Re-Covered Books: ‘The Great Gatsby’
January 10, 2011 - By Bobby Solomon - Category: Re-Covered Books
I’ve been excited to start a new competition for a while. A kind of project that would be enjoyable for me to curate and would engage you as a creative person. Offhand, I mentioned on Twitter that it would be interesting to have readers create their own covers for books. So, I’m presenting the newest The Fox Is Black competition: Re-Covered Books. The idea is simple: create a cover for a book I choose and the winner gets a $100 gift card to Amazon. Sound good?
The first book we’ll be re-covering is The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I wanted to start with an American classic that was well regarded by many and I feel like The Great Gatsby has a lot of rich imagery that will translate well to a cover. Do a Google search of “The Great Gatsby Book Cover” and you get a lot of variations, some of which I’ve posted above for inspiration. The one I’m most familiar with is the top left one, with the flapper looking girl with a tear rolling down her face, superimposed over Coney Island. But, my favorite is the simple Alvin Lustig cover with the giant dollar sign: clean and beautiful.
The competition will judged by myself, Danica, and Alex with one grand prize winner taking the cake. I’d love to see you take this project and really creating something remarkable. My suggestion would be to print out a full dust jacket and wrap it around a book you own. The size and shape are up to you and your taste. The more effort you take, the better your chance to win. I’ll be posting all of the entries in a separate post and a link in the sidebar so you can check in to see what’s new. Here are the details:
• Size and shape are completely up to you: the more inventive, the better. It does need to be a book though. No electronics!
• Send all entries to thefoxisblack@gmail.com with the subject “Re-Covered Books: The Great Gatsby“. Just cut and paste what I wrote there. It’s super easy and it helps me keep track of entries.
• All entries are due January 28th, 2011 by Midnight, PST. That gives nearly 3 weeks to create something for the competition.
If you have any other questions, feel free to leave them in the comments. I hope a lot of you participate, as I think this could be a really fun competition and your work could get noticed by some really cool people. Good luck!
Maxime Francout
Ian O’Phelan
Ian O’Phelan
Conor Bateman
Kris Merbach
Heath D. Williams
Matthew Gore
Julien Dalard
Julien Dalard
Malik Tarhouni
Mike Arnold
Philipp Dornbrierer
Hans Peterse
Kjel Roger Ringstad
Rob Zbrezny
Ryan Vance
Wade Greenberg-Brand
Heath D. Williams
Ryan Bradley
Kelly Chia
Bryce Wilner
Joe McDermott
Patrick McWain
Caree Michel
Caree Michel
Hannes Beer
Callie Logan
Luke Chamberlin
Sean Patrick
Sara Andreasson
Alex Gelmers
Aled Lewis
Mason Plunkett
Mason Plunkett
Patricia Kirsch
Scott Alexander
Tiffany Chen
Levi McGranahan
Kendra Dandy
Dennis Kapell
Ryan Collier
Paul Delaurier
Naomi Sloman
Thanh Vu
Thanh Vu
Matt Buceri
Rosanna Matz
Lauren Fundora
Jennifer Matos
Kathryn Corlett
Charlotte Audrey Owen-Meehan
Ryan Lake
Elizabeth M. Berg
Elizabeth M. Berg
Sean Barry
Sean Barry
Daniel Gies
Ally Berke
Nicolla Turville
James Martin
Emilee Ellis
ene13
Jenny Trygg
Lisa Shininger
Steven Blumenthal
Sal Renwick
Rae Drake
Brandon Waybright
Patrick Jordan
Steve Boyland
Joshua Orr
Joshua Orr
Hiller Goodspeed
Bobby
Comments
If you've got something to say, keep it positive.This is a fantastic idea. And what an awesome book to start with. I can’t wait to see the entries.
I love this! It’s actually quite a coincidence that I watched the movie from 1974 just yesterday. I feel really inspired now.
One of my favorite books. Can’t wait to see how this turns out. Also, helps me to ignore the upsetting news today that Baz Luhrman is considering making his upcoming Gatsby film in 3D.
1. What do you mean by no electronics? You can’t use the computer to make your entry, is that right?
2. If a winner is from abroad or outside the U.S., how are you gonna send the prize?
Thanks! I like to join this contest!
This will be fun! How many book covers are we allowed to submit?
Aaah! What an amazing collision of worlds! Design and Literature. I’m an English teacher and I’m soooooo going have my students “vote” on this too.
