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From Henry Cohen’s series of inventive photographic covers for Gallimard's Idées series in the 1960s and early 70s.
See Rick Poynor’s ‘Bright Idées’ on the Eye blog, and his article ‘The shape of a pocket’ in Eye 81.
The original bookcover, at left, was panned as "scary-bad" by Giles of "Foreward: A Book Design Blog".
As per usual with this series, I've tried to make the smallest change that would result in the biggest positive effect. In this case, I tried to reduce the apparent hubris by resizing the author's name. I didn't change the foil jacket though...probably protects the contents from alien control.
Basil Wolverton is a legend of over-the-top cartooning but he also dedicated himself to reverently inking hundreds of illustrations depicting the Old Testament and Book of Revelations for the Worldwide Church from 1953 to 1974.
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The Wolf Book, designed in 1990
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In first grade, our teacher assigned us a project. Each student was assigned an animal, and our task was to research that animal. We compiled our research into a short, ten page book. The animal I chose was the Mongolian wild horse, and the experience was a blast. I absolutely loved the process of researching, drawing pictures and maps, and ending up with a designed object.
A few months later, during the summer of 1990, I decided to make another book about one of my favorite animals, the wolf. I spent several weeks photocopying pages from National Geographic World magazine, redrawing maps and diagrams, filling pages with some very bizarre editorial drawings, and typing paragraphs on an ancient word processor. The finished pages were then comb-bound at my father's office.
While designing my recent book, Forgetting Oildorado, I recalled the process of making The Wolf Book. I travelled to my parents house where the book resided, and flipped through it for the first time in well over a decade. It's fascinating to revisit something that was once so cherished, and to see the striking parallels between something that was designed at the age of 7 and the work that I'm currently producing.
When I made this book, I had no idea that I'd end up a graphic designer. But it seems that from a very early age, I was -- unknowingly -- well on my way.
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find out more about this lecture and watch the video in the kd-lounge archive.
photo: moritz profitlich
Detail of a book cover design and typography by George Salter for Frieda Lawrence: the Memoirs and Correspondence. Edited by E. W. Tedlock, Jr. New York, Knopf, 1964. PR6023.A934 Z52 1964