NYTimes 2008 Book Cover Selections
Just a brief note: Over at the New York Times Book Design Review blog (actually the site claims that the BDR is not affiliated with the NYTimes, which is puzzling), they’ve posted their 27 choices for the best book cover designs of 2008. You can even vote on them up until December 31.
For what it’s worth, my favorite is the cover for Why You Should Read Kafka Before You Waste Your Life, which is holding its own in a tie for second place. The design is by Steve Snider and Douglas Smith, image below. The design is appropriate for obvious reasons (assuming you’ve read The Metamorphosis), and I like the clever “book within a book” idea created by the beetle reading the book itself on the cover, sort of like those paintings of a painting within a painting within a painting. Or when you gaze into a mirror that is facing another mirror, and that ‘hall of mirrors’ effect is created, where you can see an infinite number of reflections stretching into the background.
Unsurprisingly, as is often the case with contests like this, I detest the design that is currently (miles) ahead of the rest. It will almost certainly win, and I think it’s actually rather tough on the eyes, but maybe there’s something going on, some clever statement it broadcasts, that I just haven’t quite gotten yet.
Honorable mentions: As far as the other choices go, I also like the covers of Sharp Teeth and Soon I Will Be Invincible.
Wow – that Kafka cover is brilliant. Same goes for the similar meta-cover of Soon I Will Be Invincible. What still pictures don’t reveal, though, is the way in which the Maps and Legends cover unfolds into three separate leaves. It’s a whole other level of cover art design that I’ve never seen anywhere else.
As for the Walter Benjamin, I don’t think there’s anything going on beyond what’s obvious from the surface (Mechanical Reproduction -> mechanical reproduction), though ugly as it is, it does look rather striking when placed next to the other releases in that Penguin Great Ideas (Vol. 3) series. Personally, I prefer the Penguin designs that adhere to a more classicist elegance.
Nicholas Tam said this on December 26, 2008 at 2:03 pm |
Oh you’re right Nicholas about Maps and Legends! I just saw it in the store. Have you seen the cover for Chuck Klosterman’s new (and first) novel, Downtown Owl? Similar experimentation… not as fancy but there’s two holes in the cover, to go with the “Owl” thing… kind of cool. Check it out in a bookstore you’ll see what I mean.
DBR said this on December 29, 2008 at 1:07 pm |