Whitechapel - Examples of great book design?

Examples of great book design?

Mark Seifert — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:05:03 -0800

I'd love to see and hear about examples of books that have really caught your eye while browsing, or hardcovers/collections with such a great look and feel that you bought them even though you already had the material, or anything else that has jumped out at you lately in the area of book design.

I'm not thinking just about comics/trades -- any book you think is nicely designed is welcome.

Examples of great book design?

JaredRules — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:07:20 -0800

Almost all of McSweeney's Quarterly Concern

Examples of great book design?

ARES — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:16:22 -0800

Pale Fire

Examples of great book design?

lamuella — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:31:53 -0800

Halting State by Charles Stross. The cover online was so brilliant that I ended up not just preordering it, but reviewing it for my local newspaper.

Examples of great book design?

Sarpedon — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:33:49 -0800

This is my favorite new hardcover at the moment, could change when I get into the bookshop for work tomorrow:

looks better in person, that's the hardcover's dust jacket. Pretty decent novel too.
McSweeny's seems like sometimes their design strives always toward unique which may or may not end up being 'good,' at least to my eye.
As a for instance, the idea of the two books in 3 covers in their newest quarterly is interesting but was annoying the moment I picked up the volume.

All of the quarterlies seem to [mostly, I think.] fail to have an internal consistency, if i put them spine out of my shelves like all of the books I have and line them up like a bibliophile should, they don't appear to be quarterly iterations of the same publication. But, I can see again where that's interesting and most of the time, considered induvidually, they work really well and as you say Jared, are way better than most other book design out there.

A novel put out by McSweeney's recently, it's weird but in a way that's not trying too hard, I kinda like it:

under the dust jacket is a white line drawing embossed into the hardcover of the image cover, the red on top is actually the hardcover, the dust jacket's not full height.

I'm going to go make sure all my black and orange Penguin Classics are lined up and ordered in chronological order of first publication or something.

Examples of great book design?

Ariana — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:37:41 -0800

I really liked some of the new covers Gollancz (Orion) put out for their Future Classics series. No text on the covers, and some interesting paper stock choices. Of course, there a bit of screaming from some people about them. They, uh, apparently don't look the way SF is supposed to...

Edit: amazon page for Hyperion -- you can see the other covers in the "Customers also bought" below the book.

Examples of great book design?

JaredRules — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:41:27 -0800

Aww, I like the double book/triple cover thing. I also really liked the Magnetic Binding one. That was awesome.

Also, I really like What is the What by Dave Eggers (published by McSweeney's, duh) it's got a great vintage feel to it.

Examples of great book design?

Miss — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:42:57 -0800

Really liked this cover for Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell. Simple black and white, bold, like the font, not busy, image is not obnoxious.

Examples of great book design?

warrenellis — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 17:58:02 -0800

Examples of great book design?

warrenellis — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:01:43 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Mark Seifert — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:25:20 -0800

Sarpedon -- That "double book" looks pretty great.

Interesting that there's some controversy with those covers regarding what SF should look like, Ariana. Those should stand out among other SF on the shelves.

JaredRules -- what's the story on the Magnetic Binding?

Great examples and pics so far, thanks everyone.

Examples of great book design?

turing — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:27:51 -0800

That "Future Classics" set looks so spiffy. And reminds me that I still need to read "Revelation Space".

"As exciting as drugs and music" is a wonderful tagline.

The newest reprintings of Kurt Vonnegut's books all follow the same design scheme and it suits them quite well:

AndI found this look at unusual bookshelves quite interesting.

Examples of great book design?

lamuella — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:29:04 -0800

back in the day, the best book covers I ever saw were for a mass market paperback set of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, released before Mostly Harmless, where the 4 volumes could be assembled in 4 different ways to form different pictures.

EDIT: I love the look of all those Vonnegut ones. They look like something published in the 1930s by a group that claimed a ha'penny of the cover price went towards buying guns to fight Hitler.

Examples of great book design?

JaredRules — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:40:46 -0800

Mark, one of the more recent McSweeny's was like three seperate books, and they were each stuck into one hard cover with magnets, so you could pull them out individually. It is pretty fucking cool.

Examples of great book design?

Sarpedon — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:41:33 -0800

I also really liked the Magnetic Binding one. That was awesome.

Seconded, Jared, that was indeed awesome. they sort of slid in and out of the larger cover. and everything was a different color too I think.

