photo arrangement, all of it. Joseph is exactly right about the noose, too.
Update: Crown kindly let me know that David Tran did the cover for Our Town. Nicely done, David!
Great conversation going about A Changed Man, as well — check it out. (Like the Saunders and Disposable American, too. Thanks, Joseph!)
Posted by Giles, Monday, April 3, 2006, at 6:22 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Type and typography
Graphic Style
The always-interesting (and astonishingly prolific) Steven Heller teams with Seymour Chwast for 2001’s new edition of Graphic Style, a cover that has worn very well:
Currently on sale at Labyrinth for $11. A nice (and long-overdue) addition to the bookcases.
Big thumbs up to my mother for bumping into and getting this. Sweet Mom.
Update: Amazon has the older version listed, but only a puny little illustration of the cover. Would be nice to do a side-by-side — will keep looking.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 30, 2006, at 9:40 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Books | Type and typography
Cartoon Modern: Final Cover
Todd wrote tonight, asking:
My memory fails me, didn’t you blog about this a while back? …[I]t would be worth posting an update, the cover is looking great.
Yes, I did — and couldn’t agree more, it is looking great:
There are a great many comments at the introduction page, but let me add a few: I like the font choices, love the subtitle and author treatment on the front, like the little details like the handling of the bar code and publisher logo on the full version, and like the smaller cartoons. Only the cityscape on the back stands out as being “too different” for me, but I’m not an expert on the style (and the author says it fits).
Cover design by Brent McFadden. Nicely done, folks!
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 27, 2006, at 8:12 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Book people | Publishing
CS3: 2Q 2007
Rob Galbraith notes a Forbes interview with Adobe CEO Bruce Chizen. The money section:
Acrobat is coming in the fourth quarter of 2006. [Design software package] Creative Suite 3 will be introduced in the second quarter of 2007. Acrobat will take advantage of the Macromedia assets. And you’ll see a lot of activity in the CS3 launch. There will be a lot of integration between [Macromedia] products and [Adobe] products as part of those offerings.
As Rob comments, Universal Binary (read: MacIntel) versions won’t be available until CS3. Kind of a long wait, IMHO — but gives us time to budget for a new machine.…
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 27, 2006, at 7:16 PM.
Posted to Book design | Business | Computers | Design | Technology | Type and typography
'Nuther Good Question
Posted because, uh … I don’t know, and absolutely should:
When trade paperbacks have folded covers to immitate the slip cover of a hardback, what is that called? Overleaf? I want to design a book with these cover elements, and want to describe it properly to the printer.
I’ve only done one — Florida’s Birds — and just referred to it as a “flapped paperback.” (No flapping bird book comments, please…;)
Checked a couple of sources but didn’t see it specifically named. Can anybody help us out? Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 23, 2006, at 8:59 PM.
Posted to Book design
Anybody in Vancouver?
Here’s an event if you are:
Glenn Goluska trains three decades of experience on his upcoming lecture Lead, Wood, and Laser: 30 Years of the Book, Design & Typography. Cosponsored by the Alcuin Society and host venue the Vancouver Museum, this 7 p.m. event next Thursday (March 30) should touch on Goluska’s stints at groundbreaking Toronto publisher Coach House Press, at the Canadian Centre for Architecture, where he designed exhibition catalogues and posters, and at Imprimerie Dromadaire, which Goluska has run off and on since 1975. As if that weren’t enough, The Elements of Typographic Style guru Robert Bringhurst introduces. To reserve, call 604-734-7368.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 23, 2006, at 4:28 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Books, design, art | Publishing | Type and typography
Posted for Comment
Dan writes:
I’ve attached a couple of covers I’m working on for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, if you’d like to post one or both for comment. The photos are pretty much set at this point, but I’m still refining the typography. Would love to know what people think. Thanks!
I’ll take both, thank you:
and:
I like the photo choices, and generally agree that it’s down to typography. More in the comments — please join in.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 1:53 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Type and typography
Question of the Month
…award definitely belongs to Guy Kelly:
I’m an occasional commenter, and I had a question I wanted to put before some fellow book designers.
I’m fairly new to book design, and the type of books I design use lots of lists in the body copy (numbered and bulleted). I got into the habit of indenting those lists (where the bullet was flush with the left edge of the page, and the text was indented a pica or so), and I am now trying to
correct myself.
The odd thing is that most people where I work don’t hang their bullets, and I’m finding that the lists look kinda weird (maybe just because I’m not used to it). When I’ve asked people on message boards, I’ve mostly had responses from advertising people, and that’s really a very different way of handling
type.
So, the question is, do you always hang bullets in body text, even when there are multiple columns? If so, what is a good way to treat them? I currently have a 1p0 gutter between 2 columns, and I just set things up so bullets/numbers hang 5 points into that gutter. If there is any better practice or resources that I could find to help me improve my work, I’d appreciate the help.
Thanks for the great blog!
Thank you for the great question! Have at it in the comments.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 22, 2006, at 1:29 PM.
Posted to Book design | Type and typography
Foreword: Three Years of Book Design Blogging
Many, many moons ago, it seems now, Amanda and I starting putting HTML “blog” posts regarding books and book design up on the ospreydesign.com site. By the end of 2002, we’d decided that we wanted to do it often, if not daily, as a way to expand our knowledge of book design and set me up for leaving Tropicana and go back to doing freelance design — and try to do book design — full-time.
Back then, the header was based on a photo of Haunting Sunshine, a title that’s aged well, and was 550 pixels wide (here scaled to fit):
Then, three years ago this weekend, March 17-21, 2003, Foreword became “offical.” We purchased Movable Type, got it working, enabled comments, and even had rotating headers. The same 550 pixels wide (and again scaled to fit), the site lost the ospreydesign tie-in (and gained a subdomain) in favor of an emphasis on community. This one was my fave:
The photo on the right was to have been a cover for a book Amanda was working on; she spent a good deal of time wandering about Florida gathing information and photos only to abandon it later. (Unfortunately, IMO.) The books on the left were photographed and Photoshopped in-house.
This one got the most questions — and was another Amanda thing:
Nope, I ain’t answering…;)
Readership that first “offical” month averaged 50/day, at least ten of which were family and friends. But it was a start. The plan from there was yearly redesigns, tons of great book design and publishing news and blurbs, and to build that community. I left the juice company in July, and ospreydesign was full-time again. Readership went over 500/day.
In March of ’04, the site gained the so-called “velvet” look:
Reflecting growing average screen sizes, the site grew to first 600, then 650 pixels wide, so we could better accomodate larger cover pictures. Readership climbed over 1000/day, Foreword started flirting with the top-10 returns in Google for “book design,” and life seemed good — for a while.
By October 2004, it was a different site, really, because things were strained to breaking between the two principle bloggers. Yet despite a change in flavor from lighter, quicker “look what I found” items to more thoughts and feelings and design, readership continued to climb.
By March 2005, Amanda and I had seperated, I’d moved to Georgia, and the site got … wider. I flat out didn’t have time to redo it completely, and knew that part of me wanted to do something more radical (read: a new logo), so in the end, I postponed. And you, dear readers, kept coming — over 3000/day, from all corners of the world. Foreword now flirted with the #1 Google return for “book design,” trading spots with Robin Williams and Amazon.
