Hasta La Ideas

Two first time novelists and titles from four independent publishers make up this year’s Man Booker Prize shortlist and, encouragingly, in a sign that printed book design continues to up its game, the covers are in rude health too…

Take Suzanne Dean’s design for The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes (published by Jonathan Cape/Random House). Despite the presence of new life in the floating seeds, the cover bleeds off towards a foreboding darkness with the ends of the book’s pages blackened, too.

A striking graphic approach from Dan Stiles works well on the cover for The Sisters Brothers by Patrick De Witt (published by Granta and Ecco/Harper Collins). The book design is by Suet Yee Chong at Ecco.

The placing of the title is what makes the hardback cover of Snowdrops by AD Miller (published by Atlantic Books) that little bit more interesting. The title is Russian slang for a corpse that is buried in the snow (revealing itself as it thaws), so the blood red type seems to suggest a supine position, heightened by the image of the trees as seen from the point of view of a body lying on the ground.

Perhaps the most conservative cover on the shortlist, Peter Dyer’s design for Half Blood Blues by Esi Edugyan (published by Serpent’s Tail) employs an elegant typeface for the book’s title.

Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman (published by Bloomsbury) has a cover by Holly Macdonald, who makes good use of negative space to evoke the outline of a young boy and, also, some pigeons.

Finally, and possibly our favourite on the list, is the first edition cover for Jamrach’s Menagerie by Carol Birch (published by Canongate). Thanks to Tom Gauld in the comments below who let us know that it’s the work of the excellent John Gray at Gray318. More of his covers at bookcoverarchive.com.

So while the Booker shortlist once again provides an interesting snapshot of the contemporary fiction market, the strength of the cover design in this year’s crop is surely also something worth celebrating.

The winner of the Man Booker prize 2011 will be announced on October 18. Read more about the shortlist, here.

CR in Print

Thanks for reading the CR website, but if you are not also getting the printed magazine, we think you’re missing out. This month’s issue has a superb feature on the Sainsbury’s Own Label packaging of the 60s and 70s, a profile of new Japanese creative supergroup Party and our pick of this year’s top graduates. Read all about it here.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

I am happy to welcome some new contributors to issue #11. Martin Connelly is a writer and videographer living in Newfoundland, and Omar Jaramillo Traverso is a travelling sketch artist. Together they profile a Newfoundland fisherman for issue #11 (more on that later this month). Here’s a video that Martin made of Omar sketching a Newfoundland street scene.

Sketching Downtown from Martin Connelly on Vimeo.

Next week, as part of the London Design Festival‘s programme of events, Outline Editions will host an unusual exhibition by illustrator Noma Bar. As well as showcasing a series of exclusive screenprints by the artist, visitors will be able to create their own Noma Bar artwork using a beautifully styled die-cutting machine…

Yes, the machine, designed by Bar, looks just like a big black dog. It’s two white teeth are actually handles that enable the user to push down on its lower jaw – in which one of a number of specially made dies can be positioned. Press down onto some well placed card stock below, et voila, a Noma Bar die cut piece is produced.

The die-cut invite shows how well the artist’s particular illustrative style lends itself to the process:

And here’s how you use the machine. Overalls wearing isn’t compulsory…

The exhibition, entitled Cut It Out, runs from September 17-30 at Outline Editions gallery space at 94 Berwick Street, London W1F 0QF.

Outline Editions has promised CR a preview of the show before it opens next week plus a chat with the artist, and also a go on the die-cutting doggy machine thing. Something we’re rather looking forward to!

In the meantime, here’s a short interview with Noma and some footage of the machine in action, courtesy of Crane TV:

outline-editions.co.uk

londondesignfestival.com

CR in Print

Thanks for reading the CR website, but if you are not also getting the printed magazine, we think you’re missing out. This month’s issue has a superb feature on the Sainsbury’s Own Label packaging of the 60s and 70s, a profile of new Japanese creative supergroup Party and our pick of this year’s top graduates. Read all about it here.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.

As a final swansong for its two year old daily illustrated fact blog – Learn Something Every Day – creative agency Young has commissioned an illustrator a day this month to illustrate a bizarre, little known fact such as the one above (by Serge Seidlitz). Contributors include Al Heighton, Marion Deuchars, Andy Rementer, Matthew Hodson, Jon Boam, and Siggie Eggertsson…

Learn Something Every Day has run since August 2009, when Young’s founders Pete Jarvis and Geth Vaughan, began posting up a doodle each day illustrating a lesser known fact about something or other. Within two weeks of of it’s inception the site was recording 10,000 unique hits a day and May this year saw the release of a Lean Something Every Day book (published by Penguin) compiling dozens of the illustrated facts. Here are some of our favourite posts from this, the last month of the blog’s existence:

by Siggie Eggertsson

by Nicolas Tual

by Ryan Cox

by Andrew Rae

by Jon Boam

by Marion Deuchars

To see all of this month’s illustrated facts (and the last two years worth of facts illustrated by Jarvis and Vaughan), visit learnsomethingeveryday.co.uk

Type designer Seb Lester‘s latest screenprint, Peace (sketches for it, shown above) was, he says, inspired by Anglo Saxon art, 18th and 19th century penmanship, and medieval illumination. Here’s a look at the two different available colourways of Peace which both make stunning use of shiny metalic paper stocks…

Peace is available in a gold on black version (shown above), and also as a dark chrome on white print:

Actually, it is the black that’s printed on to gold stock, and the white that’s printed on to chrome stock – something that’s a little clearer when you see the prints drying on the rack

Peace (Gold) is a two colour screen print on Gold Mirri H-Range paper, 270gsm, in an edition of 100. Dimensions: 850 X 255mm. Peace (White) is also limited to 100 editions and printed at the same dimensions but onto Dark Chrome Mirri paper, 270gsm. Both are available from Lester’s website, seblester.co.uk, priced at £85 plus postage and packaging.

Both colourways of Peace, plus a selection of Lester’s work will be shown at London’s Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen for the next two months (as of Thursday, September 1), much of it printed at a much larger scale than ever before.

For more info and directions to Hoxton Square Bar & Kitchen, visit hoxtonsquarebar.com

See more of Lester’s work at seblester.co.uk

CR in Print

Thanks for reading the CR website, but if you are not also getting the printed magazine, we think you’re missing out. This month’s issue has a superb feature on the Sainsbury’s Own Label packaging of the 60s and 70s, a profile of new Japanese creative supergroup Party and our pick of this year’s top graduates. Read all about it here.

If you would like to buy this issue and are based in the UK, you can search for your nearest stockist here. Based outside the UK? Simply call +44(0)207 292 3703 to find your nearest stockist. Better yet, subscribe to CR for a year here and save yourself almost 30% on the printed magazine.