@Steve Love – 1) I mean no mocking it up on an iPad or anything like that. Make it look like a book.
2) If the winner is outside of America and has no access to Amazon than we’ll figure something else out :)
@Kyla – As many as you like, I suppose. If you submit like 10 I might cut you off, haha…
Bobby, I think you meant @Miggy in that response. :)
So into this, just studying the book at the moment. Super psyched for some cross-curricular work.
great idea! i’m really excited to see the submissions :]
http://betterbooktitles.com/post/1343679176/greatgatsby
i’m still confused about the format- so it can be a photoshop file? or do you want a photo of it on an actual book?
this is a great idea by the way.
@YMFY – LOL.
@Abby K – The preferred format would be a JPG. See the entires above for some ideas.
GO YEHTEH!!
Bryce Wilner’s is my favourite so far. Aled Lewis’ on a close second.
Alot of good entries here. Good choice of contest Bobby, really!
There are some gorgeous entries here. Good job!
Yehteh/Philipp/Amazing
Bryce Wilner’s, Julien Dalard’s, and Hannes Beer’s are absolutely stunning—but I’m with Kjell, Bryce’s is my favorite.
Yeah I agree with Kjell: Bryce and Aled have the best ones. The only thing with Bryce’s is the bookshelf at the top – I think it would’ve been better without it. I think Aled’s is my favorite with Bryce a close second.
My favourite is Bryce’s or Sara’s.
I don’t get Sean Patrick’s at all! No references to the book, unless I’m missing something… and a very dated style. Not even the cool 20′s style that would match the book.
Glad to see so many green light references but surprised that there aren’t more Egg ones.
One of my favourite books and a great idea, just wish I had some design skills so I could have done one :(
Oh, also Ryan Vances! I forgot that one but it’s brilliant.
@Will – It’s funny, I actually enjoy Sean’s because it doesn’t stick to the cliché of 20′s style design.
Agreed. Huge fan of Sean Patrick’s work. Unique design, new approach, willing to take a risk.
All I gotta say is, it’s the whip.
@Bobby – I think for a book so rooted in it’s age that to randomly use a psychedelic 60′s style as your base. The book was iconic of the Jazz Age and to not at least nod to that seems a shame.
Alternately Luke Chamberlin or Conor Batemans’ designs don’t rely heavily on the 20′s style, they’re both quite modern, and both incorporate strong imagery based in the book which is why they both stand out to me.
I think it’s the complete lack of that, unless I’m missing a reference in Sean’s design, that makes me think you could use it for almost any book.
The results are really impressive! I think I like the one by Aled Lewis the best. That’s the one I’d like to see on my coffee table. Reminds me a bit of Don Draper though.
what a fun project! So glad to have the opportunity to read the novel again, I enjoyed it so much more than I did in high school, i think the relationships in it are a bit too complicated for high school students. All the entries look amazing!
mason’s is amazing. holy smokes.
Hate this book. Hate it. Love your new competition. Love it.
Ryan Collier + Thanh Vu!
Eclectic and fantastic.
James Martin!
James Martin’s is the bomb!!!!!
james martin. clean, crisp, and intriguing. just like gatsby would’ve seen it.
a lot of these entries are beautiful and well-designed.
at the same time, i wonder if maybe the motifs introduced in the book could have been used with more subtlety in these new book cover designs. however, i do understand that using these simple images gives across a clear message of “this can only be the great gatsby.”
anyway, i would like to cast my vote for mason plunkett’s design w/ the red cover & silhouette of gatsby & his mansion. the reference to the green light is perfect, and the quotation on the back is equally great.
hannes’, aled’s and rosanna’s!
james martins’ looks like it’s about the illuminati.
haha, marc is right! what are you up to, james?
also i think, that rosanna’s design is the only one, that includes the rear in a creative way. other than that there are many great entries, got to be hard to pick one.
this would be even more interesting if people had included an explanation of the imagery they used in their design. Since, while I think many of the designs are absolutely gorgeous, I don’t fully understand why certain design choices were made.
James – so lovely. Beautifully done :)
Super disappointed that nobody employed Gatsby’s self-improvment list. That said, there’s good stuff here.
Justin, brilliant idea. Wish I had thought of that.
Aled’s is my favorite. There are many others here that have done an incredible job as well.