This year, March 2006, posts are sometimes sporadic, Amanda and I are lawyered up — damned shame, if you ask me — but, thanks to the support of my friends, your support, and with the help of a few talented fellow bloggers, the postings continue. The site even got partially redesigned, but ran aground when I realized I didn’t know how to do what I wanted for the main portion and have been too busy to learn — so it hangs. Maybe in a week or two. Might play with a few details here, too; some of the dingbats on the left haven’t worn too well for my taste, the comments still aren’t clear, and a couple of other little things. (As always, suggestions welcome.)
Meanwhile, Foreword’s now solidly #1 in the Google “book design” rank (out of, when searched without quotes, 512 million), readership is over 5000/day, and we’re going to keep posting on book design, books, photography, writing, design, and probably even too much personal stuff. For another three years — or, hopefully, thirty.
Thank you for stopping by. Thank you for commenting. Most of all, thank you being part of the community.
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 17, 2006, at 2:15 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Books | Business | Design | Personal | Photography | Site news
Covers I Like Today
The Dead Beat:
9.1 x 5.3 inches — interesting. Like the type and treatments, although I wish the dingbat were the lighter color (it stands out too much for me). Sounds like a delightful light read, too.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, March 16, 2006, at 4:10 PM.
Posted to Book design | Type and typography | Writing
Software Conflict 2.0
Closed out Software Conflict 2.0 for new publisher developer.* Books — that’s pronounced “developer-dot-star,” by the way — and wanted to thank owners Dan and Gayle for selecting this title. It’s rare that I enjoy the text being formatted into book form as much as I did here; Robert Glass is a talented and insightful essayist.
As I mentioned when the cover was posted, it’s an interesting size, too: 7.5 x 9.25. Chosen as a nod to the myriad of software “how-to” titles out there, it makes for a comfortable interior page:
Software Conflict 2.0. Available soon.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 8, 2006, at 10:33 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Computers | Personal | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography | Whatever
Monday Morning Dark
Still behind the eight ball here in Macon; even the weekend wound up being filled and I haven’t gotten to my web projects yet. Sheesh.
Meanwhile, then, a couple of dark, even moody book covers to start the week off appropriately:
I’m not all that fond of the typography on this one; it’s too loud for the majesty of the photo — something I believe to be a true work of art. (And a wonderful find. Nicely done.) Taken together, eyecatching and good but ultimately an “almost.” Design by Roberto de Vinq de Cumptich. (Had some hard time with my writing and Roberto’s name. Hope that’s correct.) HarperCollins published.
This one’s more Photoshop — and, I think, a better cover. There’s definitely more integration between the photograph and its use on the cover, but there’s also more “approachability.” I especially love how the title and author’s name work; the author’s name is so prominent yet manages to not compete with the title at all — and I adore that font. Combined with the coloring and graphic touches in the photo, this one’s a winner.
Kudos to Putman’s Eric Fuentecilla for good Dope.
These two were sitting side-by-side on the New Arrivals table in Borders, inviting the comparison. Happy to oblige. What do you think?
Posted by Giles, Monday, March 6, 2006, at 9:19 AM.
Posted to Book design
Cover I Like Today
From what I understand, it’s not a great novel — but the cover has me intrigued:
Designed by Robbin Schiff.
Sorry for the light week. Tons going on — more over the weekend.
Posted by Giles, Friday, March 3, 2006, at 3:18 PM.
Posted to Book design | Site news
Center of Winter
We’re actually edging towards spring here in Georgia, with birds and flowers everywhere, but these are very much worth thinking about winter for a few minutes:
The hardcover, which has been around — and something I’ve liked quite a bit — for a while. Now, the new paperback:
I like it very much. It’s balanced, poised, and nicely done. (Callout aside. Gotta love what you have to put on there.) But why are the trees green? Doesn’t look much like Minnesota.…
Harper didn’t list a designer on the cover; anyone know who did it?
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, March 1, 2006, at 8:20 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Design
Covers You Love Today
Raimonds writes:
I enjoy reading your book design blog, and this is the book cover I love today:
Vintage look is well made with this font.
No arguments here — No Starch’s computer how-to series are the best out there that I’ve seen. (Less sure about Just Say No to Microsoft.)
Been using that font myself a bit recently. Pop quiz: what is it?
Thanks, RK!
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 24, 2006, at 1:22 AM.
Posted to Book design | Computers | Publishing | Technology | Type and typography
You Want to do What!? Cool.
[Yale]: What are your plans following graduation in May?
Ashley Linnenbank: I want to work in graphic design, but I didn’t major in Art, so I’m going back to school for that. Starting in early July, I’ll be attending The Creative Circus in Atlanta. I’d really love to go into book design or maybe fuse my love for music with that of art and design for bands and such. So two more years of school and then I’ll be prepared to conquer the world.
Wow. I’d really love to go into book design. We’re on students’ radar…! Is book design becoming more than a niche?
Good luck, Ashley!
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, February 22, 2006, at 11:14 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Design | Jobs
'Nuther US vs. UK
vs.
Talk about different! Size, title, style, everything. Seems like the US might win this one, though — otherwise known as “what happens when Penguin gets it.” No designer listed (for either).
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, February 21, 2006, at 10:55 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books
50 Books/50 Covers of 2005
Speaking of AIGA and people like Rodrigo reminds me:
Entries close March 3rd. Here’s this year’s jury:
- Nola Burger, University of California Press, Los Angeles
- Michael Carabetta, Chronicle Books, San Francisco (chair)
- John Gall, Vintage Books, New York
- Kevin Lippert, Princeton Architectural Press, New York
- Kristen Nobles, Candlewick Press, Boston
Anybody going to enter? Leave a comment!
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 17, 2006, at 1:15 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book prizes | Books, design, art | Business
Foreword: Connecting Point
Kelly Evans writes:
As I was searching for a cover designer for hackoff.com, I spent a good deal of time on your site. It inspired me and led me to the AIGA website where I found our designer. Long story short, I am just thrilled with the job our designer Rodrigo Corral did!
So I just wanted to email and say thank you so much!
Yeah, that Rodrigo Corral.
The newspaper “look” is tough. (I’ve yet to do one I like, for instance.) This one’s nice when cropped — the ink treatment in the author box is a deft touch — but looks especially good when you can see the whole jacket:
Kelly, it’s our pleasure to have those resources and to be able to help you make those connections with the book design professionals you need. Thank you.
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 17, 2006, at 12:55 PM.
Posted to Advertising | Book and design blogs | Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Design | Publishing | Site news
Yummy
Dare I say, delicious?
Like the balance of “worn” and “modern” especially, and it’s a beautiful photograph. John Granen took that photo; Kate Basart designed and art directed it. Nicely done.
Don’t forget the Spring is Near thread below to add more…! Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, February 16, 2006, at 1:26 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Books, design, art | Type and typography
Book Design and the Spirit of Magritte
Karl Baden writes:
The book exhibition La Culture des Idées: Book design and the spirit of Magritte is currently on display through March 19, 2006, in the atrium of Bapst Art Library, on the campus of Boston College.
