DD2000(Design Discourse). David Pearson & Jim Stoddart

This a rare interview to see http://www.gestalten.tv/motion/fully-booked,an interview with both the person who commissions art-work and the designer himself talking about the state of book cover design in the new publishing era. Jim Stoddart is the art director for Penguin books and as such is responsible for the "look" of their current run of products. David Pearson is a Graphic Designer and Typographer http://www.davidpearsondesign.com charged with the re-launch of Penguin's Popular Classics,Great Loves and Reference series.

To the right David Pearson's work.

To the left the "classic" Penguin Design.

Pearson has taken care not to make the covers too "trendy" as this would quickly date the appearance of the graphics on what are literary classics,he also revels in the lack of space with which to make an impact. David endeavours to set the book apart from the new world of E-books(kindle etc) by making a book a desirable object not just for its contents but also for its visual and tactile qualities. Penguin still publish books with it's classic cover design,which usually looked like the above image on the left,but it also makes these more desirable "designed" covers which are aimed at a visually discerning book-buyer who would buy a series of David Pearson designed covers because they would look good on their bookshelf at home.
Modern book design must also take into account that many books are bought from online booksellers where there is no tactile element and only the graphical qualities are on show,here it will not be possible to see if a book has an embossed or offset printed cover,Only the shapes,colours and typography sell the book(and of course the text within). It will be interesting to see where the E-book goes in the next few years,with the next generation of Kindles allowing Graphic elements to be displayed.

David's own publication Fully Booked deals with book cover and book design,many of the examples within probably fit more within the artist book genre,where content is subsumed to the overall design of the piece,perhaps this is where books must look to in the future,as objects for committed Bibliophiles.

Ed Allen