The silk screened hardcover what is the what was awesome. I'm a little sad they didn't go for something different on the trade paperbacks but the hardcover was great, they tended to get scuffed up really fast though, which is why you have a dust jacket in the first place but it works really well regardless of being practical. (innovative design seem to lean away from practical: see the crazy spine thing everyone else likes.)

Examples of great book design?

alwayscrashing — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:47:15 -0800

I really love the recent set of Neil Gaiman covers

Examples of great book design?

JaredRules — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:47:16 -0800

yeah my hardcover is kinda scuffed too. But that just makes it seem even more like a book I'd find in my grandma's huge collection of books.

Examples of great book design?

turing — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 18:47:54 -0800

The best SF designs I can remember seeing in recent years are the covers of a set of Greg Egan paperbacks. The simple design and bright colours set them apart from the rest of the SF rack.

Unfortunately, all the other editions of his books that I've seen have had terrible covers. Compare the Permutation City cover above to this exercise in boring bog-standard SF cover design:

Examples of great book design?

Ferburton — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 19:16:23 -0800

This cover caught my attention when I first saw it. I need to find a copy of it though.

Examples of great book design?

isnotchicago — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:04:50 -0800

I love this new edition of Bukowski's Women:

(It could do without the Washington Post quote.)

The older versions (see here and here) were definitely outdated, though they had certain feel of nostalgia given how long they'd been in service. I will mourn them, if only for how wonderful their paper stock felt. I haven't actually seen the new versions, so I don't know if Ecco kept the same paper (I hope so!).

Examples of great book design?

Exploder — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 23:53:11 -0800

I've always really liked this cover of Deus Irae for some reason:

Examples of great book design?

clytemnestras_wrath — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:53:01 -0800

It's a bit redundant, but I quite liked this McSweeney's cover. Lovely texture to the cover. Makes you feel like you're holding your 6th year birthday card.

and, i loved the two covers for Burlesque and the Art of the Teese/Fetish and the Art of the Teese

Examples of great book design?

sebfowler — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:22:35 -0800

Just wanted to say thanks for this thread! I'm actually about to start on a book cover design myself, in b/w to go with the illustrations (by me) and the general tone of the book. This is a goldmine.
I'll be sure to post mine when I'm done, which could be a while...

Examples of great book design?

kierun — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 01:38:13 -0800

House of leaves and other ergodic writings.

Examples of great book design?

Paul Duffield — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:05:07 -0800

The actual book doesn't have that writing at the bottom. I'd scan my copy in, but it's larger than A4, and I can't be bothered!

EDIT: I did find some digital photos of the inside on another forum though! :)

Examples of great book design?

helloMuller — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:52:05 -0800

LOGO

Examples of great book design?

helloMuller — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 03:54:41 -0800

NeuBau Modul & NeuBau Welt:

Examples of great book design?

munin218 — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:32:41 -0800

This book's overall design is neat, it's more impressive looking through the pages, the way things are designed and layed out. This page gives you a vague idea.

Examples of great book design?

branjo — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 06:44:49 -0800

This is one of my friend's coolest (and most mainstream) covers - he does a lot of museum and artbooks (just finished "Jasper Johns: Grey"). Ironically well-timed, yesterday, I made a "listmainia" amazon list (scroll down at link) of all the designer's books i can find so far.
I went to school with him 15 years ago (!) and he has never stopped impressing me.

Examples of great book design?

harchangel — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 07:27:34 -0800

A great entry on some of this year's best book cover design that i ran across thanks to Coudal.com

My Favorite Book Covers of 2007

Examples of great book design?

Benjamin — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:02:46 -0800

House of Leaves - the cover is nice but not great. It's the way that Mr Danielewski uses the formatting of the text to tell the story.

You Shall Know Our Velocity. It starts on the cover! Glorious!

The Promethea books, espiecially books three and four. The changes in the style of art, the colouring, the page design - all of it fantastic.

More JH Williams III in the incredible ultimate story in the Seven Soldiers of Victory series. The one double page spread with the Gaurdian, the newspaper clippings, the horse jumping out of the page....I'm getting a bit wet just thinking about it.

I'll put my vote in for the rereleases of those Gollancz (Orion) sci-fi novels. They are striking.

Examples of great book design?