These are not Magrittes; the book covers in this exhibition are inspired by him, and appropriate his imagery. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Magritte might be said to be one of the most flattered of artists. The skeptical Walloon undoubtedly would have had something to say on this topic, however.
René Magritte (1898-1967) was the most important Belgian Surrealist; he transcends his national origins, and has become an artist of the world. His art was dedicated to the freedom of thought, and continues to have broad appeal to artists and members of the public who delight in the aesthetics of surprise. At the conclusion of his 1928 novel of mad love, Nadja, André Breton defined the essential quality of Surrealist art as “convulsive beauty” – “Beauty will be convulsive, or it will not be at all.”
The exhibition is free and open to the public — if you’re in or near Boston, enjoy!
Thanks, Karl.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, February 15, 2006, at 3:55 PM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Book prizes | Books, design, art | Photography | Publishing
Spring is Near
[Okay, I think — I hope — we’ve got it almost licked. The trusted commenter feature is working, and Textile allows links in comments. Still working on photos in the comments, but meanwhile, post away! Thanks. —Giles]
The publisher’s catalogs have been flooding in, which means the spring season is drawing near. What titles have you designed for the upcoming season? Let’s have a little show and tell, post a cover or two so we can put a name to the face book when we see it on the shelves.
Posted by todd, Tuesday, February 14, 2006, at 6:45 AM.
Posted to Book design
Consider the Lobster redesign, pt. 2
A different approach this time around. I tried it several ways, including a red figure on a white background, but this just seemed to jump more than the others. Again, constructive criticism welcomed.
Posted by joseph, Tuesday, February 7, 2006, at 1:53 AM.
Posted to Book design
Foreword asks (again)
Two quick questions, please:
1. How does everyone feel about caps in web addresses? I went a different route (styled the text differently) to acommodate a client’s request to make the web address “stand out more,” rather than the caps (www.WebAddressHere.com). Feel pretty strongly about it, too, but don’t want to be overly anal about it. What have you done when setting covers and interiors?
2. I’ve been getting spammed this week on a massive scale — thousands and thousands of emails directed at least three of the active ospreydesign.com email addresses. If you’ve sent an email our way this week and you haven’t heard back, please accept my apologies and resend when you have a moment.
Part of the problem is a specific type of attachment that makes Entourage — or, as I’ve been calling it these past few days, Enter Rage — crash, often requiring a time-consuming database rebuild. Considering switching to Thunderbird, but I like the integrated calendar/notification part of Entourage. I’m not going to buy the new version of Office or Entourage, and don’t like how Mail’s output looks on PCs or its speed. Other than those, can anyone recommend a good Mac email client? Or a calendar client with notifications more robust than iCal?
Thank you.
Posted by Giles, Friday, February 3, 2006, at 3:29 PM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Business | Computers | Site news | Technology
Consider the Lobster redesign
So it’s only one (although I’m still working on three others), but I figured I would post this redesign as it’s done — or at least ready for a good critique.
A bit of explanation: I guess it’s fine to put a lobster on a book called Consider the Lobster. But the essay for which the book is named is (primarily) about killing and eating them; Wallace is writing about the fate of the lobster. And to me, lobsters need butter.
This design may be obvious — I’d like some comments about that. Wallace strikes me as a Futura kind of guy, but that’s only because I imagine him being a Wes Anderson fan. I took the photo of the butter with my serviceable but far from pro digital camera — please don’t tell me that the photo sucks. I know this. But pretty much everything else is fair game and constructive comments are appreciated.
Posted by joseph, Monday, January 30, 2006, at 11:08 PM.
Posted to Book design
Thanks, Joe
Coming soon to Foreword: three, perhaps four new covers for David Foster Wallace’s Consider the Lobster, courtesy of some guy from Hustler, WI. (Okay, perhaps that’s not the best reference for the quality of his work…;)
One word: fantastic.
In the meantime, enjoy this beautiful, beautiful cover:
…and go over and get the great context Joe’s put it in. Nicely done. (Check out the American Purgatorio cover, too — lovely.)
Posted by Giles, Friday, January 27, 2006, at 11:29 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Books | Books, design, art | Site news
"Creative Nonfiction"
Had an interesting conversation with someone yesterday about creative nonfiction, a category of literature I didn’t even know about. We were discussing it because of this:
The person I was speaking with specifially mentioned that Oprah had stood behind it, but I noticed in this morning’s NYTimes that she “rebuked” the author and kicked him out of the book club. Heh.
And the cover? Well, let’s say I didn’t need the Times to tell me someone needed a rebuke…! “The sticker’s an improvement,” I can hear someone saying. Newsflash: not for long.
A customer on Amazon left an image of this title as an alternate — and I like the cover:
It asks more questions. (A million more? Sorry. Had to go there.) Not perfect, certainly, but gets you thinking about what’s inside — an excellent measure of “success” in my book.
We have this second cover to think about because someone left a comment on Amazon. Been a good trend here recently, too. Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Friday, January 27, 2006, at 10:40 AM.
Posted to Art | Book design | Book people | Book prizes | Books | Books, design, art | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Writing
"Designers are in an explosive mood."
“Product designers are showing their angst,” the headline says, backed up by “Protests against war and politics are showing up in graphic arts and design.”
More:
Murray Moss, a New York retailer who serves on the board of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, says there hasn’t been a period of such fertile creativity since pre-World War I Vienna. That’s when radical expressionist artists shattered established notions of beauty and designers revolutionized their field, too.
Interesting, if perhaps a wee bit hyped. Read on at the Miami Herald.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, January 24, 2006, at 1:45 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Art | Book design | Books, design, art | Design | Ethics | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Whatever
Widen the Debate
Blatently stolen from Joseph, because it’s such a great question:
Well, this should spur some debate. Would you feel comfortable designing this? Under what circumstances?
Let’s talk about it! Here or there, leave a comment. Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Monday, January 23, 2006, at 11:14 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Books | Books, design, art | Ethics | Personal | Publishing | Whatever
Software Conflict 2.0
On the subject of why we’re all here, here’s a book cover design:
Worked on the interior this afternoon and evening; it’s, finally, almost there — precariously balanced between white space and line height. Need to sleep on it before showing it to the client. The cover, though, was tweaked for the final time a few days ago (hopefully…;) and both the client and I am happy with.
It’s 7.5 x 9.25, by the way — a cool size and an interesting creative challenge. Good call on the publisher’s part.
No where near sleep yet tonight, though. Instead of “creatively lighting” the above, I have other plans for Photoshop: this — and another swipe at the poster.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, January 21, 2006, at 12:06 AM.
Posted to Book design | Books, design, art | Business | Computers | Design | Flickr | Jobs | Technology | Type and typography
Follow-Ups
Trying to break the (bad) habit of posting at four in the morning. Wish me luck…;)
If you haven’t alredy, read yesterday’s entry first. Thanks.
1. The poster went down in flames today. One word: “groupthink.” Monica defended it well, I understand, but that’s the way it goes. They’re going to pick another photo and we’ll try again. (Will save the details for another time, heheh.)
2. Managed to get through the missive last night without mentioning Google. Foreword is the #1 response to a search for book design, with or without quotes. Ahead of Amazon! That’s seriously cool.
