If people can have literary tattoos then why can’t literature have people tattoos?

My ‘Cover Love’ feature returns to RobAroundBooks this month, with one of the finest looking set of books to have graced the bookshop bookshelves in recent months. This newly released limited edition set of titles from Penguin Books is called the Penguin Ink collection. It comprises of six of Penguin UK’s older bestselling titles, which have had special covers designed for them by renowned tattoo artists around the world. The titles and associated cover artists are as follows (links lead to publisher page for each title, and the tattoo artist’s own website):

• High Fidelity by Nick Hornby. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Russ Abbott.
• Notes on a Scandal by Zoe Heller. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Valerie Vargas.
• The Accidental by Ali Smith. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Judd Ripley.
• The Rotters’ Club by Jonathan Coe. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Han van der Sluys.
• The Book of Dave by Will Self. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Duncan X.
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith. Cover designed by tattoo artist, Lynn Akura.

I adore these covers, not least because they’re bold and bright and very much in the traditional ‘old school’ design. And yet in every one of these ‘book tattoos’ there’s also a subtle tribute to the book that each one relates to. They’re beautiful and wholly unique, and I think that every one of these covers stands as a testament to the skill and creativity of the tattoo artist who created it. I’ve long admired the tattooist as being something of a master craftsman/craftswoman (I have a bunch of tattoos myself), and I applaud Penguin for putting these ‘masters’ on a pedestal, and giving their artwork pride of place on the cover of six of their most celebrated novels.

And if you’re thirsty for more tattoo-inspired cover loving goodness dear reader, then you’ll be pleased to know that Penguin US have also commissioned their own set of covers, featuring a whole different set of titles and six more ‘kick ass’ tattoo artists from around the globe. Go check ‘em out.

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‘Cover Love’ offers me the indulgence of being able to push aside the old adage of ‘never judging a book by its cover’ for once, and to celebrate with a passion my lust for book cover design.

If you follow my Cover Love series then you would know that I have a bit of a thing for typography-based cover designs. In the past I’ve praised the virtues of the ‘Art of the Novella’ series from Melville House, hailed the glory that is the Faber 80 Beckett Series from Faber Books, and now, in this latest Cover Love feature, I pay homage to a gorgeous soon-to-be-launched ‘rebadged’ series of titles from Penguin Classics, which is being published in partnership with AID’s awareness fund, (RED).

Featured in this Cover Love post are the first eight titles which will hit the bookshops from 20th May, and I think, in terms of design at least, that they are exquisite. As you can see for yourself all the covers are primarily based on typography, but each design is also based on a pertinently chosen quote from each book which forms the word art for each cover. What I find particularly striking about most of the cover art in this collection however (aside from the vivid red colour accent of course, which triumphantly broadcasts the primary raison d’etre of the series), is that the typography has been allowed to ‘bleed’ into Penguin’s normally ‘untouchable’ sacrosanct title-band in the lower portion of the cover, which I think is deliciously rebellious, especially for titles which come under the mantle of the Penguin Classics range .

Interestingly, the cover art is the product of more than one creative hand, with each cover having been designed by a different designer. Artists range from in-house designers to commissioned individuals, and included are ‘old favourites’ of mine here at RobAroundBooks, such as Coralie Bickford-Smith (The Secret Agent) and Jonathan Gray aka Gray318 (Notes From Underground).

Out of all of the eight covers pictured above I’m probably most drawn in an aesthetic sense towards Gray’s cover for Dostoevsky’s Notes From Underground (that’s the cover bottom right, above). For me it’s definitely the best of the bunch in terms of design, with the cover for Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin (created by Penguin’s own in-house art director, Jim Stoddart) coming in a close second. For once Bickford-Smith hasn’t moved me as much as she has done in the past with her creation for Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent (you may remember her work on the ‘Gothic Red’ series blew me away), but even so she’s still manages to rustle up a beautiful design. As for the rest of the cover designers, here’s a rundown:

• Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy – cover designed by FUEL
• The Turn of the Screw by Henry James – cover designed by Studio Frith
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens – cover designed by Stefanie Posavec, Penguin
• Dracula by Bram Stoker – cover designed by Non-Format
• The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton – cover designed by Nathan Burton

So that’s a quick look at the first eight titles in Penguin Classic’s new (RED) series which, to recap, are published on the 20th May. If you want any more info, clicking on any of the covers above will take you directly to Penguin’s product page for each book.

Finally, although it was the Penguin Classic’s newsletter that first brought my attention to this new series, most of the information for this post was gathered from that most excellent of websites – Creative Review. So full credit to them.

