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Tag: jeff vandermeer

Series Book Covers 2014

In the past, I’ve often included a few series designs in with my favourite covers of the year. This year, I saw so many great covers that were part of a series, I thought a they deserved a post of their own…

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Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)


Alma Classics; design by Nathan Burton (Alma / 2014)

A Winter's Tale
A Winter’s Tale by William Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)


Broadview Shakespeare; design by Michel Vrana (Broadview / 2014)

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Nova Express by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)


The Cut-Up Trilogy by William Burroughs; cover art by Julian House (Penguin Classics 2014)

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Snapshots–Nouvelles voix du Caine Prize; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)


Éditions Zulma; design by David Pearson (Éditions Zulma / 2014)


Wolf Haas; design by Christopher Brian King (Melville House / 2014)

My Fellow Skin
My Fellow Skin by Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

Erwin Mortier; design by David Pearson (Pushkin Press / 2014)

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After You with the Pistol by Kyril Bonfiglioli; design by Richard Green; illustration by Luke Pearson (Penguin / 2014)


Charlie Mortdecai by Kyril Bonfiglioli; design by Richard Bravery illustration by Luke Pearson (Penguin / 2014)

Tim O’Brien; design by Cardon Webb (Broadway / 2014)

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Cloudstreet by Tim Winton; design by Adam Laszczuk; illustration by Josh Durham (Penguin Australia / 2014)


Penguin Australian Classics; design by Adam Laszczuk; illustration by Josh Durham (Penguin Australia / 2014)

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Greek and Roman Political Ideas by Melissa Lane; cover design by Matthew Young; logo design by Richard Green (Pelican 2014)


Pelican relaunch; cover design by Matthew Young; logo design by Richard Green (Pelican 2014)

Regeneration by Pat Barker; design by Mr Foxx
Regeneration by Pat Barker; design by Mr Foxx (Penguin / 2014)

Penguin Essentials; design various (Penguin / 2014)

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Letters from a Stoic by Seneca; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics 2014)


Penguin Pocket Hardbacks; design by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Classics 2014)

Les fantômes fument en cachette by Miléna Babin; design by David Drummond
Les fantômes fument en cachette by Miléna Babin; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / 2014)


Quai No. 5; design by David Drummond (Les Éditions XYZ / 2014)

Sicilian Uncles
Sicilian Uncles by Leonardo Sciascia; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / 2014)


Leonardo Sciascia; design by Dan Mogford (Granta / 2014)1

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August 1914 by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; design by Oliver Munday (FSG / 2014)


Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn; design by Oliver Munday (FSG / 2014)

authority
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG / 2014)


The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (US); design by Charlotte Strick; Illustration by Eric Nyquist (FSG /  2014)

Annihilation
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (UK); design by Jo Walker; illustration by Kai and Sunny (Fourth Estate / 2014)


The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (UK); design by Jo Walker; illustration by Kai and Sunny (Fourth Estate / 2014)

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Ukojenie by Jeff VanderMeer (Poland); cover art by Patryk Mogilnicki (Otwarte / 2014)

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer (Poland); cover art by Patryk Mogilnicki (Otwarte / 2014)

city-of-saints
City of Saints & Madmen by Jeff VanderMeer backlist; design by Crush Creative (Tor / 2014)

Jeff VanderMeer backlist; design by Crush Creative (Tor / 2014)

Verso Radical Thinkers; design by Rumors (Verso / 2014)

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The Battle of AP Bac by Neil Sheehan; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / 2014)


Vintage Shorts; design by Joan Wong (Vintage / 2014)

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Fleur de Cerisier by Aline Apostolska; design by David Drummond (VLB éditeur / 2014)


Vol 459; design by David Drummond (VLB éditeur / 2014)


M. D. Waters; design by Jaya Miceli (Plume / 2014)

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Art and Lies by Jeanette Winterson; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage / 2014)


Vintage Winterson; design by James Paul Jones (Vintage / 2014)

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Describing the Indescribable: Jeff VanderMeer and Peter Mendelsund in Conversation

If you only bookmark one long(ish) thing to read today, make sure it’s the slightly bonkers conversation between Jeff VanderMeer, author of the Southern Reach Trilogy, and book designer Peter Mendelsund at Boing Boing:

JV: I very much like how you draw out in ‘What We See When We Read’ this idea of creation of character by the constraints around them. Which helps to create an outline of the character. It’s more or less how I thought of Control in ‘Authority’. Taking this even farther, I think that writers like Karen Joy Fowler do something even weirder where sometimes the absence of text or the cutting of text creates a ghost or resonance that allows the reader to fill in the space. Is there an equivalent effect in art/design? Perhaps it’s something you’ve played around with in your own work. An absence that denotes presence.

PM: “An absence that denotes presence” could be the definition of a good book cover. Good book covers are hard to make, I think, specifically because a designer is asked to deploy the facts of a narrative without showing anything explicit about the setting or characters. It’s a tricky balancing act. Everything is done by implication, proxy, metaphor or analogy.

So what is left off of a jacket is crucial. (I’ve often said that most of my day in the office is spent either suggesting things or hiding things.) I’m not an anti-intentionalist or anything, but I do believe that the reader deserves, to some extent, the right to co-create a fictional world alongside the author. So when you make the author’s world explicit on a cover, you’ve taken something from the reader.

The Southern Reach Trilogy — Annihilation, Acceptance and Authority — have now been collected into a single volume called Area X. While the original (American) covers were designed by Charlotte Strick with illustrations by Eric Nyquist, the new cover is by Rodrigo Corral:

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VanderMeer also talks to his editor Sean MacDonald about the process of writing the books at the FSG Work in Progress blog. The post includes an amazing cover for the Polish edition of Acceptance. If anyone can tell me who the designer/illustrator is, I would be much obliged…

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