Notable Book Designs

I want to tip my hat off to some of my favorite book designers. One of these days, it could well be that we will all be reading books on the internet and the days of glorious book design will have passed away (by the way, perhaps someone like Henry James might consider such days already passed...in Princess Casamassima, he talks about the beauty of elaborate bookbinding which are no longer with us).

One of my favorite designs this year was the light pink and foil script/calligraphy cover of Neruda's Love Poems by Rodrigo Corral. He's also the designer for that eye-candy embellishing Javier Maria's Written Lives.

And, of course, there's Seth's moody tones for the Peanuts, helping us adults feel ever so chic while reveling in our childhood memories. But more importantly, the colors highlight the gloominess and solitude of childhood, particularly the childhood of Charlie Brown.

The Maakies are designed by the famous Chip Kidd with wonderfully chosen illustrations for the covers and elaborate endpapers.

And to round off this entry on book design, I must revere the amazing Alvin Lustig whose covers set a tone that correlated to the book with a minimal flair while being intellectually true to the book.