covers

Book covers rank among my top three favorite "pieces" of art. I've even purchased books that I have absolutely no interest in reading just so I can own the cover and/or frame it. And since I've been spending more and more time at Barnes & Noble lately, I wanted to take this time to document some of these works I find most captivating. Below I have covered a few different age ranges and styles with many more to come in the future.

Little Pea
Illustrated by Jen Corace

Back in 2007 when I was a 2nd year Grad student at SCAD, I was assigned to design a children's menu for a local Savannah soul restaurant. I thumbed through dozens of books in the kids section at B&N but this one, Little Pea, was my favorite. I'd seen Jen Corace's work before posted on various blogs, but never made the connection until then. I would've loved to read this one as a kid.

Via amazon.com:
The ink-and-watercolor illustrations are as spare as the text, featuring a small, yellow-green pea in a loving family. Each uncluttered page has plenty of white space. Picky eaters will enjoy the subtle humor of this topsy-turvy tale.

Buy it here.

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The Curious Case of Benjamin Button: A Graphic Novel
Illustrated by Kevin Cornell

I probably would have still picked this one out even without seeing the film. The ornate details in the title image, the typeface, and the muted watercolors are enough to add it to my stack to read in a big, comfy B&N chair. F. Scott Fitzgerald dubbed his book to be "the funniest story ever written," so I take it illustrator/designer Kevin Cornell had a pretty fun time bringing to life such a neat story.

Buy it here. Side note: Cornell's site is fantastic.

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How We Are Hungry
Designed by John Gall/ Illustrated by Daniel Chang

It looks like I hit the motherload of all book designers for this last one. I came across John Gall's work in The Book Cover Archive. (I guess you could technically say I cheated on this last one, but I couldn't pass up featuring it). Art Director Gall has hundreds of fantastic cover designs, but I admire this one the most- primarily because of the way the text is laid out. It looks like the clean layout of an old VW ad and, well, I kind of love that.

Buy it here. Also here is an interesting, yet dated, article on Gall and his work. Many of his covers you will most likely recognize.