So fellow readers, what are your thoughts on Penguin’s new (RED) range? I’d love to know what you think.

It’s been a wee while since I’ve done a Cover Love post (my last one was the four-volume Ox-Tales collection from Profile Books), so what better way to bring it back than with a post celebrating eight of the titles I’m reading in my Totally Knut reading project. All published by small independent publisher Souvenir Press, the collection of eight all feature artwork from one of my favourite artists- Edvard Munch (perhaps most famous for his painting, ‘The Scream’).

I think everyone will agree that the Munch artwork really does do these covers justice. And while I’m slightly disappointed not to see exactly the same cover design carried across the entire range, the pleasure one gets from gazing upon the sublime artwork of Edvard Munch, every time one picks up one of these Souvenir Press volumes, is indescribable. What’s more the decision to use Munch’s artwork on the covers of these Hamsun novels is a stroke of genius. Because after all Edvard Munch was not only a fellow-Norwegian and contemporary of Knut Hamsun, but both men were prolific in their respective art too – a befitting tribute to both then, to pair them together.

So for the pleasure of those who may want to know more about the Munch artwork that’s been used for these covers, here’s a rundown on artwork that’s been used for each of the books, with a link to an original example:

• Mysteries (1892) – ‘Snow Falling in the Lane’, 1906.
• Victoria (1898) – ‘Moonlight’, 1895.
• Tales of Love and Loss (1890s) – ‘Despair (Fortvilelse)‘, 1892.
• Dreamers (1904) – ‘Two Human Beings. The Lonely Ones‘, 1899.
• The Growth of the Soil (1917) – ‘Winter, Kragero‘, 1912.
• The Wanderer (1906/1909) – ‘The Wave’, 1921
• The Women at the Pump (1920) – ‘Red Virginia Creeper‘, 1898-1900.
• Wayfarers (1927) – ‘Train Smoke‘, 1900

While it’s always nice drooling over any of the books in a Cover Love feature, it’s especially nice when the books featured have been published with a worthy cause in mind. And that’s exactly what the delicious looking four-book collection in this latest Cover Love feature have been created for.

Working in collaboration with Oxfam, Profile Books and the Hay Festival, 38 of the UK’s top authors (the identity of some are revealed by looking closely at the covers above), have come together to create Ox-Tales, a four-book collection of short stories and extracts, which will raise money in support of Oxfam projects around the world.

Launched at the end of this week (July 4th) and costing £5 per volume (with a minimum of 50p going directly to Oxfam), the stories and extracts in the Ox-Tales collection are all new and unpublished, and based, as the covers so beautifully suggest, on a loose framework of one of the four elements – earth, air, fire and water, which highlight the work of various Oxfam projects:

• Earth (Livelihoods) – Oxfam’s Agricultural Programmes are helping thousands of small-scale farmers and producers globally to improve their lives through better production and marketing of goods, including cotton in India, vegetables in Honduras, rice in Tanzania
• Air (Climate Change) – Many of Oxfam’s Disaster Preparedness Programmes around the world aim to assist those most at risk of climate change related disasters. For example, floods and cyclones in Bangladesh are addressed by developing early warning systems, building helters, raising homes and wells; and increasingly drought-prone East Africa Oxfam is adapting mechanical boreholes so they use solar panels or wind turbines instead of diesel pumps.
• Fire (Conflict) – Oxfam helps victims of conflict by providing clean, safe water and emergency shelters; promoting peace building programmes and campaigning for better rules on arms control.
• Water – Oxfam primarily provides life-saving water and sanitation in emergency situations: they currently provide water and sanitation for around half a million people in Darfur and Chad, 230-000 in Somalia, and 100,000 in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Oxfam also establish long-term and sustainable safe water supplies and sanitation facilities to improve health through building wells and latrines.

Not only are all of the 38 authors generously donating their work to Oxfam, but some are also taking part in launch events for Ox-Tales, around the UK, which also ties in with the first ever Oxfam Bookfest (July 4th-18th). On July 3rd (5pm) in the Oxford Playhouse, Oxford, Mark Haddon will be joined by Joanna Trollope and other contemporary writers. In the Bloomsbury Theatre, London on the 7th July (7.30pm) Jonathon Coe, Vikram Seth, Victoria Hislop and Marina Lewycka will come together to support the launch. And on the 9th July at the Playfair Library, Edinburgh (6.30pm) Kate Atkinson and Michel Faber will be appearing, together with pre-recorded presentations from Alexander McCall Smith and Ian Rankin.

