RACHEL CUSK
Two novels by Rachel Cusk are out now: Outline in paperback published by Vintage, and the new novel Transit published by Jonathan Cape.
The covers both show photographs of Natacha and are examples of solarization, a technique discovered by Man Ray and Lee Miller. It involves exposing a partially developed photograph to light at an early stage of its processing. The result creates halo-like outlines and alters the tonal values, and was much used by Man Ray in his photographs of female nudes.
The photographs are reproduced with permission of the Man Ray Trust and DACS.
VIRGINIA WOOLF
Drawn by the distinct, abstract and fluid
style of illustrator Aino-Maija Metsola,
we
commissioned the Helsinki-based designer
to work on 6 books by Virginia Woolf.
Here, Aino-Maija expresses her thoughts around working on the cover:
‘I wanted to find a way to translate Woolf’s style of writing and the impressions created in the text into pictures and to discover the atmosphere in each text. Woolf’s writing is very intense and innovative, which was very inspiring for me as an illustrator.
Painting with watercolours enabled me to create pictures that work well with Woolf’s writing. I wanted to use strong colours and combine them with fluid painting that is not completely abstract to give room for interpretation. I’m interested in making pictures with a strong, mysterious atmosphere. I also love playing with colours, and the endless possibilities that they give.
The best moments in my work are the ones when I feel I have made something that is both personal for me and relevant to others. That is not always so easy, but I hope these covers are one of those projects.’
Orlando, A Room of One’s Own, To the Lighthouse,
The Waves, Selected Diaries and Mrs Dalloway are published by Vintage Classics on October 6th.
THE LONG DROP – Denise Mina
William Watt is an ordinary businessman, a fool, a social climber.
Peter Manuel is a famous liar, a rapist, a criminal. He claims can get hold of the gun used to murder Watt’s family.
One December night in 1957, Watt meets Manuel in a Glasgow bar to find out what he knows.
Based on true events, The Long Drop is an extraordinarily unsettling, evocative and compelling novel from a writer at the height of her powers.
‘50s Glasgow is painted beautifully by the author – seedy gentlemen’s clubs, gritty rain-soaked backstreets, post-war council estates – wreathed in cigarette smoke, dripping with guilt. Our cover aims to capture that essence.
Harvill Secker will be publishing in March 2017.
POLITICS – Nick Clegg
Colour or black and white? Smiling or serious? In profile or direct and engaging? Informal or business-like? Tie or no tie? Cool or traditional?
Redefining the contemporary political memoir offers a number of challenges – however Nick Clegg’s Politics is more than memoir. It is an appeal to honesty and reason, with rational observations on how we run our society
and economy, the civil service and the British
constitution – from coalition to Brexit.
Photographed at Sunbeam Studios in West London by Sam Barker, our cover aims to reflect Nick’s thinking - direct, honest and vulnerable.
Whatever your political persuasion, if you wish to understand politics in Britain today you cannot afford to ignore this book.
Politics – Between the Extremes is published by The Bodley Head.
HOMO DEUS – Yuval Noah Harari
Sapiens showed us where we came from. Homo Deus shows us where
we’re going.
Yuval Noah Harari, author of the bestselling Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, envisions a not-too-distant world in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nighmares that will shape the twenty-first century.
Harari was interviewed for Channel 4 News yesterday, which nicely featured our thumbprint illustrations for the two books. You can watch again here.
Homo Deus is published by Harvill Secker today.
NUTSHELL - Ian McEwan
Nutshell, the new novel by acclaimed author Ian McEwan is published today by Jonathan Cape.
THE LAST PEARL FISHER OF SCOTLAND - Julia Stuart
The story of one man’s quest to find a pearl, save his marriage – and track down a missing rabbit named Frank.
’The Last Pearl Fisher of Scotland is a gently comic, gently tragic novel, full of lyricism, humanity and the pearl that is love’ A. L. Kennedy
Designed and illustrated in-house, the cover depicts resonant images from within the novel, and evokes the overall tone of the book.
Published today in Vintage paperback.
GEORGE PLIMPTON - Paper Lion
George Plimpton (1927-2003) was the bestselling author and editor
of nearly thirty books, as well as the cofounder, publisher, and editor
of the Paris Review. He wrote regularly for such magazines as Sports Illustrated and Esquire, and he appeared numerous times in films and on television. (check out his bit-parts in Lawrence of Arabia and Good Will Hunting!)
In the mid-1960s, he talked his way into the Detroit Lions’
pre-season training camp and in doing so set the bar for participatory
sports journalism. With his characteristic wit, Plimpton recounts his
experience of a month practising and living with the team – getting to
know the pressures and tensions rookies confront, the hijinks, taking
behind the scenes snaps and capturing a host of American football rites
and rituals.