That’s also exactly why I’d love to spur more conversation. The description on Google, a community in the service of books and book design, is exactly the purpose. Yes, it’s about me. But it’s also about Todd, Chip, Joseph, J., Amanda, and so many others, past, present, and future. Us. A diverse “community,” in the best sense of the word.
3. I don’t feel the “arrogant American” thing was worded well. I absolutely do not care where you physically work from, what language you grew up speaking, what color you are, or how you live your life. I do care about the quality of your work a great deal, however. And I want to help make it better. Because I learn — we all learn — as part of that process.
No matter who you are or where you’re from, if you’re here, it’s for the same reason I am: to have a greater knowledge and understanding of book design.
When I said “quest for expertise,” I meant “collective quest.” By posting a comment that brings an idea to the table, we all benefit. Good design ideas can, thankfully, transcend cultures — someone, somewhere, will look at that idea, and it will lead to another.
For freelancers in a trade such as book design, the internet is the great equalizer. It no longer matters where you live, only that you know what you’re doing. But that doesn’t remove culture.
Foreword is American-centric because the posters and active commenters are mostly American. I’d love to broaden that — we’d all benefit. Bring something to the table, though. Don’t just ask how to do it. Get involved in how to do it. That’s why we’re all here. Let’s share those ideas.
4. Speaking of sharing, I welcome feedback and ideas for improving how this site actually functions. The redesign includes some improvement in code related to comment moderation and posting, but will mostly be a visual thing. I’m currently going around (and around) regarding “quickie” posts; whether I’d do enough “Hey, this is cool…” posts to justify a third column and the CSS tricks necessary to do that properly. Probably not. Site loading speed’s a consideration, too. Simple code with striking visuals (well, and good posts…;) works best for me.
Now is the best time to talk about it. What would you like to see next? Leave a comment.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 19, 2006, at 10:46 PM.
Posted to Art | Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Books, design, art | Business | Design | Flickr | Freedoms and rights | Personal | Photography | Publishing | Site news | Whatever | Writing
How do I...? Well, that's the question. Every day.
Been meaning to write this post for a while. It’s a good, mid-life crisis kind of entry. Pull up a chair.
First off, let me apologize — again — for the lack of posting. As I’ve mentioned before and no doubt will again, the past few months have been, shall we say, interesting. In no particular order, I’ve watched my marriage spring a leak, run around entirely, then finally sink into an angry sea; a business that I loved and, for a while, did together with my (former) wife, suddenly get very complicated; moved; been depressed and excited, both about life and work; moved again; rediscovered the joy of photography, Flickr, Photoshop, and, well, how much I suck as a photographer; ran behind in work; caught up; ran behind again; worked too many hours; ate too little; the list goes on. Generally, what was needed to get by and more only when I could get it.
When you’re self-employed or run a business, your personal life is so much more important to the daily goings-on — it’s impossible to take a few days on the employer’s dime to recover (you know what I mean — we’ve all been there). You either produce or you starve.
Perhaps that was on my mind when I named this photograph My Life:
A statue on the grounds of the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida, gets overtaken by and slowly cumbles under the most relentless force of all: nature. His expression seems, I think, appropriately horrified.
Worse, there’s the constant swirl of everyday business pressures, including (the current lack of) health insurance, for instance — and don’t even get me started on the IRS. Been around and around with CPAs and have finally had to hire a tax attorney to sort it all out. I’m an artist, for cryin’ out loud — isn’t there someone who can just tell me what to do and where to sign?
Absolutely. With varying sizes of hands out, depending on how good they are. Just like all of us.
I’m thankful to be on my own, occasional contractor aside. I’ve watched people torn apart ethically and profesionally, and met more than a few for whom the money is more important than the ethics or the professionalism, in the quest to sustain employees. Once you’re a “business,” it’s this whole other thing. Like a child, it can be nurtured or exploited, but just like a child, I think that if you’re going to put it out there, it should be the best it can be. My approach (to either, honestly, which is absolutely why I don’t have kids — yet) demands that I not back down from what I believe in. Employees, like children, people who depend on you, make those beliefs seem less like “lines” and more like “gray areas” that can be tread upon when the payroll’s due (or the shareholders want to know why this year’s profits “aren’t growing sufficiently”). It’s easier to starve yourself for what you believe in any day — and I have respect indeed for those that somehow manage the balance.
Parenthetically, my old boss at “Trop” — another family member, and yes, I have been lacking sanity at times — and I have never really talked about my leaving corporate life to forage on my own. Here it is, Tanya: I think we both know I’m more like Blair (yet another family member — long story) than either of us were comfortable with, or were prepared to admit at the time. But we’ll save the details of “days spent working for [a graphics contractor for] a major juice company” for another post…;)
In my life, right now and for the foreseeable future, I need lines that represent those professional and ethical obligations. I need to make sure that every piece put out there, whether here on the blog (present entry excepted, perhaps), on Flickr, or, especially, in the work that I do, is the best it can be. Even if it means bending over backwards, moving, dealing with attorneys, going without food or sleep, whatever’s necessary to make sure those lines stay sharp. With all the crap going on, though, it’s hard to do in a timely manner.
A couple of clients have bailed because of the delays, reschedulings due to personal problems, and the like; one was comepletely professional, and the other was, well, an asshole. (Ahem. Excuse me. It’s late, and we’re being honest.) Either way, though, I understand and wish them well.
Those clients who have hung tough, though — some of whose projects have come through almost on time, and I haven’t even started on the troubles my iMac has given me this week (and will again next — but that’s yet another post) — have gotten some of my best work. That I haven’t been doing a good job of putting up on the web.
Trying to do better with that. Like the poster. Or this catalog, for instance:
A number of things stand out regarding this photo:
— It represents progress graphically. The Sunshine State Cookbook was relatively early project I did for this client, but the page around it is infinitely more sophististicated. Some of that’s better software (ahem — InDesign? Will post on that and the Quark 7 beta soon), but most of it’s several years of working every moment I could to make myself a better designer. (I didn’t do The Florida Bounty, and while I did do Mastering the Art of Florida Seafood, it’s okay if it’s a little lost off the bottom…;)
— It represents progress, especially, in terms of photographic (and Photoshop) skills. I’ve bitched about my camera’s shortcomings, both here and on Flickr, but the reality is that it does exactly what I need: takes good enough pictures. Some are great out of the box, but most need some Photoshop skills. Flickr’s various groups, especially Photoshop, have really allowed me to explore what others have done and work on doing similar things myself.
The shot of the catalog above is entirely fake, and it’s a fake I’m proud of. The catalog page only exists electronically — and is a draft. (Forgive. A recent bad habit.) But it doesn’t seem right to just post the page anymore; now it’s possible to “throttle” it. The lighting and shadows, the subtle (and hopefully natural) curve to the page, the perspective and cropping, the background and background page edges, the three-dimensionality, if you will — all exercises to highlight the design of the page itself. While learning about Photoshop. (25 layers in the .psd file; about half an hour all-inclusive to put together, including deciding to go back and add fanned pages in the background and re-uploading the photo, but a pristine hi-res PDF ain’t a bad starting place for Photoshop experimentation.) Never stop learning.