Flxzr — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:39:52 -0800

lamuella said:

back in the day, the best book covers I ever saw were for a mass market paperback set of the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, released before Mostly Harmless, where the 4 volumes could be assembled in 4 different ways to form different pictures.

Like these?

Examples of great book design?

Telecart — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:14:52 -0800

also: this isn't exactly how the cover looks, but you get the picture...:

I think IDW generally does good work on cover design for their trades. FALLEN ANGEL and WORMWOOD: GENTLEMAN CORPSE are fine examples.

Examples of great book design?

d. morris — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 09:35:33 -0800

I really like the covers that Chip Kidd did for Vertical for the Tezuka books like the Ode to Kirihtio cover where the band shifts so that you can see the guy before and after his transformation

Or the Apollo's Song cover that speaks for itself.

Examples of great book design?

Derekshepard — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 12:52:25 -0800

i dig what centipede press has been doing

Examples of great book design?

pleasedelete — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:30:37 -0800

The Gollancz (Orion) - Future Classics series are really striking. Especially Evolution (the black areas on the cover are designed so that they feel like "ape-fur" upon touching them) and The Stars My Destination & Cities In Flight (the corners on the upper & lower right side are absent, thus making it look like a space cadet manual, like the "prop-books" in BSGallactica).

Also, this one looks interesting: UbIq, A Mental Odyssey. It has a Chris Cunningham feel, and it features art by "Metabarons" artist, Juan Gimenez.
Has anyone read it?

Examples of great book design?

hyim — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:30:58 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Splutterbug — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 13:05:31 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Kelcey — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:25:52 -0800

I recently discovered these Faber UK eidtions of Jonathan Lethem's early works for $4 a piece at The Strand and bought the lot on sight.

They channel the pulp infleunces of the books without coming off cheesy or overly retro.

Examples of great book design?

robb — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 15:45:17 -0800

the "Beasts!" book from Fantagraphics is (appropriately) opulent for a multi-illustrator bestiary, even with gilt edges

Examples of great book design?

Zachary Cole — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:32:08 -0800

Kelcey: WOW! I''m a Lethem fan (read Fortress of Solitude, reading Motherless Brooklyn) and those covers are a wonder.

Anyway...

Examples of great book design?

Sean K — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:52:22 -0800

I'm in the same thinking as you Kelcey. I like the old style dimestore hardboiled books. I especially like the HardCaseCrime line. Typically both on the outside and in-between the covers.

Examples of great book design?

Gypsy — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 22:10:48 -0800

I also love the covers for Doktor Sleepless, especially the Issue #1 exclusive for Wizard World in Chicago...and I think the covers for future Issue #6 The Mortician of Love are brilliant!

Examples of great book design?

Zachary Cole — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:02:25 -0800

Some more:

Translucent cover...mmm....

Heavy enough to knock someone out cold

Also massive

Stunning artwork there

Another great painting.

Designed by Chip Kidd

Examples of great book design?

bschory — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 23:21:52 -0800

I've always really liked the cover design on this. Simple and elegant:

Examples of great book design?

Adam Violent — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 00:23:19 -0800

Gasp. No shout out to Chip Kidd? Cheese Monkeys is a thing of awesomeness. Not only is it a thing of quick fun reading, but the hardcover is something to behold. Designed by Kidd himself (him being a graphic designer first), it's just covered in great typography and hidden things. The font even changes partway through the book for certain reasons that may become obvious, should you even notice it consciously.

Note that this is the paperback cover. You have to actually see the hardcover in person because otherwise it's somewhat plain straight-on in product photos.

Also my friend's sister has gotten some recognition lately for her book designs. I like this one quite a lot (reminds me of Tom Waits's "Alice")

Also also, I'm astounded at the consistently shit designs Show Crash has. One of the most incredible science fiction novels and it looks like burning assfire.

Examples of great book design?

Zachary Cole — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 10:29:29 -0800

Hey, I gave a shout-out to Chip Kidd. See?

- Zachary -

Examples of great book design?

Adam Violent — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 11:56:45 -0800

Hey, I gave a shout-out to Chip Kidd. See?

- Zachary -

So you did. I am blind. Kudos, sir.

Examples of great book design?

Ariana — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:42:14 -0800

These aren't real, but damn I wish they were...

Examples of great book design?

