In an interesting blog post on the changing nature of the book cover in a digital environment, James Bridle compares the covers of the much-discussed Odyssey Editions with the famous Ways of Seeing cover.
The covers are typographic, and hark back in particular to the famous Pelican cover for John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, where the text starts on the front cover.
Now, I mentioned the other day that I had been in various book shops in Ireland and England the other week. I brought home with me Penguin by design: a cover story 1935 – 2005 by Phil Baines, bought in the British Library book shop.
There I was interested to read the following about Ways of Seeing by Hans Schmoller, one of the key figures in the development of Penguin design (no source is given for the remarks).
The book’s design was particularly disliked by Hans Schmoller. ‘Is this meant to be centred?’ was written angrily across cover proofs returned to the designer, and when the printed book was placed on his desk he promptly hurled it down the corridor in disgust.
