Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design [Hardcover]

Alan Powers (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 13, 2001

Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design is a comprehensive survey of the very best of cover and jacket design from the 20th century. The most important and innovative designs are explored, including the distinctive yellow dust-jackets of the Gollancz novels of the 1930s, the colour-coded series design of Penguin paperbacks in the 1960s and the award-winning paperback designs by Canongate in the 1990s. Chapters are devoted to separate themes - the development of the modern book jacket in the 1920s and 1930s, the diverse styles that evolved in the post-war era, the paperback explosion of the 1960s and 1970s, and the recent revival in jacket design in the hands of design companies such as Pentagram. Revealing double-page features appear in each chapter on such tropics as the Cold War novel, classic novels of the period, and individual authors such as Len Deighton and Ian Fleming. With 300 jackets in full-colour, including rare first editions, innovative designs by leading designers such as E. McKnight Kauffer and Paul Rand, and newly discovered gems, together with an insightful text by leading design expert Alan Powers, this fascinating book will delight anyone with a passion for books.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

After considering the 300 colorful illustrations in this book, readers will find it difficult to avoid taking a more discerning look at the designs on hardbacks, paperbacks, and wraparound paper covers. These paper book jackets (more commonly known to Americans as dust jackets) have often been discarded as temporary, resulting in the loss of graphic designs characteristic of their times. While the purpose of any cover design is to serve as a marketing device to catch a potential buyer's eye, British author Powers (Univ. of Greenwich Sch. of Architecture and Landscape) discusses the importance of cover design in visually conveying (or not) the book's essence. An introduction giving historical context starts with the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Powers then groups his examples into four categories: the impact of modernism (1920s and 1930s), the creation of style (1940s through 1960s), a revolution in print (1960s and 1970s), and design in the digital age (1980s and 1990s). Within each, he insightfully discusses genres, individual books, designers, and publishing houses. The lists of designers and publishers at the end, however, do not include all those he refers to in the text. Nevertheless, the book is definitely recommended for both academic and public libraries. Anne Marie Lane, Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

About the Author

Dr Alan Powers writes and lectures on architecture and applied art. He is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Greenwich School of Architecture and Landscape, and is actively involved in the Twentieth Century Society. He is the author of Living with Books and Living with Pictures, and contributed to the best-selling Elements of Design (Mitchell Beazley 1991). Dr Powers frequently contributes to magazines including, Country Life, Crafts and The Spectator. In 1999 he was guest-curator of the exhibition on British Modernism of the 1930s at the Design Museum, London. He lives in London.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Mitchell Beazley (September 13, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1840004215
• ISBN-13: 978-1840004212
• Product Dimensions: 11.4 x 9.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #891,526 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Literary billboards., May 4, 2002

By 

Robin Benson - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design (Hardcover)

A comprehensive look at book jacket design from the twenties to the nineties. The book only covers fiction and is divided into themed spreads with between five and nine covers on each. Author Powers writes detailed captions to each cover as well as providing short essays on each decade and genre. Nearly three hundred covers are shown in this well designed and printed book, none of them are angled or overlap other covers.

As the title covers the last eighty years there is not much opportunity to show lots of great covers in the same style put out by some English publishers, only two examples are shown of the unique designs created by Brian Cook for Batsford in the thirties and although there are several Penguin paperbacks included you can plenty more in 'Penguin by Design' (ISBN 0713998393) by Phil Baines. An excellent visual coverage of the company that published hundreds of titles with knockout covers.

Most of the jackets were designed in the UK but there is a good showing of well designed US covers. There are some pulp fiction and thriller covers apart from the literary stuff. A very similar book with 270 American covers is `Jackets Required' by Steven Heller and Seymour Chwast, covering jacket design from 1920 thru 1950 and if you have both these books it will make an excellent visual record of some of the best twentieth century fiction.

Have a look at my Listmania about book jackets for more visual titles.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for your collection, not a how-to book., August 31, 2004

By 

Virginia (British Columbia, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design (Hardcover)

I ordered this book looking for some direction & inspiration while designing a book cover. It's a beautiful book, covering decades of work, with small blurbs on each book. These blurbs help clarify the subject the artist was trying to convey, which is sometimes fun to figure out.
HOWEVER, if you're looking for a how-to book, this is not one. Maybe I should have read the other review a little better. But if you're looking for some history and inspiration, this is a great book. I'm glad I bought it, even though it's not what I was looking for.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wow!, November 17, 2009

By 

Mary E. Johnson (Spruce Pine, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Front Cover: Great Book Jacket and Cover Design (Hardcover)

What a great gift! My sister-in-law is a journalist with a big heart. I ordered this as a Christmas present for her. I think it will please her tremendously.