— It’s absolutely not perfect. The mistake caught on Flickr (see the note) aside, it’s already evolved from its original design and will again. Other mistakes will be found — please comment away! — and probelms solved. I’m sure, too, that months or years from now I’ll look back both on the catalog and photo and perhaps wish I’d done something differently. But that’s what evolution’s about.
— It (and My Life, above) represent the first photos posted here actually hosted by Flickr. Might cut down on the 4-5GB of bandwidth Foreword pushes through the internet every month — or, at least, source part of it from someone with better servers…;)
The “self-taught” thing is no small deal, either. I have a college degree, but not in graphic design. I figured out in high school that I was as good — okay, better — at making papers look good than writing the content. (Still probably true. Witness this post, for instance.) I figured out how to make money off of that skill on college, and ospreydesign was born, to use the child analogy again, nearly twenty years ago. Everything since then has been fits and stumbles, exploration and learning, conferences and classes, and most importantly, problems solved against deadlines.
This blog wasn’t started because of expertise in book design. It was started as a quest for expertise in book design. It remains, and will remain, that way.
Which brings me back to the beginning: “How do I?” “How did I?”
Ben writes (forgive for quoting without asking first):
Hello, I am painter, photographer, and draftsmen who has created many images that would be suitable for the covers of books, and I was wondering how one gets into the business. If you could give me any information, I’d be very thankful.
English might be a second language here. Lots of Foreword’s readers are from overseas. Not going to nail him for the poor wording, but it might be something to improve before going to look for, say, a prospective paying U.S. client. I wouldn’t dream of going to another country and begging for work this culturally aware, for lack of a better term, without knowing the language well indeed. (Might an arrogant American viewpoint, but that could be said about most of this post. Sorry.)
Or this gentleman, who writes:
Hello Osprey Design
I just came across your blog, which I’m now feeding via RSS thank you very much.
I am a [insert skill set here] and I’m looking for tips on how to get into book cover design. I would appreciate any helpful tips, resources, etc… that you could share to help me go forward.
Heh. Reminds me a little of this, when Amanda set me up to meet Chip Kidd in New York after I’d just finished and exhibited The Playmakers. One of the fond memories from my marriage — thank you, Amanda — Chip was very gracious to some wet-behind-the-ears book designer jerk still trying to figure out what he wanted (wants) from life.
He did then — and continues to, thank you Chip, and thank you Todd for the awesome post that triggered his most recent visit — do what I’ve always tried to do here, which is exactly what was requested: “share to help … go forward.” That’s why it’s called Foreword — it’s a play on books and “moving the ball,” as a friend says. (But then, you all knew that. Right? Right? Anyone? Okay, sorry, it’s late.)
So to Ben, the other guy, and the countless others that write, I’m sorry I didn’t answer you personally, and I’m truly honored you looked to me — and Foreword — for advice. Look around, search the posts, review the categories. Stay tuned for the refreshed web site (yeah, I’m really working on it), when it’ll be even easier to find stuff. I don’t mean to be impolite. I’m already doing everything I can with the few scaps of time I can put together — doing what you request. What we all seek. A quest forward to an expertise in book design.
Most importantly, know that I’m eager to share and absolutely welcome work or (better) links be sent along. But. Give me more to work with than just “how do I…?” Give me a reason to find a minute to post about it. Please!
“Success,” however you measure it, is up to each and every one of us to achieve, according to our own standards. Even if I don’t say it often enough — and I surely don’t — thank you, thank you, for trying to move forward, uh, Foreword, here.
If you’ve made it this far, hats off. Take the next step: leave a comment. This site gets more than five thousand real (read: nonspam) views daily, on average, and pathetically few comments. Most of that’s my fault; I just don’t have the time to actively participate in as many discussions as I’d like. (Here, Flickr, another blog, real life, wherever.)
To Ben and everyone, I keep hoping discussions will take off on their own. Post a comment to an entry that you’re interested in. People can keep track of topics with the “Discussions” links at the top of the page. I’ll do my best to keep up with the comment moderation. And, when the new web site’s implemented, it’ll have code for TypeKey users (a Movable Type thing — yet, yet another post) and code to recognize frequent commenters and approve them automatically so moderation’s delays will matter less.
Thanks for bearing with me, for reading Foreword, for being passionate about book design (and photography, perhaps), and, especially, for helping to build a community for all of us for move forward.
Be sure to read the follow-ups. Thanks.
Posted by Giles, Thursday, January 19, 2006, at 4:18 AM.
Posted to Advertising | Book and design blogs | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Books, design, art | Business | Design | Flickr | Jobs | Love | Personal | Photography | Site news | Whatever | Writing
Overall, a Good Day
Okay, so I’m just now checking Macworld news and am, of course, disappointed Apple didn’t bow to Sandwich Man and introduce plasma sets. I mean, what is Steve Jobs thinking?
Heh. Love the morning-after (literally, in this case) quarterbacking.
Good reason for ignoring that ’til now, though. Finally — finally — this kids’ how-to-draw project fell into place. An interior sample:
We flopped this book from 8.5×11 portrait to landscape today, and the change in orientation brought about one of those “well, that’s a good idea, what if I put that with it…?” moments. For several hours. There’s a phrase rattling around my brain somewhere: I love it when a plan comes together. Can’t remember what it’s from.
Usually, I show stuff to clients before posting it online. Apologies. Probably shouldn’t, but I know they’ll like it, and I’m just so happy to put a big ink line through this design on the to do list.
Either way, time for a cigar bed.
Update: Client’s response: Eureka! This is it! … Super. Sweet.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, January 11, 2006, at 4:18 AM.
Posted to Book design | Design | Flickr | Personal | Type and typography | Whatever
Book Covers I Like Today
First is one courtesy of Joseph and Book Covers from the NY Times Book Review:
Joeseph refers to is as “[a]n enigmatic image that seems to work,” but I’d have to be a little more emphatic — I love the image. Thanks, Joseph.
The sencond is from Amazon’s top-preorder list: Rush: Chemistry.
Some things about this cover really work for me — the overall look, well executed if not exactly original, the type, transparencies, and placements — but perhaps I’m not enough of a Rush fan to tell at first glance that this title’s about a band. Without the shelving (“I’m in music!”) info that a pre-order list doesn’t provide at the top level, I assumed by the title that it was a science book.
Then again, perhaps it’s just Monday monring…;)
Posted by Giles, Monday, January 9, 2006, at 10:56 AM.
Posted to Book design
Two From Flickr
First up, a reminder, from Behind-Eyes:
January 10-24. Interesting graphic, too. (Some of Foreword’s readers are in Japan. If any of you goes, please send along a report!)
Second is for your visual pleasure — Lunaryuna’s most creative self-portrait:
Check it out at the larger sizes. Very cool.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, January 4, 2006, at 9:47 AM.
Posted to Art | Book cover photography | Book design | Books | Books, design, art | Design | Flickr | Photography | Type and typography
Design Observer on Fred Marcellino
Wonderful piece:
[E]very once in a while, in what for me was then an act of madcap daring, I’d make an impulse purchase, and buy a hardcover book based on almost nothing more than the design of its dustjacket. When the gamble paid off, these were books I’d come to really treasure: usually novels, their authors unknown to me, the settings unfamiliar and exciting. I’ve saved them all, and I took an armful down from my shelf the other day. Loving Little Egypt by Thomas McMahon, The Lost Language of Cranes by David Leavitt, The New Confessions by William Boyd, The Twenty-Seventh City by Jonathan Franzen.