Joey Stone — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:47:14 -0800

The best designed book I've seen lately is the Magnum compendium by Thames and Hudson:

Beautiful book, and it's so big it comes with its own carrying case. I was lucky enough to visit Thames and Hudson recently and talk to the Assistant Design Director Aaron Hayden - really nice guy and very interesting. Hopefully I'll be doing some work experience there soon.

Examples of great book design?

turing — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 16:56:47 -0800

Ariana, those Verne covers are beautiful. That and the "Future Classics" series make me hate the banality of most modern SF book design all the more.

Examples of great book design?

John Smith — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:21:35 -0800

Isnotchicago, I feel the same way about those Bukowski editions. I got into his work sometime last year before these new ones came out so most of mine have that old paper style-- really fits with his style. I do dig the cover of that new one, though. If it grabs some eyeballs and gets the old man a few new readers then I'm happy.
--------------

As for the topic, I did kinda dig Frank's cover for Gravity's Rainbow:

Examples of great book design?

mollycrabapple — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:26:37 -0800

Sweet and Low: A Family Story, has the world's best cover design. Even the bar code is integrated!

Examples of great book design?

robb — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:43:34 -0800

either Print or HOW or Eye magazine once presented a history of "Lolita" covers. Nabokov explicitly stated to the publisher that it should not show a little girl. nearly half of the editions since completely ignore (or forget) that request. some of the best just showed a butterfly, or were plainly typeset.

Examples of great book design?

iangil — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 17:44:07 -0800

All of the Chris Ware books are brilliantly designed, with an incredible attention to detail which the following image does not at all convey BUT OH WELL:

And I really liked Muller's design on the Popbot collection:
Link

Examples of great book design?

oldhat — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:22:09 -0800

Banksy's book "Wall and Piece". This cover intrigued me so much I couldn't help but pick it up. Anyone who loves street art should pick it up.

Clive Barker's book "Mister B. Gone". Not one of my favorite books, especially since I was seeing it as an amateurish version of "I, Lucifer" by Glenn Duncan. But the cover and overall design of the book is amazing.

Examples of great book design?

Sarpedon — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 20:41:34 -0800

@Kelcey

Those Letham covers are awesome. His US covers that I've seen are no where near that striking and he's popular enough and good enought (from what I've heard, haven't read him yet) that he shouldn't get the largely unspectacular US covers that he does.

@John Smith, that scan doesn't do miller's cover justice. my edition at least is much more black and white with the red title jumping out at you. Any of the Penguin Deluxe editions are great.

@Robin, I picked up the Clive Barker at work the other day to shelve it and was floored by the total design cover to cover, you pick it up and flip through it and it's almost like you're stumbling on an ancient book there by accident, it's great when the design really gets into the book itself, past the cover or dust jackets.

going back to the penguin deluxe ones, the Penguin Classic Deluxe Editions are pretty funny. It's a clever repackaging of a book whose cover tends not to matter so they don't take them too seriously. Let me dig up some pictures of the front covers, though you need to see the whole thing in print since the whole front back spine and flaps have the great little cartoons on them.

The last one for Candide is especially nice in person, there's a gold edging around the title and the stock for the paperback cover seem to work better than some of the others since I think (i could be wrong...) that it's beige to begin with where the others are white and printed over.

Examples of great book design?

Ziga_Sparovec — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:28:32 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Ziga_Sparovec — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 21:29:58 -0800

Pictures that Tick, Dave Mckean

Examples of great book design?

Matt_Reynolds — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:28:28 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Kelcey — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:14:47 -0800

Ariana: These aren't real, but damn I wish they were..

oh my those are gorgeous.

Examples of great book design?

Kelcey — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:21:21 -0800

I bought this new version fo Brave New World striclty for the cover design

Examples of great book design?

hyim — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:03:32 -0800

in the same line of thought as ariana's :
the bible cover redesign by Pentagram (london)

Examples of great book design?

hyim — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 02:29:28 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Joey Stone — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 06:22:02 -0800

Wow, that cover is awesome, hyim. Whats it from?

And I agree about Pentagram's bible books. All of their book design is pretty amazing to be honest (they're another company I recently visited, I got a bunch of free books and papers from them, all of which were beautiful).

Examples of great book design?

hyim — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 08:08:12 -0800

Joey Stone wrote :

Wow, that cover is awesome, hyim. Whats it from?

It's from etsy, a marketplace where one can sell handmade products. This one went for about 70 bucks if I remember.

