Undertake a combination of library and internet research into the following designers, identifying a number of book cover designs for each. Reflect on their conceptual and/or expressive approaches to design. Write a very brief description of your selected cover designs and a brief overview of the designer – try to focus on keywords rather than long descriptions. Do this in note form, using the designer and the chosen example design to visually inform how the information appears in your learning log.
Due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic I have had to limit my research to the internet.
Phil Baines
These designs use clean white backgrounds with little colour and experimental typography. The layout of the type is unusual in particular. The style is very expressive without much given away conceptually. The covers for Man Alone with Himself and Meditations both take inspiration from medieval manuscripts with the typeface choice. This adds a sense of historical importance and gravitas to the covers. Travels in the Land of Kublai Khan features typography that creates the shape of the front cover figure.
Coralie Bickford-Smith
These designs use a minimal colour scheme. The middle design being the slight exception with five colours. Each illustration is very direct and to the point with a strong link to the title of the book. I would say her style is more expressive. Coralie uses her illustrative skills to strong effect. One example of this is the cover of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes where she illustrates Sherlock in a tumbling movement which expresses what the reading experience may be like.
Derek Birdsall
These covers have clear and precise modernist values. The cover for American Capitalism combines the American flag and a graph line reminiscent of stock values to imply a third idea. The cover for To Kill a Mocking Bird is unusual because it features endorsements of the book. It is however, presented in a child-like handwritten style which connects with the book’s central character. The red square in the Science and Human Values book is a mystery to me. These designs have a very conceptual approach.
Kelly Blair
This series for Heinrich Boll utilises clean designs with minimal shape driven illustration. The shapes and typography combine to create an overall image. This seems to be more of a conceptual choice rather than an expressive one.
Irma Boom
With The Architecture of the Book Irma Boom has created a 3D object in its own right. The design has clear modernist values but it also challenges what a book design can be. The book lifts out of the larger design in the same way a brick might lift out of a wall. It is a very conceptual design.
Suzanne Dean
These design are very bold with a big emphasis on type. On Truth is very conceptual with backwards type making a statement on the idea of truth. Solar features a simple illustration that is more expressive in nature. Homo Deus features a microchip/fingerprint which neatly illustrates the theme of the book.
Julia Hastings
These designs are simple and minimal. A very restrained colour palette helps the images strike through with more urgency. Contrasted against the previous designer the type sits lower in the visual hierarchy while the image takes centre place. I think these designs are very expressive. The Japanese Garden features a circle cut out and looks like it has extra sensory impact using the sensation of touch.
Linda Huang
These designs are a mixture of expressive and conceptual. Simple Living is very reminiscent of design from the hippy era with washed out sepia tones and simple illustrations – this is expressive of the content in the book. Future Crimes on the other hand takes a more conceptual approach with an amalgamation of the wifi symbol with a big brother eye. Also, it is noticeable how the type is big, bold and aggressive. Black Hole Blues is another expressive approach with experimental type.
Jost Huchuli
These designs have very clear and bold styles. What I notice first with Typographic Design is that the layout is scattered. It is conceptually trying to communicate the content of the book. I am unsure about the colour choice for Mein St. Gallen. St. Gallen is a town and canton in Switzerland and many Swiss flags use red, white and black but not St. Gallen so this is a mystery to me. St. Gallen und seine Landschaft uses a very striking black and white image to capture attention.
Ellen Lupton
Mechanical Brides juxtaposes its own heading with the the differing typeface choices – mechanical and elegant. It uses very formal blocking with softer colours to further the balancing act between the two. This approach evokes the content of the book. Design. Writing. Research. has also opted for a more expressive approach with a divided and offset cover image hinting at experimentation. Skin is a very minimalistic and clean design.
Peter Mendelsund
The cover for The Trial has conceptualised the story by altering the eye colour of the last eye to represent the protagonist in the story. They are singled out and outnumbered. The eye is also placed at the bottom of the cover to communicate the power dynamics. The design is very clear and modern. The cover for The Republic has also taken a conceptual approach by visualising the ‘allegory of the cave’ and putting the reader in the position of the prisoner inside the cave. I wonder if perhaps the choice of having white text that doesn’t stand out clearly against the bright backdrop is a reference to the cave dweller not being able to see very well when faced with daylight for the first time? The cover for Lionel Asbo evokes a tabloid newspaper which is very relevant to the novel and has quite a provocative appeal.
Paul Rand
These covers by Paul Rand are all very conceptual. Leave Me Alone has a lonely face amongst a series of blocks to communicate a theme of isolation. The Anatomy of Revolution has segmented the the letter R into different pieces akin to anatomy and The Second Man features a silhouette of two men which commingles in the middle.
Paula Scher
These designs are very bold and experimental. There is a limited colour palette but the designs are based heavily on typography which is experimental. It is questioning what a book cover is and approaches it as more of a 3D space rather than a 2D space.