Wildly different books, with one thing in common. Fred Marcellino was the designer of all their covers.
Thanks for sending, Michael! Sorry to take a few days to get to.
Posted by Giles, Monday, January 2, 2006, at 4:32 PM.
Posted to Book design
Beautiful Books, but ...
Ok, graphic design aside, let’s talk about book design (as in construction). Two examples I’d like to discuss are: Chip Kidd: Book One and Cream.
I finally got around to buying my copy of Chip Kidd: Book One the other day. It’s a wonderful book, beautiful design, but I have one issue with it. The cover construction is clever, but doesn’t hold up very well. Unless done carefully, the external flap edges are prone to bend and crease when shelving the book. There were 2 copies where I bought mine, both of them were pretty beat up (does anyone know if this book was originally shrink-wrapped?).
As for the other book, Cream, designed by Phaidon’s Julia Hasting, that pushed the boundaries too. Once again, stunning graphic design, but … it’s a landscape perfect-bound volume that was just too damn long and thick (464 pages) to hold up. My copy has fallen apart, the text-block having detached from the cover. For this book, in-store shelf wear was circumvented by enclosing the book in a thick, sealed plastic bag (the next edition, Fresh Cream came encased in a plastic pillow, very clever. I believe this book’s orientation was portrait, which would solve the problem the first book had).
Anyone else have similar examples of great books that were too cool for their own good? What have you seen on the shelves that is a little worse-for-wear (due to book construction)?
I’m all for pushing the boundaries, but find that shelf-wear issues get in the way all too often.
Posted by todd, Friday, December 30, 2005, at 3:32 PM.
Posted to Book design
Conversation with Oote: Book Cover Photography
Oote Boe kindly sent along a book cover — with one of his amazing photos. The cover (sorry it isn’t larger):
The original photo:
With the photos, he said, “according to the info I received it should be a front and back — cover use of the image but if I see the cover on Faber and Faber’s website to me it does not look like they used the full image.”
I got looking at the photo and realized that something wasn’t quite the same — the perspective had shifted to the other side of the road. So we got to emailing:
[Quoting my email] Might it be a similar or subsequent photo? (It might explain the possibility of using the photo for the back, too.…)
Good you went back on this to me. I was planning to write you a follow up on it as a friend pointed something out and then I went studying the image very carefully. What the designer did do was mirror the image. The funny part is the little stop traffic sign should be in the mirrored on the left but is relocated to the right of the road. If you look good at the grass at end of the dirt-road one side the grass is rounded the other side more a corner turn. So it is a fully wrapped around cover and the large bilboard is now on the back of the book.
Which prompted a question I’d been itching to ask a professional photographer — especially one who understands the design industry and the stuff that happens downstream:
How do you feel when someone does something like this? Isn’t moving the stop sign technically a violation of copyright?
It is not journalism. A design is a cooperation between design and photo and ego has nothing to do with it so I think it is a good thing to make a design work.
From photographer point of view: A good designer will know how to use a good photo and a bad designer will never appreciate a good photo for what it is. Here under follows a sample. It is almost a scary design, just an image with some text. Many designers should have screwed the simplicity of it up by trying to hard. [Probably including me. —Ed.] Now it was one of the books who won the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers award in 2004.
Design Abby Weintraub, photo by Oote Boe.
[Quoting my email again] Does it bother you less for a stop sign, since it was to make the image work, than it would if it were something bigger?
Maybe is here a hypothetical question as a photographers answer the right reply. - Should I have photographed the image if the original image was a mirror image from what it is now and if the stop sign was on the other side of the road ? (My answer = Yes.) Is the atmosphere of the image still the same ? My reply is again - Yes.
I think by using the picture as a fully wrap around the designer (I do not know his name) has made clever use of the potential of the image to design a book. (Should most designers only have thought of the front of a cover and cut the image in half?)
Anyone know the designer’s name? Credit where credit is due — it’s a great solution and a great cover.
Thank you, Oote!
Posted by Giles, Thursday, December 22, 2005, at 11:36 AM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Photography
Alternate Down and Out Covers
Bear with me, bit of a roundabout story here: I’ve been posting a series of photos to Flickr from my trip to the 2004 Book Fair in Chicago. Decided that some of the photos from the same trip as the Gentrification cover shoud be next, and thought about posting the original photo and the cover. (Which I’ll do soon.) Got me thinking about book covers on Flickr, whereupon I promptly found this:
The cover titled “experimental” [above] is a photo I shot of Tomorrowland with my Digital Rebel from the Monorail last year. I added vertical grain to it to give it a dissonant look. The type is terminal inspired.
From a San Fransisco State University graphic design student’s final project, and part of a series. Cool. Check ‘em out. (Flickr’s JPEGs are better, too — the detail in this one, especially, is worth the trip, but the illustration and feel of Conventional really work, too.)
Nicely done, Mitch.
Posted by Giles, Friday, December 16, 2005, at 1:10 PM.
Posted to Book design
Book Designer Wanted
at OUP.
Responsibilities/Duties: Interior book design and jacket design for academic, medical, and professional titles. Broad range of design from trade to complex texts, including heavily illustrated 2-color and 4-color work, college books and ancillaries, and clinical medical handbooks.
Qualifications: Two to three years of experience or equivalent skills necessary. Broad knowledge of production and composition required; familiarity with Mac desktop illustration and paging programs necessary. Must have good communication and organizational skills as well as the ability to work under tight deadlines.
For immediate consideration, please send/fax resume with salary expectations to: Human Resources Department, Oxford University Press, 2001 Evans Rd., Cary, NC 27513; email humanres@oup-usa.org. Fax 919-677-1177. EOE/m/f/d/v.
Posted by , Thursday, December 15, 2005, at 12:41 AM.
Posted to Book design
Metropolis Mag
…says, in its review of Chip Kidd’s new book,
A good cover turns a sheaf of paper into an object of desire.
Best one-sentence book design description I might have ever read. Some good insights from Chip, too:
Kidd himself confirms the complexity of the process. When asked how long it takes him to design a cover, Kidd replies: “Anywhere from ten minutes to six months. It’s very, very hard to articulate. Sometimes it goes really quickly, sometimes it drags on and on.”
More of the excellent Reading Under the Covers here.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, December 14, 2005, at 10:45 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book people | Books, design, art
Covers I Like Today
Photography by Giles Hoover.
Posted by , Monday, December 12, 2005, at 8:42 PM.
Posted to Book cover photography | Book design | Photography
Gotta Fave?
Right now we’re working on the CARTOON MODERN cover design. In books, sometimes the cover choice is obvious and presents itself early on in the design process; other times it takes a lot of searching and experimenting before you find the right idea. This book is definitely of the latter variety, which is somewhat ironic, because one would think that a book with so many visual riches would mean the cover would be an easy decision. In fact, I think it’s a testament to the diversity of design in 1950s animation that has made it such a challenge finding the best way to represent it.
Check out the options here.