Examples of great book design?

oldhat — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 10:42:51 -0800

House of Leaves. The cover is beautiful, but the real thing to behold is the text itself. Great design.

Examples of great book design?

warrenellis — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:08:01 -0800

My god, those Kirby books look horrible.

Examples of great book design?

Adam Violent — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:25:07 -0800

Speaking of Banksy, he has a gallery showing in Chelsea for all of you in the NYC area. I plan on going this week. It's free!

Examples of great book design?

oldhat — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:45:38 -0800

"My god, those Kirby books look horrible."

Is Ironman in a rocket chair or a metal-fetish chair that just happens to have rockets?

Examples of great book design?

hyim — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 11:49:26 -0800

that would be mister miracle, in a rocket chair and so on.

Examples of great book design?

badger — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 12:41:10 -0800

Codex Seraphinianus. Go check out Flickr.

Examples of great book design?

wishlish — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:00:14 -0800

It's amazing how many of the books listed here were designed by Chip Kidd. He has a book out of all of his designs, and anyone who's interested in what goes into good book design should pick up a copy. I especially like his work with Art Spiegelman on the Jack Cole biography.

Examples of great book design?

Matt_Reynolds — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:04:28 -0800

@warrenellis

My god, those Kirby books look horrible.

You're crazy man! Crazy I say!

Examples of great book design?

robb — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 18:58:04 -0800

i don't always agree with the blogger, but this is a prominent book cover design showcase. it showed "crooked little vein" at one point:
http://covers.fwis.com/

and i'm still impressed that marvel comics stopped their "let's smack them in the face with as many fistfights and breasts as possible" approach for a summer and allowed for so much negative pace on the "civil war" series covers. very smart.

Examples of great book design?

ArlingtonJB — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 22:33:15 -0800

When I was a teenager (oh so many years ago) these covers got me to pull the books off the shelf and introduced me to the works of Harlan Ellison. They are still some of my favorite designs.

Examples of great book design?

Admiral Neck — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 23:07:33 -0800

Wish I could get a better picture of Bryan Hitch's cover to the UK edition of Austin Grossman's very entertaining Soon I Will Be Invincible:

Examples of great book design?

Solario — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 03:53:05 -0800

My god, those Kirby books look horrible.

If you remove the lame slipcover, the actual cover is actually quite nice. Of course I can't find a picture of 'em.

Examples of great book design?

collindeplancy — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 05:26:44 -0800

Well, I think the FMR's magazine cover design just fine:

Examples of great book design?

isnotchicago — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:10:25 -0800

@ Sarpedon: I completely forgot about that edition of Candide! The strip is a bit "Spoiler City", but hilarious nonetheless. It is the only book I have purchased solely for the design (already owned an old edition). Alas, I ripped the cover in half accidentally a few days later, so I've been meaning to get a replacement.

Examples of great book design?

Monk.Eastman — Wed, 05 Dec 2007 10:56:46 -0800

As much as the actual cover design, the proportions of this book--narrower and taller than your average paperback edition--drew my eye at the store.

The book doesn't suck, by the way.

Examples of great book design?

BClayMoore — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 01:19:48 -0800

Erik Larson's books tend to have lovely designs, reflective of the content:

-BCM

Examples of great book design?

Kyven — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:52:24 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Necros — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 10:50:07 -0800

One of my favorite bookcover designs is the original City of Saints and Madmen cover.
While you can't read it in this tiny image, the entire cover is an actual short story, and the art is just incredible.

Examples of great book design?

hmobius — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 12:27:21 -0800

I always adored the space drawings you used to get on the Panther paperbacks in the 70's. Particularly Asimov stuff as that was what I dredged through second-hand stores to find. For example

I aslo really like the new edition covers for Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, Cryptonomicon and Cobweb. Just can't wait for them to recover Snowcrash.

Similarly those covers for the Sci-fi masterworks series are great - and also meant also collectors out there had to make sure they bought them all.

Examples of great book design?

moali — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 03:47:54 -0800

Examples of great book design?

Zachary Cole — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 12:15:09 -0800

Examples of great book design?

das — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 00:44:43 -0800

Coming to a bookstore near you in May 2008-- from DMT: The Spirit Molecule author Dr. Strassman and friends. Cover art by Anderson Debernardi

What the hell, the Spirit Molecule cover was pretty mindblowing as well-- artwork by Alex Grey