So an exciting start to July for fans of UK authors and lovers of beautiful covers alike, and all in aid of such a worthy cause. So perhaps the last word should go to Oxfam UK director Barbara Stocking, who has this to say of Ox-Tales:

This is a major initiative for Oxfam and we are delighted to have so many great writers involved as contributors. The money raised through the sales of Ox-Tales books will help us work to support people living in poverty around the world

Ox-Tales Earth | July 2009 | £5.00 | PAPERBACK | 208 PP | ISBN: 9781846682582

Ox-Tales Air | July 2009 | £5.00 | PAPERBACK | 208 PP | ISBN: 9781846682612

Ox-Tales Fire | July 2009 | £5.00 | PAPERBACK | 206 PP | ISBN: 9781846682599

Ox-Tales Water | July 2009 | £5.00 | PAPERBACK | 208 PP | ISBN: 9781846682063

As soon as I laid eyes on these book covers I knew I had a new ‘Cover Love’ feature in the making, and this one is a first because I’m focusing on a series of books which haven’t yet been issued. They’re a series of 18 books being published by Faber & Faber (under their Faber 80 brand), which encompass the works of Samuel Beckett, and for those like me who adore a cover on which the presence of typography rules supreme, this Beckett set is sure to get the ‘cover loving’ heart racing. Presented above in the order they will be published by Faber, the first batch of five titles will be released on the 21st of this month (Faber already have these available to order on their website – click on the individual covers of any of the first five to visit the publisher page for that book), with two further release dates scheduled for the remainder of the titles (the next six will be published on 3rd Sept. and the final seven on 4th Feb. 2010)

Wholly different to the usual treatment for minimalist typography-based cover designs (for example the previously featured Art of Novella series from Melville House where the fonts are all uniform and regimented), the covers for this series are truly ‘off the wall’ and unique, as I’m sure you will agree. Created by London-based design studio A2/SW/HK, a design house who have a speciality in typographical design, the titles for these covers have all been ingeniously played around with to create delightful individual expressions of art – and I love them!

It’s not difficult to imagine that such innovative design work would be all time-consuming, and the project for this has taken close to a year to reach fruition. Working in close conjunction with the Beckett estate and Faber’s own in-house poetry team, the project was managed by Faber’s senior designer Miriam Rosenbloom, who was also responsible for commissioning A2 to design the covers for this new Beckett series. Speaking of the project Rosenbloom said:

This is the first time all of Samuel Beckett’s work has been collected together and published by a single publishing house. To celebrate this landmark occasion, Faber decided to redesign all of his covers to give the collected works a new unified look.

Our starting point was some of the 1960s Beckett covers from the Faber archive, which take a bold typographic approach. A2 seemed like the perfect match for the series; they are renowned for their typographic work and have a wonderful ability to work with historical reference while always remaining true to their individual style.

A2 have certainly lived up to their reputation in the design of these covers, and they have certainly taken fully on board Rosenbloom’s key design request to match the 1960s covers in their ‘bold typographical approach’. RobAroundBooks managed to get a statement from A2 in relation to their design specifics. Here’s what they had to say:

The cover designs feature a custom-made type treatment printed in a minimal palette of two or three colours. A bespoke cover font, newly designed by A2/SW/HK, forms a type family in four weights that range from a light condensed weight to a bold wide weight, and is used to ensure each book cover has its individual design and character but is still clearly identifiable as part of a larger collection.

Book titles run vertically to allow for the use of large point sizes and parts of the titles bleed off the edges to create a tension in the design. Additional material is typeset in a bespoke sans-serif font of two weights and specially drawn italics.

A neutral grey background has been chosen as a counterpoint to the special Pantone colours chosen for each of the eighteen titles — this choice is also, in part, a playful reference to the Samuel Beckett’s directive, that his gravestone be ‘any colour, so long as it’s grey’.

I think both Faber and A2 need to be applauded, not least because it takes a lot of courage to be this bold and innovative with book cover design. However I think they’ve pulled it off magnificently, with these covers clearly demonstrating that the old adage ‘less is more’ can be hugely effective when applied with vision and ingenuity. What’s more I also love A2’s subtle yet absolute homage to Beckett, in the application of ‘gravestone grey’ on the cover of every title. I’m sure Mr. Beckett would have quietly approved!

*My thanks to Gemma at Faber for furnishing me with all of the extra information.

Yay, time for another Cover Love post and for this one I’m featuring a set of delicious covers from an equally deliciously named UK indy publisher. Founded in January 2008 Roastbooks are a rising London-based publisher, whose specialty is in works of short fiction from fresh contemporary authors. Publishing under the title of Great Little Reads, and marketing on the impression that their books are good enough to eat, Roastbook’s website plays up to this analogy to the max.