Thanks to the Theorist.
Posted by Giles, Monday, December 12, 2005, at 12:56 PM.
Posted to Book design
Sometimes Not
Was in B&N yesterday, purposely trying to get myself back into thinking about design and photography in my spare time — trying to put the difficult past few weeks behind me.
Perhaps it’s my still-snarly state of mind, but I didn’t see any titles in their new releases section that I liked; wandered the aisles for a while, perused a magazine or two (why is it British car mags have such better design than ours?), and eventually wound up flipping through this:
I’m sorry that the first book design post in a while is a negative one, but this is horrible. While it’s not a bad picture of President Carter, looking serious and concerned (though the mixed plaids are annoying), the use of type has serious shortcomings. Oh, to have time to host a redesign competition…!
Posted by Giles, Monday, December 12, 2005, at 8:03 AM.
Posted to Book design | Book sellers | Freedoms and rights | Personal
CK at CU
Thanks Kieran!
Posted by , Saturday, November 19, 2005, at 6:57 PM.
Posted to Book design
Two from The Theorist
R., aka “The Theorist,” writes:
I thought I’d share these two book covers I came across recently. I was drawn to these books solely because of their covers (they were sitting on the recent acquisitions display at my library). As it turns out, the covers so perfectly indicate the contents of the books, and they’re now in my (temporary) possession.
While not disputing the assertion that the covers reflect the content well, I’m not sure how I feel about the first cover:
The second, though, I like a lot — with a more interesting font, it would rock hard:
Check out R’s blog, Fade Theory, too — some good stuff for book lovers.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, November 15, 2005, at 1:03 PM.
Posted to Book design
Chip Kidd: Book One (Work, 1986-2006)
It’s a book party with CK!
Exhibition at The Herb Lubalin Study Center of Design and Typography
Opening Reception: Thursday November 17, 6 to 8:00 pm
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, School of Art Foundation Building, 2nd Floor, 7 East 7th Street at Third Avenue, New York City
Exhibition Hours: Weekdays 11-7, Saturday 12-5
The exhibit runs through February 4, 2006.
Be there or be square!
Posted by , Saturday, November 12, 2005, at 12:54 PM.
Posted to Book design
Photographs to Book Covers
Karl Baden writes:
I organized the ‘Covering Photography’ exhibit at Harvard [mentioned in your entry of 11/5] from books in my collection. Here’s a link that might give you a better idea of the show [it’s been extended to the 13th]. The arts editor of WBUR, our public radio station, asked me to post this on their site.
Check it out — nice article. Wish I could attend the exhibit! Glad it’s been extended.
Hope it proves helpful [there are pictures!]:
Yes, Karl! Thank you for writing.
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 11, 2005, at 11:17 AM.
Posted to Book design | Photography
fourninezero design
Paul Airy writes:
I thought you might like to know about book design from the other side of the ‘pond’. I’m a freelance book artist and designer, based in the North of England, UK.
Always wonderful to meet fellow book designers and share what we love. Some nice items in the portfolio, too, like this one:
Part of a series, there’s lots of stuff on and rules to follow for this cover, yet especially with the strong image, it works well.
Thanks, Paul!
Posted by Giles, Friday, November 11, 2005, at 11:04 AM.
Posted to Book and design blogs | Book design | Type and typography
Cover I Like Today
Science, politicized!?
Science has never been more crucial to deciding the political issues facing the country. Yet science and scientists have less influence with the federal government than at any time since the Eisenhower administration.
In the White House and Congress today, findings are reported in a politicized manner; spun or distorted to fit the speaker’s agenda; or, when they’re too inconvenient, ignored entirely. On a broad array of issues—stem cell research, climate change, abstinence education, mercury pollution, and many others—the Bush administration’s positions fly in the face of overwhelming scientific consensus.
In The Republican War on Science, Chris Mooney ties together the disparate strands of the attack on science into a compelling and frightening account of our government’s increasing unwillingness to distinguish between legitimate research and ideologically driven pseudoscience.
Heheh. Nice elephant.
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, November 8, 2005, at 9:40 AM.
Posted to Book design | Freedoms and rights
Catching Up
A few I wanted to post on this week, but didn’t get to:
A book cover photography exhibit:
Baden was struck by the fact that certain images would get used multiple times, often for very different books, and in very different ways. The same photograph might be cropped or tinted or have type on it. In those various uses, the covers became a kind of history, at once revelatory and warped, of not just photography but also book design, literary taste, and marketing considerations.
A small exhibition drawn from Baden’s collection, ”Covering Photography: fifty-five books, twenty-five images,” runs at Harvard’s Carpenter Center through Nov. 13.
Could be very cool. If anyone’s able to go, please let us know!
A couple on my lust-object-du-jour, Aperture:
Stripping Raw Naked, at creativepro.com:
Raw files haven’t fit smoothly into photographers’ workflows — workflows that are already stressed by the need to process and manage thousands of digital images. That’s why I’m so interested in Aperture, Apple’s upcoming software program, which promises to help photographers convert Raw files and manage, compare, process, and output images of many formats, not just Raw. It’s scheduled to be available (though only for the Mac OS) in November for $499.
Apple isn’t releasing software betas, so creativepro.com can’t review Aperture at this point. But from what I’ve seen and heard so far, it’s got a lot of potential. Every edit is supposedly non-destructive, so you never have to fear losing a master image. The image-adjustment tools cover the basics well: you’ll find controls for crop, exposure, highlights and shadows, histogram, levels, noise reduction, red-eye correction, RGB channel mixing, sharpen, spot removers and patching, stamping, straighten, and white balance.
Bringing Aperture into focus, from Rob Galbraith:
Given the potential for Aperture to really change the pro photography software landscape on the Mac platform, we’ve wanted more information. A lot more. Well, actually, what we want is to see the Aperture installer’s progress bar jogging across the monitor connected to our G5 desktop. But since that isn’t an option yet, staff writer Eamon Hickey and I have had to content ourselves with peppering Apple representatives with the many questions raised by Aperture’s impressive feature set.
This article, which is co-authored by Eamon and me, is a compilation of the answers we’ve received during interviews conducted with Apple’s Joe Schorr, Product Manager for Aperture, and Rob Schoeben, Vice President of Applications Marketing. It’s not meant to be a complete look at Aperture, nor is it meant to duplicate all the information that Apple has put out. It is intended to shed some light on areas of Aperture that we think are important, and for which we haven’t seen a lot of information elsewhere.
And, as is always welcome, a book designer eager to show some work:
He’d like feedback. Interesting thing there is that I have no experience with the audience; what works — or doesn’t — here in the US might not apply in India. Can anyone help him out? Or is it more universal than that?
Posted by Giles, Saturday, November 5, 2005, at 10:59 PM.
Posted to Book design | Computers | Photography | Whatever
The Bad. The Good. And a Request.
Definitely been quiet around here recently; didn’t even get one post in this week. Long story, complicated by my sweet kitten going missing Tuesday night:
I wound up spending every spare moment this week roaming the neighborhood around the house, covering a dozen blocks with posters, meeting a bunch of neighbors (“Hi, I’m Giles, relatively new to town — uh, have you seen my kitten?”) who, to a person, were fantastic, and calling for Belina. The posters brought two leads, but nothing concrete. Come Friday morning, I was really pretty worried. Thankfully, to my relief — and I think to hers, judging by how she’s been acting — she was waiting outside. Just a kitten adventure, with major “parental” stress in a starring role.