Jan Tschichold
The cover for British Butterflies is very expressive with an illustrative pattern of butterflies. The framing around the title adds a touch of formality and importance to the cover. The cover design for The Buildings of England: Middlesex is very simple but also very expressive. Everything about this cover screams noble and stately. There is formal serif type, a frame and a royal red background colour. The cover for Animal Farm is part of a series of Penguin books that Tschichold designed. There is great uniformity with each different title and therefore the cover says less about the book than it does about Penguin Books. The design is clear, simple and strong.
Wolfgang Weingart
Wolfgang Weingart is obviously drawn to an expressive approach and experimental typography.
Compare and contrast some of the cover designs. For example, how does the cover of Peter Mendelsund’s Kafka series compare with Coralie Bickford-Smith’s gothic horror series for Penguin? Are these expressive or conceptual in nature? Are they both conforming to genre expectations, or are they challenging them in some way? Do Jan Tschichold and Ellen Lupton’s cover designs have anything in common? Make a drawing, sketch or tracing of the covers you’re comparing to help give you a better understanding of the imagery, typography and arrangement within the design. Use your learning log to reflect on your comparisons, identifying which covers you think are the strongest and why.
Derek Birdsall and Jan Tschichold
Derek Birdsall’s design for American Capitalism is the strongest design in my opinion.
The first key difference between these covers is that American Capitalism is a conceptual cover whereas The Buildings of England: Middlesex is expressive in nature. The Buildings of England: Middlesex was published in 1952 and American Capitalism was published in 1963 so there’s about a decade separating them yet they look very different.
American Capitalism uses a clear and modern sans serif typeface and is distinctly designed with modernist ideals. The typographic alignment is flush left. The conceptual illustration takes up a large proportion of the design, however, the design leaves ample space and is very bold. When this book cover design was new it must have been very original and exciting.
The Buildings of England: Middlesex uses a more refined and traditional looking serif typeface – readability is traded for a feel of history and importance. Everything else about this design exaggerates the idea of the book being stately and noble: a frame around the outside and middle title, the royal red background colour, centred text and a small historical illustration. I think this cover design is very much in line with genre expectations.
Another difference I have noticed is the area on the cover where the viewer’s attention is drawn to and the visual hierarchy. With American Capitalism your attention is drawn first to the illustration at the bottom and then to the main title at the top. With The Buildings of England your attention is drawn to the title at the centre of the page and then to the illustration at the bottom. The only similarity I can see with these designs is that the title sits in the upper half of the design with both books.
Irma Boom and Suzanne Dean
These designs are both powerful in different ways: experimentalism and simplicity. Both of these designs do take a conceptual approach, although they do so in different ways.
The Architecture of the Book by Irma Boom uses a very legible sans serif typeface and is another example modernist design. The typographic alignment is flush left on the outer cover and centred on the inner book which creates interesting contrast. As a 3D object in its own right, the actual book sits inside a bigger object with conceptual meaning (book architecture). This innovative approach obviously disregards expectations and conventions.
Orwell on Truth by Suzanne Dean also uses a bold, striking sans serif type with ample space on the design. The typography is centre aligned. There has been some trade off with instant impact being sacrificed for concept. Some of the lettering has been arranged backwards to comment on the nature of truth. It’s interesting that this design becomes conceptual with such a minute alteration compared to the more elaborate approach of Irma Boom’s book.
The booklet in Irma Boom’s design engages the viewers attention first and sits at the top of the visual hierarchy with its uses of a red background contrasting against the white outer object. Suzanne Dean’s design is similar in this way with a spacious white background helping to create more focus on the red text and underline to move the viewer’s attention.
Now, select three or more designers from the list that you are particularly drawn to, either because you like their work or because you don’t understand their approach, and research their design careers in more depth. Think about how they’ve responded to very different design challenges, whether they have an underlying conceptual and/or expressive approach, and how their work has evolved over time. Continue to use your learning log to record their work visually, explore these covers through drawing, and your responses in note format. See this as a quick fire activity rather than a long essay.
Phil Baines
Phil Baines is a freelance designer for book publishers, most notably Penguin Books. Earlier in his career he gravitated towards experimental typography and medieval manuscripts. He has himself admitted that he needs structure in his work.
Phil Baines’ work has been quite consistently expressive in nature. Earlier in his career he used experimental typography as can be seen in the first two covers, later on in his career his designs have moved away from this.
The cover for Meditations is an interesting example of unorthodox typography. There is medieval influence and interesting choices being made. Some letters are larger than normal whereas some are smaller, this contrast is exaggerated with the RC in Marcus and the RE in great. Some letters are joined into one such as the ME in meditations. Words are broken up over multiple lines and there is also increased spacing in the red text.
There is a stark juxtaposition with the designs for Puffin By Design and Penguin By Design. Puffin By Design features a cover that is a montage of Puffin books with spaces creating the type. The type mimics a clear sans serif typeface with lots of width and space which is very different to the feel of earlier designs. Both of these newer designs also feature centred text and more commitment to modernist principles.
