Penguin Inked

Cover designed by Russ Abbott

Paul Buckley over at Penguin publishing must have one of the best jobs in design, not only has he some of the greatest books ever written at his to design jackets for, but also an almost unlimited ability to commission new illustrations! Personally I think we are living through a golden age for book jacket design at the moment, almost everytime I walk into a bookshop there are at least 6 titles which scream "BUY ME!" just on their book cover alone, Paul Buckley and his team at Penguin have played no small part in this consumer compulsion! Penguin covers are innovating and always engaging with the reader to pick their books off the shelf and to take them home. Well they have done it again, this time commissioning Tattoo artists to give their take on classics such as Angela Carters The Bloody Chamber to Helen Fieldings The Diary of Bridget Jones. This new series is collected under the title of Penguin Inked and has been running in America since 2010 but only just came to my attention when I was in a bookshop during my summer break in Ireland.

Cover designed by Gonzallo

Most of these are based in the new wave of old style sailor tattoos, I wonder if any literary fans out there will get inked with their favourite authors sleeve?

Cover by Tara McPherson

Cover by Duke Reily

Cover by Bert Krak

Cover by Jen Munford

Cover designed by Duncan X

Cover designed by Valerie Vargas

Cover designed by Han van der Sluys

Cover designed by Lynn Akura

Not tonight Josephine… I'm reading!

Just came across this book designed by M/M Paris in tribute to "the greatest film never made" Napoleon. It consists of 9 books within a book and here is a video of it being unboxed.

World Book Day

What's your favourite book? Do you have a classic that you keep going back to? One of my first loves was Richard Scarry's What do People Do All Day?
At my Primary school Friday was Library Day and we were allowed to choose a book to take home and enjoy over the weekend. I remember one time getting told off by my Teacher at because for a certain period of time I kept choosing the a fore mentioned What do People Do All Day?  I would put it back on the book shelf return to my seat only to go straight back and choose it for another week. 
I loved the illustrations, I would get lost in them, looking at all the little details that were crammed onto the page by Mr. Scarry. It also gave me an informed idea of what people did for a living and why the Butcher didn't drive a car shaped like a chop or the Dentist one shaped like a Toothbrush.

It was also one of the first books I bought for my son and five years down the line he seems to love it as much as me. So if your looking for a good read for young and old to celebrate World Book Day then you won't go far wrong.

But if reading books isn't your thing then what about cutting them up? No I'm not advocating book mutilation but a friend sent me a link to the work of Brian Dettmer  earlier today. Brian makes fantastic paper sculptures using old books,  go to his site and check out his fantastic creations, in the meantime here is a clip of Brian talking about his work. Happy reading!

Beautiful books

Books make great Christmas presents for kids! With that in mind we decided to take a trip to the bookshop to check what new books were on the shelves and I came across a couple of  beautifully illustrated books.

The first is called A Bit Lost and is by Irish illustrator and author Chris Haughton. It is a beautifully illustrated book about a baby owl that falls out of its nest and is helped by a squirrel to find its mum again, nothing new there I here you cry but the illustrations are breathtaking.  I have been reading it every night to my little girl and she lights up and says "Uh Ohh!" as soon as she sees the cover. I think Santa sack may be holding a lot of these this year!

Cover of A Bit Lost

What a beautifully drawn forest, look at those colours

Some spreads from the book, all images © Chris Haughton

The next one that caught my eye was a new illustrated version of Moby Dick. This isn't the full version that is part tale of man's vengeance and a history of whaling. This is an abbreviated version that has been illustrated by French illustrator Joelle Jolivet along with paper engineer Gérad Lo Monaco. The book is only about 10 pages but boy are those 10 pages good. I let the images speak for themselves…

The cover belies the surprise of the inside spreads!

A few spreads, they don't do it justice, if you get a chance pick up a copy.

Finally I came across a stunning book where the illustrations were not printed but laser cut. I wasn't really a lover of the story more of the technical execution of the book. The book is called Plein Lune and is by Antoine Guillope, I don't think it would last long in the hands of a 5 year old but maybe one to look at together.

Again you need to get your hands on this book to see it's true beauty

Norn Iron…again but with penguins!

Since spending a month back home with my family I have noticed that this week there has been an undecidedly 'Norn Iron' feel to my posts, not surprising really when you think about it, I'm still working the fadge* out of my system! Anyway to keep the theme going I thought I would talk about another  of my favourite authors, like Seamus Heaney he is from 'the wee six' but his books are a little less daunting but are just as thoughtful.

He looks like this…

Self portrait by Mr. Jeffers

Makes things like this…

The song writing machine

and writes, illustrates and creates books like this…

Cover of Lost and Found

Like  a new volume of poetry by Mr. Heaney a new Oliver Jeffers book is an eagerly anticipated event too. Both my 5 year old son and I are big fans, him because he's 5 and me because one of my first 'jobs' was helping to feed the penguins in a local zoo at the age of 4, ah those were the days!! We both often just sit together on the sofa finding new things in his illustrations.

So if you think penguin stalkers, boys that eat books, bears that feel pressured to win paper plane competitions or small girls that keep their heart in a bottle are your kind of thing then you could do a lot worse than buying everything he has published, or if your curiosity has been piqued then go to his website to find out a little more about Oliver Jeffers.

Mr. Jeffers latest book

*fadge is a bread that is made from potatoes and is a must in an Ulster Fry (along with pancakes, soda bread, fried plain…I could go on)

Seeing Things- Fabers covers for Seamus Heaney

Yesterday while in Paris I popped into Shakespeare and Co., if you have never been it's a must do when you are in Paris! While browsing I came across the latest volume of poetry from Seamus Heaney.

A new volume of Heaney around our house is an event as anyone who knows me will tell you. Usually  I lock myself up in a room and only pop out for sustenance!  Yesterday while holding his new volume 'The Human Chain' in my hand  I was struck again by the simplicity and beauty of the cover. The covers were designed  by Justus Oehler of Pentagram in 2001. Through the use of the typeface Perpetua and a palette of three colours per book he has created a series of books with a consistent feel that has the ability to produce an infinite number of variations simply through the use of colour.

Now you can even get a 'Vessel of Verse', more commonly known as a mug to hold that cup of tea while you catch up with some classics. If you haven't got the time to pop down to your local bookshop and have a look, then here is a highly click-able photstream on Faber and Faber covers, both past and present.

Photo: Pentagram