I’ve got to say that if their covers are anything to go by, these books really do look good enough to eat. I love their simplicity. I love their straightforwardness in design. And most of all I love their cover illustrations. As I’ve said the stories are all new and fresh (you can find out more about each one by clicking on the covers above), and that’s wholly supported by the cover design.

There are only six titles to date and they all appear to be desirable (they could certainly be called fresh. I’ve never heard of any of these authors before), but my absolute favourite in this delightful half-a-dozen has to be Little Roasts, a title that contains a selection of short stories. I really do like the mental image that this title throws up, an image which is reinforced by the steaming cook-pot on the cover, a cook-pot that you know, or rather hope, is full of tasty short story morsels.

As a taster (pun intended )) I’ve gone and ordered Little Roasts. So I’ll be able to tell you in a few days just how well these Great Little Reads measure up, and if these books really are as tasty as their covers would wholeheartedly suggest.
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‘Cover Love’ offers me the one indulgence of pushing aside the old adage of ‘never judging a book by its cover’, and celebrating with an unadulterated passion my incurable lust for book cover design.

I haven’t done a ‘Cover Love’ post for a short while now, but today I felt compelled to, and for this one it’s a bit of a first, because my interest wasn’t initially piqued by a book cover, but rather by a publisher’s catalogue, and not as you may think, by the contents of the catalogue, but by the catalogue itself. The catalogue in question is by publisher Capuchin Classics (their first printed one as it happens), and I don’t think I’ve ever held in my hand a marketing publication as exquisite and beautiful as this one. Lavishly illustrated throughout and bound and published as that of a small novella (with quality paper to boot), if the production standard of Capuchin Classic’s catalogue is anything to go by, then their published works are a must-buy.

For those who have never heard of Capuchin Classics (and as they have only just celebrated their first birthday there’s a chance some of you may not have), they’re a small (for now) UK independent publisher with a main mission as suggested in their tagline – ‘…Books to Keep Alive’, of “bringing back into print and circulation outstanding works of fiction which have been unjustly forgotten or neglected.” A noble mission indeed, and they’ve started well with a nice inventory so far of 24 titles, with the next batch of five coming next month (May 2009).

Of course this post is primarily concerned with cover design (I’ll talk more about the content when I get around to buying some of these and reviewing them), and it’s the stylistic simplicity of the Capuchin Classic series that really gets my cover loving ‘thermometer’ rising. As you can see from the six cover shots I’ve chosen to include above, all of the titles (the glorious catalogue [pictured right] included), follow exactly the same design – ‘top and tailed’ with a combination of two hues of a minty green and accentuated by a band of black for the book’s title, with each cover prominently displaying a custom illustration from artist Angela Landels (the catalogue cleverly displays a ‘Capuchin monkey reading a book’ illustration from Landels – nice touch). Undeniably simple I’m sure you’ll agree, but also exquisitely effective.

So there we have it, a bit of ‘cover love’ uniquely inspired in the first place by the design of a catalogue, and I applaud Capuchin Classics for addressing the ‘small’ details like this. They piqued my interest for their products even before opening their catalogue, and that’s a powerful result to achieve. I hope Capuchin Classics stick with such a high principle in the quality of their marketing material (‘credit crunch’ permitting), and continue to add the quality of titles to their range which they already have done so far. If they do then I’ve a feeling there are going to be a lot of bookshelves around the world gently radiating with the soft glow of ‘Capuchin Classics Green’

Oh and should you wish one yourself, here’s the link for ordering your own copy of the Capuchin Classics catalogue, although I’m not sure about mailing outside of the UK.

In a small follow-up to my recent ‘Cover Love’ feature on Harper’s ‘soon to be released’ Classic Short Story Collection series, I managed to catch up with the cover artist for the set – Adam Johnson, to ask him what inspired him to go with such a unique yet profoundly effective design? Here’s what Adam had to say:

“To be perfectly honest my senior art director (Robin Bilardello) and publisher (Carrie Kania) both helped inspire the idea. In the previous round of comps, Robin had worked with a collage treatment of a group of the author photos. Later Carrie had mentioned maybe trying a little army-men-sort-of approach to the authors. The ideas sort of coalesced into our current covers. I made little cut outs the next round and brought them with me to present along with the mounted covers.”

