John Gall, art director for Vintage International, was gifted the “most daunting project of [his] entire life”: redesigning all 21 book covers in the Vladimir Nabokov literary canon. Not an easy task. Gall rounded up an ace group of graphic designers to contribute to the project, from Pentagram partner Michael Beirut to Knopf heavy hitters Chip Kidd and Barbara de Wilde.
Because Nabokov was an avid butterfly collector, Gall assigned a design brief that proposed all the covers should resemble specimen boxes. Vintage and Anchor Books are currently hosting a giveaway of these art-meets-literature re-imaginings; we’ve listed our five favorites after the jump. Read More »
It’s not enough to just be awesome at one thing anymore. More and more artists are multitasking, and we’re seeing a particular amount of crossover between the somewhat unlikely genres of music and literature. But wait — aren’t musicians supposed to be outgoing egomaniacs and aren’t writers supposed to be tweedy shut-ins? Well, the writer/musician isn’t exactly a new trend — remember Tarantula, Dylan’s stream-of-consciousness book of prose-poetry? And don’t forget that Leonard Cohen was actually a writer first. So maybe there’s something to this whole writer turned rock star thing. Here are some multitaskers who make us feel bad about ourselves when we lie around the house all Sunday.
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School of Visual Arts alum Rodrigo Corral is responsible for some of the most memorable book covers of the past few years. The red-splashed silhouette for the cover of Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao; that beautiful sprinkled-covered hand on the cover of James Frey’s A Million Little Pieces; those fuchsia lips on Chuck Palahniuk’s Snuff — his visuals stick with you as much as the stories themselves.
You can check out more of Corral’s work as part of SVA’s The Wilde Years: Four Decades of Shaping Visual Culture through November 7, and view a slideshow of select pieces featured in the show here »
1. Do you believe that less is more in graphic design?
No, at least not conceptually. I don’t like overly decorated work, but can appreciate design that is layered with multiple ideas, especially in books.
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Today at Flavorpill, we enjoyed the pop culture mash-up of Mike Meyer paintings Colonel Sanders. We wondered if Karl Lagerfeld’s puffy new bags are some sort of commentary on obesity. We tried to tell the difference between Arial and Helvetica. And failed miserably. We learned what happens when a 28-year-old guy makes a profile of a hot girl on a free dating site: Hilarity ensues. We got excited for a new LCD Soundsystem track and tour. We got the story behind Sophie Blackhall’s Craigslist Missed Connection illustrations. We went shopdropping at Wal-Mart. And finally, we found out that one of our favorite graphic designer’s Chip Kidd has a band called Artbreak. Click through to watch them perform. Read More »
You don’t have to be a comic book geek to know that best-selling author NEIL GAIMAN, creator of the SANDMAN series (which NORMAN MAILER once called “a comic strip for intellectuals”), is a very big deal.
Aside from writing the gateway drug that opened the genre up to a more widespread demographic, he has penned screenplays, short stories, novels, children’s books, radio plays, and other comics as well.
MICHAEL CHABON has said that he’s “really, really cute,” but as we discovered last night at the 92Y’s Sandman 20th-Anniversary Celebration, hosted by graphic guru CHIP KIDD, this cult hero is also really, really entertaining.
Find out what Gaiman had to say about Captain Kirk, Batman and Hellboy after the jump.
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