Comments on: Victory Gin all round

By: 1984 « a good read indeed

1984 « a good read indeed — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 09:56:24 +0000

[…] about this design at Greater Than or Equal To and at The Book Design […]

By: Bark » i will not only judge books by their covers, i will also judge you

Bark » i will not only judge books by their covers, i will also judge you — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 04:57:46 +0000

[…] of the most well-designed book covers of 2009 is beyond me. i did like that someone finally did a 1984 cover that doesn’t suck though. doubleplusgood, […]

By: ≥ · No need for a list

≥ · No need for a list — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 14:33:05 +0000

[…] I say that even with a horse in the running on The Book Design Review’s rather more thorough round-up of […]

By: Laura

Laura — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:20:34 +0000

I work in a school library and it’s always the covers that draw the kids — something like this looks so dangerous, so rebellious, that they will pick it up and check it out without even knowing what it is. Because a cover like this means it *has* to be deliciously suspect, has to be flat out good. I wish they sold this in the US.

By: John Self

John Self — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 19:54:40 +0000

Yes and no. They did keep the desk-and-chairs image initially when they applied the new Modern Classics style to it. I think if they’d changed it at that point I wouldn’t have objected. It was when they promised a longer life for the Guardian winner’s design, and then snatched it away from me, that I felt betrayed. They let me down, is what I’m saying. They let you down. And most of all, they let themselves down.

By: Alan Trotter

Alan Trotter — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:21:10 +0000

Oh, and I don’t really understand the Modern Classics grievance. The competition was to have your image on the cover of Nineteen Eighty-Four, right? It’s never going to be in perpetuity. Books are re-jacketed all the time. Was the change not part of the move into the new Modern Classics style?

By: Alan Trotter

Alan Trotter — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 11:13:38 +0000

Oh man, I think the back cover makes it. It needs to be a scrawl for the quote, and to produce this great juxtaposition with the front. The broken pipes are great, and it makes sense for both back and front to be reflected on the spine. I would have loved the barcode to be stickered, but money being what it is (expensive, at the approximate rate of £1 to £1) I guess that wouldn’t have been feasible.

I ❤ it and always will, is what I’m saying.

By: John Self

John Self — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 09:12:30 +0000

Doubleplusgood. I must admit though that I dislike the spine and back cover as much as I like the front. Not the idea, but the execution: the combination of different text orientations and formal/freehand style on the spine really doesn’t work for me. When I saw the cover in Penguin’s catalogue, I thought, “I’ll have me one of those”, as the only Nineteen Eighty-Four I have is the Secker & Warburg 1999 hardback with illustrations by Matthew someone. But when I saw it in the shop with the spine and back cover, I decided against.

Also, someone at Penguin should be shot for replacing the brilliant standard Modern Classics cover for Nineteen Eighty-Four - the uncentred shot of table and chairs which was the result of a Guardian reader competition. Yes, they want standardisation of the new Marion Deuchars images but still…