So there we have it – living proof that group brainstorming is often the best way to go. I’m slightly disappointed not to have seen Carrie’s idea of ‘little army men’ come to fruition though. I can’t think of anything better to beat Adam’s great design than a cover full of little lead Tolstoy’s (and think of that marketing opportunity Harper )).

Anyway thanks to Adam for taking the time to answer my question, and for giving me the kind permission to publicly print it. Quite simply, you rock! )

Regular visitors of RobAroundBooks (and subscribers to the feed), know that I often speak about Harper Perennial’s short story website Fifty-Two Stories, and the great short stories that they generously offer up for free every week. I always visit the site at least once a week to catch up on the latest story offering, and staring me in the face every time are images of the “soon to be released” short story anthologies which some of the free offerings are taken from. Of particular interest to me in a ‘cover loving’ way, are the ‘sexy six’ you see above. They’re a range that feature classic authors, and they’re a range that undoubtedly invoke a feeling of cover loving lustiness.

Why do I love these covers so much? Well if you’ve seen my recent ‘cover love’ post on the Melville House ‘Art of the Novella’ series then you’ll know that I love minimal simplicity and colour. These covers from Harper have both of those elements but I love how they’ve made a unique graphic feature of each of the classic authors too.

Normally when it comes to covers for classic works we are either treated to one of a number of ubiquitously available portrait shots of the author (sometimes they really push the boat out and add a colour tint to the portrait )), or else a shot of a vaguely relevant contemporary piece of artwork is used. Fair play it has to be tricky designing cover artwork for a classic work, but Harper’s cover artist (no idea who that was at this time?!? who I now know thanks to David (comments below) is a talented artist by the name of Adam Johnson – here’s his website), seems to have created a triumphant solution in using a ‘cardboard cut-out’ effect for the author, which in my opinion works beautifully and really makes the books all the more yummy, scrummy and desirable. What do you think?

Unfortunately we can’t get our hands on this collection just yet though. They’re not due for release in the US until the end of next month (29th April), but even sadder news for those of us in the UK – release date for this series isn’t until June 1st – Boo! Hoo! (

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‘Cover Love’ offers me the one indulgence of pushing aside the old adage of ‘never judging a book by its cover’, and celebrating with an unadulterated passion, my incurable lust for book cover design.

There are a couple of books which I’ve received lately that have really taken my fancy as far as their cover designs go. I’m so enamoured by them that I thought I’d share the passion, and file them under a quick ‘Cover Love’ post.

The first is Harper’s (US) recently published Emergency from bestselling author Neil Strauss. The book itself shows a lot of promise. It’s a kind of guidebook for survival with a comedic twist, with the material for the book being gathered by Strauss, as he submerged himself in a quest to learn the skills he thought he (and us) would need, to survive extreme emergency situations.

The book sounds great, and I’ll find out more about that soon, but for now it’s the cover that really ‘does it’ for me. It was designed by Todd Gallopo of Meat and Potatoes Inc. and it’s been faked up to look like an emergency pull station (embossed scratches and all), and I think it looks pretty darn realistic, or at least as realistic as it can look for a book cover, without sticking a real emergency pull station box on it (hey why didn’t you think of doing that then Todd? )). The theme is continued on the rear (as you can see from this shot), with the blurb etc. being made to look like an emergency instruction panel. A perfect cover for a book about emergency survival? I would say so. Not a ‘huggable’ book cover by any stretch of the imagination, but one whose design makes it wholly covetable. Good job Todd!

The second ‘cove I love’ is the recently translated Broken Glass by Alain Mabanckou. Published last month in the UK by Serpent’s Tail, this satirical novel by Congo-Brazzaville born Mabanckou is set in a dilapidated Congonese bar, where writer Broken Glass (great name), sets out to write a book. As a total unknown to me (both title and author), that’s all I’m saying for now on the story, but oh how I love the book’s cover art.

Designed by Gavin Morris using an illustration by Bill Bragg (who I think is the same Bill Bragg who’s founder and editor of Le Gun. Can anyone confirm for sure?), the cover just zings out with its predominant lime-green colouring, which is offset nicely by the colouring of the character’s skin, which in turn is complimented perfectly by the orange striping of his shirt. Absolutely gorgeous and definitely, unlike the utilitarian cover of the Strauss’ book, a cover worth hugging. Hehehe…would you believe I’m a totally heterosexual male? )

So two delicious covers for what looks to be two great books. I’ll post more on both of them as and when I get them on the pile.

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‘Cover Love’ offers me the one indulgence of pushing aside the old adage of ‘never judging a book by its cover’, and celebrating with an unadulterated passion, my incurable lust for book cover design.