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I started reading books on my iPod Touch a couple of months ago. One of the first things I downloaded (for Stanza) was a free version of The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, which I’d never read before. That started me on a Wells kick, so I downloaded Tales of Space and Time. I also enjoyed that a lot. But the book cover used (from Project Gutenberg) was so ugly (below, left) it kind of bummed me out every time I caught a glimpse of it! But I figured that was just what you get with free books.

I discovered recently, however, that Feedbooks (one of the 13 collections offered on Stanza) generally chooses more attractive covers for their public-domain books. Below on the right is the cover that Feedbooks uses for the same work. Much easier on the eyes, in my opinion. I think it’s the cover for the first American edition, but I’m not positive.

 

     

 

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This is an interesting idea for print-on-demand book covers and looks cool, too.  Design student Michael Kosmicki created this series of covers as an entry in the 2009 D&AD Student Awards competition.  They’re based on the concept of intentionally producing a visual glitch using “a logarithm that translates the title and section into a distinct graphic pattern.”  (Thanks to the Book Cover Archive for pointing out these beauties!)

 

 

 

The assignment was: “Use typography to create a series cover design for Faber Film’s range of books that reflects Faber and Faber’s long history of typographic excellence.”  They also wanted entrants to design specifically for POD (print on demand) by creating a single template that could be used to generate an infinite number of cover designs.  This is a clever solution to that problem!  Plus: pretty!

Michael’s design wasn’t chosen (here are the winners)—it was probably deemed too conceptual for the assignment.

If you’re intrigued by these images, you might be interested in this new book that’s all about art made from glitches (like the image below): Glitch: Designing Imperfection.

 

 

 

 

I love these Faber and Faber Poetry books, designed by Justus Oehler of Pentagram. This series uses color so beautifully, setting up the rule of three colors (one for the background, one for the title, and one for the author) and then playing with the way the colors complement or contrast with each other. The color combinations vary from vibrant contrasts—like lavender and yellow on greenish blue—to three shades of purple. The size of the text depends on what fits on the page. So Lachlan Mackinnon is never going to have big text, but Alice Oswald can. They also have a tactile feel, being printed on textured, uncoated paper.

And then they break the rule slightly for this one, befitting the wonderfully weird title:

 

 

I was collecting some images of these myself and admiring the way they look next to each other, and then I discovered that Faber Books has put together a Flickr set of them! Check it out.

This is also a clever tie-in: get a Faber Poetry poem-a-week widget for your blog or Facebook profile here: http://www.52poems.co.uk/. I just added it to my Facebook profile.

 

And there’s yet another tie-in: mugs and playing cards. For when you need to buy a gift for the poetry reader in your life, I guess. You could buy them an actual book, but who knows what they already own, right? Or perhaps you’re looking for a present for someone who is generally literary but might be bummed out if you just gave them a book. It’s too bad they had to pick the three most recognizable names (Eliot, Plath, Heaney—the fourth was clearly chosen because it mentions cocoa). I might have actually bought a mug that said “Ooga-Booga” or “Hare Soup.” I would definitely wear a T-shirt bearing the title “Tyrannosaurus Rex Versus the Corduroy Kid.”

 As a follow-up to my earlier Six Pink Poetry Books post, I present: Six Red Poetry Books!

 

     

       

 

• Fiona Tinwei Lam, Enter the Chrysanthemum. Designer: David Drummond.
• Naomi Guttman, Wet Apples, White Blood. Another one by David Drummond! Check out FaceOut Books for bigger, better pictures and some insight from the designer.
• Cate Marvin, Fragment of the Head of a Queen.  I don’t know who designed the book, but I do know that the cover art is by Arturo Herrera.
• Mary Ruefle, The Most of It
• Richard Meier, Shelley Gave Jane a Guitar
• Rebecca Wolff, The King

David Drummond is doing some very nice book cover designs for Montreal publisher Véhicule Press. Here are just a few highlights.

  

(Andrew Hood, Pardon Our Monsters; Harry Thurston, Animals of My Own Kind; Christopher Willard, Garbage Head)

On his blog he often lets readers in on his creative process by posting designs in progress. In this post he explains how he created the cover image for Don LePan’s forthcoming novel Animals, for which he appears to have smashed some Delft china—but it’s in fact some cheap plates and a little Photoshop magic.

 

Drummond discusses the evolution of the cover for Pure Product by Jason Guriel here.

 

And Ukula magazine has this interesting article on the creation of a Véhicule cover (Postscript by Geoffrey Cook), talking to Drummond, the publisher, and the poet.

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