Designer book covers
To mark the upcoming British Design exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the Vintage Classics imprint has brought in a host of Great British designers to create new covers for some Great British novels.
The series sees designers including Celia Birtwell, Zandra Rhodes and Tomato’s Michael Horsham take on classics such as The End of the Affair and The French Lieutenant’s Woman.
The books, which will be published on 29 March, were all published during the period covered by the exhibition (1948-2012).
Rhodes, who created the cover for Iris Murdoch’s The Sea, The Sea, says of her work ‘the sea and the waves were the original inspiration; they were the basis of the whole cover.’
Birtwell says of her cover for Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle, ‘I wanted to try to convey the various forms love can take. But love can be fragile and attacked, so I represented it as a heart, with its beauty being encroached upon.’
Philip Treacy, who designed the cover for John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman, says, ‘I was inspired by the tragedy and the love story between Charles and Sarah and, like I do with my hats, I wanted the book cover to make a statement of its own.’
The Designer Classics series is published by Vintage Classics on 29 March, priced at £9.99 each. British Design 1948-2012: Innovation in the Modern Age, is at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London from 31 March-12 August.
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No, no, no! Read the books! …then design the cover. I take umbrage when two well-loved books are fitted out with such insensitive covers – ‘The end of the affair’ and ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ deserve better. And to position them in the context of a Design Exhibition at the V&A… aaaaargh! More finesse, please! Hat designers designing book covers – which marketing prat thought that one up? It’s grotesque. It has all the hallmarks of a celebrity marriage, where two ill-matched people tie the knot for no reason other than to drum up media attention.
Are these supposedly collectable covers, a new range of which seem to appear with alarming frequency but using the same pool of titles, the last desperate writhings of post-kindle print publishing.
I hope not. Especially as there’s little to be excited about here.
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