Book cover genius: Peter Mendelsund

I figured to get your creative juices flowing for the Romeo and Juliet Re-Covered Books Contest I should point you to a guy who’s creating amazing covers. His name is Peter Medelsund and he’s the senior designer at Knopf, making covers both complex and minimal, but always getting the point across. I was introduced to Peter’s work through his Kafka covers, which I posted about back in January. Since then I’ve followed his work, soaking in and figuring out what he does and how he does it.

What I really appreciate about Mendelsund’s work is how effortless he makes it seem. I’m sure he labors and toils while he dreams up these covers, but you wouldn’t know. His work adorns the covers of books from all genres, manga to poetry, but each one looks and feels special. I’d suggest looking over the links below as well as reading this interview he did with design:related to get his backstory.

Peter’s website
Jacket Mechanical, Peter’s blog
The Book Cover Archive featuring Peter Mendelsund

Bobby