Plimpton followed up Paper Lion with forays into professional boxing, golf, ice-hockey, baseball and in Mad Ducks & Bears he revisits the world of gridiron football. He was quite a guy.
Yellow Jersey Press are celebrating the fiftieth publication of Paper Lion by rejacketing this series of classic sports writing.
MARGERY ALLINGHAM
In 1929 Margery Allingham introduced us to her character Albert Campion in The Crime at Black Dudley. Her novels heralded the more sophisticated suspense genre: characterised by her intuitive intelligence, extraordinary energy and accurate observation, they vary from the grave to the openly satirical, whilst never losing sight of the basic rules of the classic detective tale.
We are delighted to share the covers for our Campion Mysteries series, the last few of which are published today. Designed and illustrated in house the brief for the series was to rejacket the books with a colourful and bold new approach, adding a hint of nostalgia.
1966 Bobby Charlton
To celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of English football’s finest hour, Yellow Jersey Press will be publishing ‘1966 – My World Cup Story, by arguably the greatest number nine ever to have graced the national side – Sir Bobby Charlton.
In 1966 Sir Bobby takes us through the build-up to the tournament and to the final itself, describing what he saw, what he heard, and what he felt. He explains what it was like to be part of Sir Alf Ramsey’s team, gives us his memories of his teammates, the matches, the atmosphere; the emotion of being carried on the wave of a nation’s euphoria and how it felt to go toe-to-toe with some of the foremost footballers to ever play the game.
Our cover aims to put you on the pitch that day, with the front cover shot uniquely captured in reverse on the back cover!
DADLAND - Keggie Carew
Dadland is a spellbinding journey through the shady corners of history, an eccentric English childhood, the corridors of dementia and beyond. London based printmaker and illustrator Paul Catherall here explains the process of bringing the cover of this extraordinary book to life……
‘The brief for the illustration was definitely prescriptive with quite a tight deadline. We agreed it would be a good idea to do some parts separately then they could be put together digitally. The parachutist figure was cut separately and a bit larger, however it needed to be in keeping with the level of detail and form of the rest of the print.
Suzanne suggested that she could use the clouds from the front and manipulate them for the back - if I created a darker faded backdrop for them. I love the process of linocuts from the design through to the cutting and printing, but it’s so labour intensive.
The Rising Sun element was also cut and printed separately and with a few choices of tone and strength to be overlaid by Suzanne. I printed up a handful of the front cover clouds image to allow for misprints and to use a few as test pieces. I tried printing the Rising Sun element over the clouds, and I was very happy with the result. The elements were mainly cut out of lino in separate plates and put together almost like a jigsaw, colour by colour. The background skies were from the same plates with initially the yellow printed then the faded sunset colours added in four stages. The fade is produced by gradually moving across a plate horizontally; dropping down a few millimetres at a time from top to bottom.
Registration is extremely important - you can see a piece of card on the photos where the little plates of lino sit after being inked. This is the registration card and the image is traced from the initial master line drawing (in reverse). All the elements come from the master drawing which is used to trace onto the lino pre-cutting and also for this positional guide.
All in all it was a lovely project to work on.’
Dadland is published by Chatto & Windus and is out 28th July
DADLAND - Keggie Carew
Look out for more information on our blog about the cover design for Dadland which is published next week.
THIS MUM RUNS - Jo Pavey
Jo Pavey was forty years old when she won the 10,000m at the European Championships. It was the first gold medal of her career and, astonishingly, it came within months of having her second child.
Dubbed ‘Supermum’ by the media, Jo’s story is in many ways the same as every other mother, juggling the demands of working life with a family.
Jo and her children were photographed at home by Marcus Lyon of The Glassworks.
VAN GOGH’S EAR : The True Story - Bernadette Murphy
On 23 December 1888 Vincent van Gogh cut off his ear.
In this compelling detective story, Bernadette Murphy presents exclusive revelations about what happened that night: the madness, the prostitute, the art and the legend that would reverberate for years to come.For the cover it seemed too obvious to use one of the self-portraits with bandaged ear. So we chose a portrait where the ear can be seen and deliberately covered up the ear area. The roundel is repeated on the endpapers which show key locations in paintings by Van Gogh and a photograph of Arles where Van Gogh was living at the time he cut off his ear.
Bernadette Murphy held a press conference this morning at the Van Gogh Museum revealing her exciting new discoveries about Van Gogh’s ear.
Philip Roth - Series
A simple, bold typographic approach for a master author produced in-house here at Vintage. The hand lettering has been rendered by the brilliant Ulla Puggaard. Check out the animated series here http://vintagebooksdesign.tumblr.com/post/147036982811/philiproth.
This series will be published in October.
