Christopher Porter wins the Romeo and Juliet Re-Covered Books contest

After a slew of beautiful entries, I’ve chosen my winner for the Romeo and Juliet Re-Covered Books contest – Christopher Porter. Chris is a designer from Falmouth, Cornwall who wanted to create something contemporary:

I’ve tried to go with a direction that would appeal to younger generations, the Irvine Welsh generation, the sort of people who are more than likely to judge a book by it’s cover.

I think he’s done exactly that. I like his cover for a few reasons – typography, color palette and choice of image. As with a lot of entries, typography, or the lack there of, tends to be a major problem. Chris uses only two typefaces, both of which are appropriately used. The script used for William Shakespeare is so damn beautiful and gives his name such life, it’s a perfect application.

As for the imagery, I love this old photo he found of a dead couple. What I find most interesting is that they aren’t perfect of beautiful, they’re real people. They might not be the correct age, but I think that’s ok. I’m sure we’ve all felt that yearning for true love at many stages in our lives, and this reflects that in some ways. I also love the addition of “Love Is Toxic”, which makes me think of Britney Spears, and I’m guessing others would as well. Overall this one felt the strongest, especially because he created a whole package to show the full idea. Well done Christopher!

Check back in the new year for our next contest, and if you have any suggestions for books you’d like to see, please put them in the comments.

Bobby

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

Erika Altosaar’s ‘L’Anonyme’, a collection of sensual blind drawings

A while back I received a small package from the kind folks at Trapshot Archives, an independent press from Montreal which caught my eye. Their goal, to encourage the work of up-and-coming creative talents, definitely matches those of this site, and the contents of the package they sent further proved this point. What you see above is a small book with the works of Erika Altosaar called L’Anonyme, which “charts a transformation in understanding sexuality, sensuality, gender programming, and the particularities of being a She.” There’s something so primal and sexual about the images she created, like dirty drawings you wouldn’t want your parents to find, but with a poetic beauty attached. The ethereal shapes she’s created bear the fingerprints of their creator, both literally and figuratively, hear charcoal smears creating the abstract shapes of womanhood.

This wouldn’t normally be something I would post about, but I’ve been pouring over it this weekend and realized why Altosaar is starting to pick up so much steam. I featured her work previously in a collected edition titled E’tranger, works that seem like a more complex version of these found in L’Anonyme. It’s exciting to see where her work will go next.

You can snag yourself a copy of L’Anonyme by clicking here.

Bobby

Cory Bujnowicz, the winner of The Outsiders Re-Covered Books Contest

The contest to redesign The Outsider proved to be difficult, or at least that’s how it seemed. The task was a bit difficult, not using any sort of typical imagery that you associate with The Outsiders, i.e. a bunch of guys standing around in leather jackets smoking. Using that kind of imagery seemed too easy to me, so I wanted to see something that was a bit outside the box, something that required some creative thinking while still staying true to the feeling of the book.

Of all the entries, I felt that Cory Bujnowicz’s entru was the best. As Kyle put it so well, it almost feels like something Barbara Kruger would make, completely basic in typography but strong in visual elements. As Cory put in his email, “What punk didn’t paint their nails when they were younger?” The colors are also really interesting to me because they’re so, for a lack of a better term, fucked. Putrid greens mixed fluo pink and baby pink text. It’s feels “edgy” but without trying too hard. It really just brings me into the piece and makes me want to stare at it, to try and figure it out.

Congrats Cory, you did an amazing job, I’ll be sending you $100 to Amazon shortly. Check back next Monday when I announce the next Re-Covered Books contest.

Bobby

‘Frug’ by Fabian Jochen Kanzler & Steve Michaelis

In 2000, threatened a massive computer network to all humanity. The only hope is the sexless Frug Nelson, half man, half mushroom. Frug has at his Steis PS/3-Schnittstelle one with which he can make contact with computers. The world government has one last hope: Frug Nelson!

That’s the abstract and bizarre description for Fabian Jochen Kanzler & Steve Michaelis’ beautiful book called Frug. It’s 256 pages of amazing, random looking imagery that’s somewhere between TV static, pixels and wood grain. I honestly have no idea how they created these images, but there’s such an amazing diversity to each of them, it’s pretty astounding. The book is also wrapped in an A0 sized poster, which would be pretty rad to frame and put on your wall.

Check out the video below for a walkthrough of the book.

Found through Today and Tomorrow

Bobby