Bruce Mau

Who is Bruce Mau? What has he done and why is he interesting to us?



Bruce Mau is currently the creative director of his company—Bruce Mau Design (BMD). He worked for many different companies and positions, and because of his talents all of the jobs lead to his success now. He also received many awards.
(For a completed list of companies and positions Mau held, please visit the AIGA site.) (I chose not to type them in because it feels too much like plagiarizing...)
Mau is an innovative designer. From his list of "Incomplete Manifesto" I imagine him as a fun person, very easy going, and open to ideas. Definitely "thinking-outside-the-box" kind of person. His ideas are constantly more towards the environmental, or "green," issues. He pays attention to it and brings it to attention. His book "Massive Change" discusses these issues and more. He is one of the "worldchanging" designers. Please visit this interview with Mau on worldchanging.com.

Mantra

It's hard to choose just one, so I'm also choosing for the next week too!

33. Take field trips.
The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-oriented, real-time, computer graphic–simulated environment.

I would like to travel. I believe that exploring a fresh new culture, area, atmosphere is important for creative minds.

42. Remember.
Growth is only possible as a product of history. Without memory, innovation is merely novelty. History gives growth a direction. But a memory is never perfect. Every memory is a degraded or composite image of a previous moment or event. That’s what makes us aware of its quality as a past and not a present. It means that every memory is new, a partial construct different from its source, and, as such, a potential for growth itself.

I have come to appreciate history. I learned many, creatively and philosophically, from history, and I would like to learn more.

Book Cover Designs

My Top 10 Book Cover Design List
(as of today and in no particular order)



Final Exits—designed by Greg Kulick

No index page. The book itself is separated alphabetically already; for example: deaths by frozen toilets is under "F." How one person dies by frozen toilets? Read the book.
The layout inside is nothing special, but the cover and the book subject did grab my attention, so I started reading. I never knew there are so many idiotic ways to die.



Eat, Pray, Love—designed by Helen Yentus



A Million Little Pieces—designed by Rodrigo Corral



The Noodle Maker—designed by Charlotte Strick



Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close—designed by Jon Gray



WorldChanging—designed by Stephan Sagmeister

The last 58 pages of the book are dedicated to bibliographies, biographies, acknowledgments, photography credits, and finally, index.
The index has 35 pages! It is organized alphabetically and contains names, topics, and subjects and their page numbers. Some topics or subjects have sub-categories that are indented (also with page numbers).

This book is very thick and the subject matter is wide. The index pages are bound to be thick also. Many designers must have put a lot of time and effort into making this book easy to read, follow, and interesting. However, while I like the Serif font choice for the book (not Times New Roman, thank you), there are too many other fonts. Bolded slab-serif paragraphs are just too much for this editorial-packed book. I find it hard to read most of the time.
I like the grid system they used.



Everything is Illuminated—designed by Jon Gray



Corrections to My Memoirs—designed by Dorothy Carico Smith

While I like A Million Little Pieces cover, I can't help but feel deceived knowing that his book was full of lies. So I guess this book comes into place. I think that it's a clever idea because of the book subject is about untrue stories (lies). It certainly does grab readers' attentions, especially those who read and know the truth of Million Pieces. But I can't help but wonder... Would this be considered plagiarism?



Johnathan Strange & Mr. Norrell—published by Bloomsbury USA

I seriously bought this book because of the book cover. I was looking for a book for my friend; saw the book; it was about magic; he likes fantasy stories; bought the book.
The book later had another version (inverted colors: white background) and different versions (colors and one with background image). I like the black background, hardcover one. The paperbacks are just not impressive at all! They looked ugly.
It's a thick book and he said it was hard to read at the beginning, but overall, not a bad book.
Well, if I have time next time, I'll read reviews before buying the book by its cover. But I'm still glad I bought the hardcover book; the book has more than 800 pages, around 8.5 x 11, a big book. It looks like it's from that period and so real... so comfy.
I have the book still, but where is it now? Oh, they're suppose to be making a movie. Guess I should find the book and read it soon.



Amy Butler's In Stitches—published by Chronicle Books

The index only has 2 pages. It is simple to read and follow: organized alphabetically and following pages. It is clean and simple.
The whole book is well thought out and does reflect Butler's style and her fabric designs.

Definitions

Definitions

Series:
A set of books, maps, periodicals, or other documents published in a common format or under a common title.

Sequence:
A particular order in which related events, movements, or things follow each other: the content of the program should follow a logical sequence.

Sign:
An indication or mark of something, a display of a message, a signal to draw attention



Index:
An alphabetical listing of names, words, phrases (headings), or topics mentioned in the book, with their page numbers. In a traditional back-of-the-book index the headings will include names of people, places and events, and concepts selected by a person as being relevant and of interest to a possible reader of the book. The pointers are typically page numbers, paragraph numbers or section numbers. For serials and journals, the index is usually published after the volume is completed and is usually found in the last issue.



Symbol:
Something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention. For example, a red octagon may stand for "STOP".

Chip Kidd

Chip Kidd
Graphic designer, editor, and writer

He's written two novels about his life in art school, designed numerous great book covers, including his own books, and even sang for his band—Artbreak. What can Kidd not do?

Chip Kidd is an associate art director at Knopf, an imprint of Random House. On an average year, Kidd designs around 75 book covers; designed more than 1,000 book covers; all of them unique, sometimes weird, and definitely interesting. He has won multiple awards for his designs.
Kidd tries to approach his designs in the non-literal way. If the title is "Dry," he makes the cover look wet; " Almost making him sound like a rebel—doing what opposite of what's expected. Maybe it is a good rule for design.

He works with John Gall, who referred Kidd as “The Rock Star of graphic design" and is equally a great designer.



Book cover design is an art itself. A good cover design is defined differently by different designers, but usually the cover shows or even enhances the essence of the book in a unique and surprising way that maybe pushes the design envelope a bit.
Should we judge the book by its cover? It's debatable. But if the content of the book is good, it doesn't hurt to have a good cover design.
Personally, if I see an interesting cover, it grabs my attention and I'll read what the book's about. I'll show some examples above.

I stumbled upon this website and I think it's great.
It shows bookcovers (same books) designed by both Chip Kidd and John Gall. The left side shows bookcovers designed by Chip Kidd (hard covers) and right side by John Gall (paperbacks). I think Gall's work compliments Kidd's work.

http://www.designrelated.com/inspiration/view/Karen/entry/2166

John Gall

John Gall
Vice President and Art Director for Vintage and Anchor Books, an imprint of Knopf (within Random House Inc.)

Gall is the art director for 200 book cover designs each year, all of which are 5-3/16 by 8". He has designed many book cover that truly are unique, interesting, and inspirational, even with the restricted size and format on all his books.

He is probably one of the overlooked book cover designer, especially when working with Chip Kidd, who is considered one of the best designers! But after seeing Gall's work, I can't really say who is better. They're both great.

The book Gall's holding is particularly interesting! After many tries on the design, he finally used the original spine of the book as the cover because that was the only thing he liked. He tried it, and hey, it works!

Another book cover he designed was bizarre. Gall actually used the back cover as the front cover and vice versa. If I saw that book in the store, I think I'd flip it back to the front (in this case, back...)
Watch this video. It shows a video interview of John Gall by Barnes and Noble.
(Also shows 5 other interviews with book designers!)

Gall gives his 5 rules on book cover designs:
1. Read the book.
2. Inspiration is everywhere
3. Be thrifty with fonts
4. Practice sound time management
5. Rules are meant to be broken

Great tips! But according to his last rule, I guess we don't really have to follow rules 1-4...