A wonderful collection of 19th century shipping

A wonderful collection of 19th century shipping posters on Flickr. (via quipsologies)

Update: That Flickr user also has several other interesting sets of images to look at, including book covers, typography of The Electric Company, Soviet children's books, and Civil War posters.

Some recent covers by Chip Kidd of

Some recent covers by Chip Kidd of three books by James Ellroy. The photographs on the covers are of dioramas of pulp fiction covers made by Thomas Allen. (via yda)

The proprietor of the Book Design Review

The proprietor of the Book Design Review blog picks his favorite book covers of 2006.

At The Art of the Book event

At The Art of the Book event last week, the panel was asked why there were so few female superstar designers. Milton Glaser took a shot at answering the question (many women choose family over work during the crucial superstar career development years) but judging by the reaction afterwards online, his comments were not appreciated by some. To be fair, Glaser's comments were taken out of context, I think, and what he said is a part of the overall answer to the question. On Design Observer, Michael Beirut, who was the moderator for that evening's event, takes a closer look at the issue. "The real question was the unspoken one: 'Why is it that you guys up there are always...guys?'" Oh, and here's a list of women speakers for your conference.

Bookslut lists the best book covers of 2006. (via lists 2006)

Bookslut lists the best book covers of 2006. (via lists 2006)

Designing for persistence

Took in The Art of the Book lecture at the 92nd Street Y last night. Milton Glaser, Chip Kidd ("a modern day Truman Capote" I heard him described as afterward), Dave Eggers, with Michael Beirut moderating. One of the most interesting comments came late in the proceedings from Dave Eggers, who described one of the main goals of the McSweeney's design staff as attempting to design the books as well and as beautifully as they could as objects so that people would be compelled to save them. That way, even if people didn't have time to read them soon after purchase, they couldn't bear to throw/give the book away and would instead put it on their shelf in the hopes -- McSweeney's hopes, that is -- that the buyer would at some point pull it down off the shelf and give it another try.

This design goal runs counter to the design process behind most contemporary book jackets, which are engineered almost entirely for the purpose of eliciting in the potential buyer a "buy me" reaction within two seconds of spotting them. McSweeney's, as a champion of authors, wants the writing to be read while most major publishing companies, as champions of their shareholders, want books to be purchased. People buying books is important to the goal of getting the writing within them read, but McSweeney's emphasis on designing books to last in people's homes is a clever way to pursue that goal after the sale.

Penguin is releasing a series of books

Penguin is releasing a series of books with blank covers with the idea being that the reader fills them in. The first books in the series include Crime and Punishment and Emma. Penguin has a gallery of reader submissions...send in your best shot.

Book covers inspired by Rene Magritte art. (via do)

Book covers inspired by Rene Magritte art. (via do)

The cover for a 2004 novel called I,

The cover for a 2004 novel called I, Fatty bears a striking resemblance to that of Jeff Veen's The Art and Science of Web Design from 2000.

Fine gallery of well-designed book covers with

Fine gallery of well-designed book covers with an opportunity for you, the visitor, to comment on them. (via coudal)

More and more, shoppers are judging books

More and more, shoppers are judging books by their covers. "Studies show that a book on a three-for-two table has about one and a half seconds to catch a reader's eye."

The evolution of book cover design

The evolution of book cover design. Using Robert W Chambers' The King in Yellow as an example.

Collection of Chip Kidd's book cover design

Collection of Chip Kidd's book cover design work due out in October.