Book cover blogs have been excited for a couple of weeks about Jordan Crane’s jacket design for Michael Chabon’s Maps and Legends, and rightly so. The pic below does not do it justice – get thee to a bookstore now to savour the tactile pleasure that is this book. The jacket is actually in three parts, or layers, which wrap around the book and create an almost 3D feel (for the jacket, not the book, which is quite obviously 3D, except perhaps in an alternate dimension). I was reminded of classic kids’ books like The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which also has the whole layers thing going on – albeit slightly less gorgeous. But with a jacket like this, will anyone actually ever bother to read Maps and Legends? Or will they just gaze upon the exterior and be too scared of damaging it to open it? I know I was a bit disappointed when I opened it and realised it was just a bunch of text. Boo. I know that is what a book conventionally is, and that the text may well be interesting, but goddamn it, I wanted more drawings!
Wild and completely unsubstantiated declaration of mini-trend: Brightly coloured and highly detailed illustrations with pen outlines are like, so hot right now. I’m quite a fan of Tyler Stout’s design for the Kiwi band Flight of the Conchords album.
:: Arwen ::
4 Comments
May 12, 2008 at 11:39 pm
i like your blog lots… well first off i typed i like your bog. But there is no bog here. I LIKE YOUR BLOG is what i really meant. Keep it up because it is lovely.
May 13, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Thanks, Pip! Glad you like the b(l)og.
May 26, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Just want to share two links that are kind of relevant to this blog entry:
I reckon it would be awesome to a course here: http://www.colum.edu/book_and_paper/
you might also be interested in this weird and wonderful book by AUDREY NIFFENEGGER:
http://www.printworkschicago.com/artists/niffen/niffen.htm
May 27, 2008 at 8:12 am
Simon, thank you! I’ve seen her books in a shop I used to work in (this one, to be precise), but never thought to look her up online.
Her work is so weird, but absolutely lovely. I used to recommend it to people, and I could totally tell what kind of person they are by their response. Often they got excited by it, but there were a few funny looks. She does have a book called ‘The Three Incestuous Sisters’.
Thanks for the reminder!
:k: