Non fiction cover design
How Mendelsund with little design experience was hired by Knopf is one of the most amazing stories I ve ever read Cover is than a book about design it s a meditation on the creative process and the love of books by a genius designer A must for book lovers 304 Great book as Mendelsund delivers his insights on the creative process and design I enjoyed how this famous book cover designer explained his process and looking at his drafts as he developed a cover Mendelsund is just amazing and it was great to see the process behind the curtain Though this book focuses on book cover design the process Mendulsund covers is about design generally and uses cover design just as an example 304 A book that gives really great insight into the work of a great cover designer I especially liked the fact that rejected covers were included which helps to show how particular cover designs evolved Highly recommended to anyone wanting to embark on a professional book design career 304 I devoured every page of this book with rapt adoration Peter Mendelsund may have just jumped the ranks as my favorite graphic designer ever ever ever While I ve seen his book covers on countless trips to the bookstore covers than I realized seeing them here together annotated with witty comments and insights about both reading and design I found the passionate reader and aspiring designer inside me taking turns swooning I have no doubt this is a book that will remain in heavy rotation and provide a constant source of inspiration 304 My celebrity book designer crush Chock full of insight and uncannily written vignettes about Der Prozess of book cover design It s nearly impossible to put into words what one s aesthetic taste or design sensibilities boil down to but Mendelsund manages to do so by presenting the successes alongside the many many many failures and narrating the journey to the finished product There is a surprising amount of text in this massive coffee table style book a mix of transcribed interviews and articles written by Mendelsund himself editors and authors he s collaborated with and others What strikes me is Mendelsund s life story He s a classically trained pianist and by accident of fate happened on the job of a lifetime book designing by being in the right place at the right time Despite all of that he s somehow a brilliant designer and writer and despite looking like a simple gawkbook to browse through his writing actively challenges you Every choice each step a step closer to the concretization of the book and thus its impoverishment It is my job to drag the text the author s work perfect in its disembodiment into awful specificity. Covert narcissist If design itself is predicated on youth then late style isn t feasible If design is not predicated on youth perhaps it demands timeliness Familiarity with the zeitgeist is integral to design Conversely repudiation of the zeitgeist is integral to late style Goddammit that s so GOOD All this insight taken together with innovative cover after cover turns this from a mere showcase of book covers into a biography of an inspiration an endlessly creative individual who encourages and surprises at every turn Be a citizen of the world and at least attempt to know a little something about life outside of your own InDesign files Engage in something that matters to you than your latest project Some perspective and a modicum of circumspection will improve your mood expand your horizons and improve your design work 304 
Peter Mendelsund s beautiful book cover designs 304 mendelsund has bars 304 Chip Kidd Book One 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 30 etc What We See When We Read 11 Alfred A Knopf . Cover flow S 5 Penguin i Knopf 304 Peter Mendelsund couldn t have known he was writing Cover just for me but he was Peter if you re reading this thank you As a musician who loves books and dreams of designing book covers this book is like a dream come true I love every inch of it Rarely do I find someone else who is a lot like me but the way Mendelsund views books and reading is almost exactly the way I do I feel like tearing out his What Is a Book Cover text from pages 110 111 and putting it up on my wall Since this is a library book I won t do that Cover makes me want to design book covers I think I d be really good at it and it makes me want to read books Mendelsund designed the covers for I m especially eager for the Kafka series and the Black Jack series which look so beautiful It also makes me want to meet Mendelsund and hang out with him. Cover hair I don t know what s in my future but it s encouraging to read about someone else who made the kind of career switch that I dream of Maybe someday 304 I have literally never been madder in my life that I can t get a hold of Mendelsund s next book about book covers until October of this year while I am WORKING on a THESIS about BOOK COVERS This was an amazing resource and I m glad I lucked into it 304
Peter Mendelsund has enjoyed years as a much sought after book cover designer and art director Among the many recognizable jackets he has created are those for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo collections of the works of Joyce Kafka Dostoevsky de Beauvoir and Foucault the contemporary works of Martin Amis Tom McCarthy Ben Marcus Jo Nesb and James Gleick and many All have greatly benefitted from the care and touch Mendelsund gave them.
Creative nonfiction cover Cover abounds with Mendelsund s completed book jackets along with ephemera from his previously unseen creative method including jacket sketches interior art and editorial illustrations and scores of rejected drafts These images are punctuated by Mendelsund s reflections on his work and his process as well as by texts from writers with whom he has worked and designed for.
Cover letter Cover is a compendium of beautiful design and a beautiful design object itself a profile and celebration of one of the publishing world s most talented and prolific contemporary creators and a brilliant showcase of his deft touch for balanced and innovative design Cover By Peter MendelsundPeter Mendelsund is the associate art director of Alfred A Knopf and a recovering classical pianist His designs have been described by The Wall Street Journal as being the most instantly recognizable and iconic book covers in contemporary fiction He lives in New York.P..