Aside from some truly interesting book design projects going right now, poised at the top of the “to do” list, waiting for a resolution to the kitten drama, has been an upgrade for all of ospreydesign.com to Movable Type’s latest, MT 3.2. That, and a couple of tweaks to the blog’s CSS (including an increase in width to 700 pixels), are finally done.
That means a few things.
Most important is spam management. The earlier MT 3.x installations all had a major problem as far as our installation was concerned: notification. Every time a spam comment was posted to the system, MT generated an email to the entry’s author “requiring” action. Alas, no matter how many times it was turned off, it still sent the emails. So, during a typical spam attack over a weekend, say, six or seven hundred emails were generated and sent.
It certainly caused problems. (Including corrupting my email database on more than one occasion, usually when I would receive more than a thousand emails some typically busy Monday morning.) As a result, most editors’ accounts were closed so they weren’t flooded with these junk notifications, and posts dwindled to Amanda and me. That was in May. But it got shoved aside.
I officially moved the office to Macon in June, said “yes” to several new clients and projects over the summer, took on a big house (ironically, taken the night the kitten left, before it was a certainty and I was out calling, just in case) in need of some work, and the result is what we have today — more than a week without a post.
With MT 3.2 installed here at Foreword, we can finally reopen the doors to guest editors. I’m hoping you’ll forgive my taking so long. And I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s time.
Someone recently emailed:
Foreword seems rather dead lately! I know you’re busy and probably can’t post every day, but what happened to everyone else? […]
It would be great to see some new posts on a daily basis, and the only way I think you can achieve this is to get some of the other editors posting[.]
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s face it; between Amanda and me, she’s the far better blogger. Not only because I’m up to my eyeballs in work and lack the time to wander the ’net, but because she has a knack for finding things that are not only interesting but things that others haven’t seen yet. As has been posted, though, Amanda’s gone back to her first love of philanthropy — and now it’s just me 90% of the time.
As the last few weeks — and especially this past one — have proved, I’m not up to the task alone. Gotta ask for help.
I’ve posted a couple of emails to former editors, asking them to return. I’ve also asked a couple of new folks to either edit or supply some content in both book design and photography (the basis of so many successful book designs). But we need more.
On the horizon is a site redesign. The 700 pixel width will stay or (probably) even grow; I’ve been itching to streamline and totally revamp the design on both Foreword and the parent site for some time. Tentatively, it’s on the plate for after Thanksgiving. Included with that will be mini-posts — a la Kottke — that allow editors to quickly point to something interesting. I’d also like to spend more time exploring the intersection of photography and book design, something I’m often thinking of when taking my own photos.
However, you ideas and feedback are absolutely welcome. Please, let me know what works for you. Leave a comment, idea, or request.
And, today and always, thanks for visiting.
Posted by Giles, Saturday, November 5, 2005, at 8:02 PM.
Posted to Book cats | Book design | Books | Personal | Photography | Site news | Whatever
Covers I Love Today
Simple yet provocative:
From Ann Weinstock, who recently let us know she’d designed the superb War Without End highlighted a few days ago. Thanks, Ann!
Posted by Giles, Friday, October 28, 2005, at 10:30 AM.
Posted to Book design
Cover Redesign: Who's Got Some Time?
Joeseph, over at Book Covers from the New York Times Book Review, proposes a redesign of this:
Up for it? Too much on my plate, have to say, but would love to see some alternative suggestions.…
Posted by Giles, Friday, October 14, 2005, at 1:52 PM.
Posted to Book design
Book Cover Night at the Type Directors Club
Come together to reconnect, schmooze, complain, gossip and delight in each other’s company at the Type Directors Club 127 West 25 Street, 8th Floor, Wednesday, November 2, from 6:00 pm till final copy edits are in. Your $15 (TDC members, $10) gets you a stunning buffet including a tasteful selection of moderately priced varietals, plus a rare opportunity to rejoice together at this business we love/hate so much. Please share this message with colleagues who we’ve inadvertently omitted.
Special bonus: send jpegs of your favorite work, the ones that got away or any other covers you wish to share plus the most ridiculous comments you’ve received lately from the editor, marketing genius, or author’s boyfriend so we can put together a continuous visual presentation entitled: “from the Sublime to the Ridiculous.” Covers and comments will appear randomly without attribution.
Please send jpegs, comments or questions about submission guidelines to:
dpelavin+bookcover (at) spamarrest.com
Reservations may be made by calling the TDC: 212-633-8943 by Wednesday, October 26th. Space is limited.
Oh, to be in NYC that night.…
Thanks to Jonathan for passing along the info.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, October 12, 2005, at 1:01 PM.
Posted to Book design
Book Covers I Like This Morning
Soldier books aplenty these days:
Not love, just like. The background could be more interesting, and the typeface needs something — but the colors, overall style, and especially the photograph and how it’s cropped work very well for me indeed. (Check the soldier’s blog, too.)
What do you think?
Posted by Giles, Tuesday, October 11, 2005, at 9:41 AM.
Posted to Book design
Less Than One Month to Go
Posted by , Sunday, October 2, 2005, at 9:17 PM.
Posted to Book design
For those long, lonely nights
when you’re just jonesing for a “super-duper” mystery.
Posted by , Sunday, October 2, 2005, at 9:12 PM.
Posted to Book design
Wonder Twins
Yeah, so they’re fraternal. What’s your point!?
And:
Fantastic.
From Stewart Williams, of Panic Rising fame, in his new home.
Posted by Giles, Wednesday, September 28, 2005, at 12:01 PM.
Posted to Book design
Designing Books: Practice and Theory
Amanda gave me this title over the weekend, and I’ve enjoyed flipping through ahead of a more detailed study later.
It’s beautifully done, though I do wish it were longer; the actual text literally seems to only take up the first third or so of the title, with some scattered elsewhere to support the (two-color) examples.
Has anyone else read this title? I’m looking forward to becoming more familiar with it.
Thanks, Amanda.
Posted by Giles, Monday, September 26, 2005, at 12:49 PM.
Posted to Book design
A New Look for Golden Books
Little Golden Books are sporting some new art.
via BoingBoing
Posted by , Wednesday, September 21, 2005, at 6:28 AM.
Posted to Book design
Just Love
…Towelhead:
Stood out on the shelf like flashing emergency lights. Book design by Jesse Holborn.
Posted by Giles, Friday, September 16, 2005, at 10:40 AM.
Posted to Book design
Book Design Gone Naughty
Protestant book publisher Multnomah has released a title with, “what can only be described as a man standing on a gigantic penis in front of puckered lips.”
via BoingBoing
Posted by , Wednesday, September 14, 2005, at 6:20 PM.
Posted to Book design
Union Pageworks
Been behind on the to do list again, which meant that at the time I first saw this firm’s work I didn’t blog about it. But today, when I saw a bookmark for them, I knew they deserved my finding the time.
Lots of great examples to choose from, but this one seemed especially appropriate given recent events: