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In a fascinating article for the Design Observer Group, Steven Heller shares some beautiful book jackets from the Weimar Republic: a veritable outpouring of artistry backed by young liberals pushing the boundaries of acceptability to look for art wholly original. Perhaps something Mendelsund owes debts to, as do other book designers.
...moreCovers not only stage an interaction between word and image, printed matter and visual representation, they also broker various connections among reader, designer, editor, publisher, and bookseller. Using Peter Mendelsund’s amazing books Cover and What We See When We Read as a jumping-off point, and invoking covers of books like Catcher in the Rye and The […]
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Writer, designer, and thinker Peter Mendelsund talks about book design, the tangled process of reading and perception, and his two new books, Cover and What We See When We Read.
...moreCover designer Peter Mendelsund has released two new books about cover design. Cover collects many of the images Mendelsund has designed over his career and What We See When We Read explores the relationship between cover art and the books behind it. Mendelsund spoke with PBS Newshour in a short video and transcript about judging […]
...moreThe Paris Review has an excerpt from Peter Mendelsund’s book What We See When We Read that questions what we think we know about characters. Mendelsund points out that many of us feel like we know our favorite characters intimately, but when asked about what they look like don’t have specific answers. And maybe, he suggests, authors […]
...moreFor those of us who haven’t glanced at e.e. cummings since high school, it’s easy to forget that literature is a visual medium. When we think about reading, our minds often go straight to content. But rockstar cover designer Peter Mendelsund’s masterful work of phenomenology, What We See When We Read (Random House), minces popular […]
...moreIn the New Yorker, Peter Mendelsund talks about designing book covers for iconic works of literature. The thing that surprised me was how dogmatic people were. They felt that when they read a book they loved, they saw every aspect of it. Not only that, but they felt that the greatness of a book was […]
...moreSaturday 8/2: Najee Omar, Joseph Riipi, Lauren Gordon, and more read at the Boog City Small, Small Press Fair. Unnameable Books (PDF), 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., $5 suggested. Sunday 8/3: Elizabeth Little reads Dear Daughter, a novel about a woman released from prison after murdering her mother. BookCourt, 4 p.m., free. Boog City Small, […]
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