Ink-etched Reinventions

Without trying to spack myself, I must tell you that I have just discovered these AMAZING book covers. You all know of my weakness for beautifully designed books. And you have probably guessed by this blog's banner that I have a vague, closeted interest in tattoo aestheticism (tattheticism?).

Well, today, while wandering around Waterstones after work, I came across (none a that!) this wonderful new cover for the Penguin addition of Zadie Smith's debut novel White Teeth. Following on from Penguin America's highly successful tattoo-based series last year, the Brits have succumbed to ink from skin to page, these six modern classics given six thoroughly modern covers too.

I have only seen the White Teeth one so far, and i must say, I am really very impressed by the beauty of the execution. Not only does the design continue inside the jacket but also along the spine and across the back in glorious, freehand spirals. It's so pleasing to hold the book when it is so conclusively wrapped in its own design. This first cover is by Brighton based tattoo artist and illustrator Lynn Akura, but I believe each one is by a different artist. Penguin never lets you down - both inside and outside the cover. This is my novel mantra from now on.

Perhaps this can become my choice topic of conversation at parties, to avoid those awkward moments of self revelation? 'So, what do you do?' 'HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOOK??? IT LOOKS LIKE A FUCKING TATTOO???!! AMAAAAAZZING!!!!'

COMMUNIST COVER ART

I just bought a copy of George Orwell's Animal Farm, Penguin edition (of course!) with this fantastic cover by Shepard Fairey, of OBEY fame. He also did one for Nineteen-Eighty-Four. It's not hard to see why the artist behind the persona of Obey and the socialist writer behind the totalitarian regime of Big Brother go together so well.

OBEY HERE

happy to judge a book by its cover

Because I have been reading so much recently, I have, as invariably happens when you are over-saturated by one medium, become a bit of a book snob. I wouldn’t be so egotistical to suggest that this applies in terms of the quality of the writing (although of course it does – but I’m no great literary master and I need to at least attempt to crawl back out of my own arse). No, it’s more about the design, layout, and yes, the cover, which I do shamelessly judge the book by. I think any author who lets a publishing house slap on an ugly or inappropriate cover on their book is perhaps not worth reading in the first place, as how far will this bad judgement go? Surely it will make itself heard in the ugly or inappropriate style of the prose as well?

A few of the covers in the Great Ideas Series

Luckily, if you are an aspiring or established author this aesthetic problem can be overcome by getting yourself published by one specific, distinguished publishing house: none other than the Penguin Paperback. They transcend my snobbery, always having good, appropriate covers, for both classics like Jane Austen, contemporary titles or reworkings of classics, with a very good cover designer on board. Their text is laid out well on the page; not too much margin, not too little; nothing over complicated like the title AND the author AND the chapter AND the page number crowding the headers, just in case you had forgotten what you were reading – like when rappers worry that you haven’t heard their name enough times to make it memorable, so interject it sporadically throughout their song, just so you remember (Yes, I’m thinking of you WALE, and yes, we have already forgotten you, despite the early Gaga collaboration, so nah nah nah nah you’re name sucks ass no matter how many times you say it. Boo yah.). Penguin also do a range or recycled paper paperbacks, such as one copy I have of Gulliver’s Travels (not the Jack Black version, you philistines!), with the plain coloured cover and simple font that has become synonymous with the brand: Orange for fiction, blue for biography, green for crime.

Um, shouldn't this be orange??
Mixed signals, Penguin, mixed signals

It is fair enough to say that Penguin revolutionised the face of literature. Founded in 1935 by Allen Lane – incidentally, a friend of Agatha Christie – the first Penguin Paperbacks cost the same price as a packet of cigarettes, and, also like cigarettes, were sold everywhere, from corner shops to train stations, as was the original intent. Before that books were expensive, the only affordable ones being fairly trashy, while Homer’s Odyssey and the Communist Manifesto lurked only – and slightly ironically in the case of Marx – in the libraries of the rich, in hardcover. Penguin democratised reading, publishing many books that had previously been banned, bringing them to anyone who wanted them, such as Lady Chatterly’s Lover, which, when published in 1960 caused the company to be charged under the Obscene Publications Act. However, Penguin were acquitted and in six weeks two million copies were sold. Come on freedom of speech!


Basically, Penguin books are my favourite books, so if you’re reading this Penguin, well done, thumbs up on facebook, I LIKE you. Fairly recently they have brought out five series’ of short literary works, from Nietzsche to Orwell to Freud to Chuang Tzu, under the title of Great Ideas. They all have individually designed covers, all of which are enough to make me want to purchase an entire small library on existentialism just to look at. They are all around a fiver and, if nothing more, are great things aesthetically (Christmas presents, anyone??). Proof indeed that with a good publisher and a good author, you can judge a book very accurately by its very well designed cover. Becoming a Penguin Modern Classic has become my new goal in life – providing the design is right, of course.

Covers from the Great Loves Series

A lot of this info I got over at the Penguin website, HERE. Info on the Great Ideas Series HERE.