Peter Mendelsund
Peter Mendelsund has been described as a modern master and has a very adaptive approach. His designs are very often conceptual in nature. I have already described how these designs are conceptual so I won’t repeat that. It’s quite difficult to analyse how Peter Mendelsund’s designs have changed because each design seems to be a law unto itself.
The design for Lionel Asbo is quite interesting and stands out amongst Peter Mendelsund’s other works as one of his busier looking book covers. He has satirised the look of tabloid newspapers such as The Sun by using a mixture of blocks, colours, text sizes, underlinings and italics.
Paul Rand
Paul Rand is one of the great designers of history. He worked extensively in the advertising industry, pioneered iconic corporate logos as well as working with many other mediums such as book covers and posters. He used the swiss style of design extensively and is largely responsible for popularising it in America.
It’s noticeable how these designs have a cut out quality to them. The squares in the Leave Me Alone design are uneven, the face looks cut out and the title sits on a torn piece of paper. This style is also reflected in the other two designs and a handwritten style is present in the two of the designs.
Finally, identify at least three different book designers you find visually engaging. To do this you might want to visit a library, bookshop, or browse online. Identify who designed these covers and find out more about them. Try to work out why you are drawn to them. Is it to do with genre or their approach to design? What is it about the design that captures you? What sort of imagery, if any, is used on the cover? How does the text relate to the image? What atmosphere or style does the cover evoke? Summarise your thinking in your learning log – focusing on the kinds of book covers you are drawn to and why – and continue to document what these covers look like.
Germano Facetti
Germano Facetti is well known for being the art director of Penguin Books during the 1960s. He championed the rational aspirations of the modernist movement and oversaw a transition from the typographic to the visual at Penguin.
I think one thing I am drawn to with these designs is the simplicity, the abundant space in the designs and the limited colour palette. It makes the designs jump out and communicate ideas succinctly. These covers are all conceptual in their design approach. Image dominates the layout which is very structured. The Stagnant Society design captures the idea by showing a group of traffic lights all stuck on red or amber but never green. The cover for Nineteen Eighty-Four uses the iconic image of an eye staring down some kind of mechanical tube, it feels like you are being watched and unable to avoid the gaze. The Rise of the Meritocracy uses a hierarchical illustration with an enlarged figure at the top, the figures lower down seem to have empty heads which communicates what a meritocracy is. The Common Sense of Science has taken the iconic image of an apple falling and given it minimal treatment. The typography is sans serif and readable which is what you would expect from mid century designs – it mirrors the simplicity and clarity of the illustrations. The layout of the title on the last design goes down vertically which reflects the falling apple.
Matthew Young
Matthew Young is a designer and art director who works at Penguin books. As part of the team who relaunched Pelican he retained certain aspects of the Pelican design such as the logo and blue background to link to Pelican’s rich history. In his view “The typography has been designed to look welcoming and approachable, intelligent but not intimidating.”
Again, I think I can say I’m drawn to these designs for the same reason I am drawn to Germano Facetti’s designs. These designs have simplicity, space and a limited colour palette. Big ideas are summed up in singular illustrations and there is a consistence in style due to the books being part of a series. National Populism uses a wave as a visual metaphor and Our Universe juxtaposes the size of the sun and a planet to give a sense of the vastness of the universe. The illustration for The Human Planet is probably my favourite, it combines the earth with fingerprints to create a new meaning.
Mauricio Villamayor & Enrique Bernardou
With these designs Mauricio Villamayor provided art direction and cover design while Enrique Bernardou created the illustration.
I think with these designs I am drawn more to the genre and the atmosphere the designs evoke. There is an even more limited colour palette than the previous designs so this is something I like that all three sets of designs share. These designs aim to evoke a sense of the weird, the hidden and the old. The typeface trades readability for an emphasis on atmosphere.
Reflection
This has been a hefty exercise and time consuming but it has definitely taught me more about book designs. It is interesting to see how some designers have clearly evolved in their approach over time (e.g. Phil Baines), some designers have quite a consistent approach (e.g. Wolfgang Weingart), some designers are very adaptable (e.g. Peter Mendelsund) and some are very experimental (e.g. Irma Boom). Despite all the different approaches and whether the designs are conceptual or expressive I think they all work quite successfully.
I have also noticed certain recurrent themes in the designs I am drawn to. They are often but not always:
- Simple, clear, modern and conceptual in nature.
or:
- Atmospheric, vintage and expressive.
References
Eye Magazine. 2008. Reputations: Phil Baines. [ONLINE] Available at: http://eyemagazine.com/feature/article/reputations-phil-baines. [Accessed 2 June 2020].
Eye Magazine. 1998. The image as evidence. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.eyemagazine.com/feature/article/the-image-as-evidence. [Accessed 2 June 2020].
It’s Nice That. 2014. Behind The Scenes: Insights from the designer who oversaw the Pelican Books relaunch. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/behind-the-scenes-pelican-relaunch. [Accessed 2 June 2020].
Daniel's OCA Blog: Book Design 1 