Thesis Project — Mikey Burton’s illustrative reinterpretations of classic book covers for junior-high-school students. Mikey’s more recent work, including gig posters for Wilco, is also awesome.
The Writer’s Reader — Michael Silverblatt, the endlessly enthusiastic host of KCRW radioshow Bookworm, profiled in O, The Oprah Magazine (via TEV).
We Are The Friction seen at The BCA, Design Work Life, SwissMiss and others. Sing Statistics, the “collaborative concern” of designer Jez Burrows and illustrator Lizzy Stewart, and publisher of We Are The Friction, also has a great Flickr photostream (and there are images of the book launch at Edinburgh’s Analogue Books on the shop’s Flickr photostream).
It Isn’t Rocket Science — Makenna Goodman, formerly an assistant to an unpleasant sounding literary agent in New York, talks about her move to rural Vermont and happier times with publisher Chelsea Green in the Huffington Post.
Intelligent Eclecticism — Steven Heller on the groundbreaking illustrated covers used for Time‘s “soft-cover book club” throughout the 1960’s:
Eclecticism was a viable and intelligent decision. While consistent design for a series of related books makes good strategic sense, these books were bound together by the editors’ judgment. Designing them as separate entities — avoiding the impression of formulaic repetition — made the most sense for the book club but also for the artists and designers who created them. Each cover (indeed each book) had a unique integrity that raised the standard of the genre while showcasing the creators’ artistic strengths.
And finally…
On the subject of vintage book design and great illustrations, be sure to take a look at Martin Klasch blogger P-E Fronning’s set of Swedish book covers on Flickr.