Lionel Shriver, novellist, today was a guest columnist for the G2 supplement of Guardian newspaper. While I dont know of her exact experiences trying to find a cover illustration for her latest book im uncomfortable with her speed to judge designers equipped with computers?
my latter covers have all capitulated to the computer. By the 1990s, designers were glued to their screens. If you scan Waterstone’s today, you will be hard pressed to find any covers employing original art. … For the most part, designers now just drag photos off the web, and play with backgrounds and fonts at the keyboard. That’s why a strange drabness, coldness, and sameness is plaguing the aesthetics of book publishing - and at a time when the pleasures of physical books, as opposed to electronic media, are vital to defend. This is not a problem exclusive to book covers. Across the board, the designers of everyday objects now work in pixels. They don’t get chalk dust on their shirts; they don’t get paint under their nails. This translates into a curious, ineffable loss of warmth in the look of things. I’m thinking also of the chilly, computer-generated design of CD covers … and even of commercial packaging. Yet many enduring classics of packaging involved someone sitting down to draw or paint a picture: that inviting blue-and-white striped milk jug on the old Horlicks jar, the striking red-and-green parrot on a bottle of Pickapeppa Sauce.
The latter point is of course true. My problem with this article is that it based on the 13 recommissions of artwork for her book all being ’computer generated’ and rejected. When we experience unfair criticism from clients as architects, the cause of the disagreement (other than money) is invariably bad briefing. I can only imagine this cuts across all design fields other than speculative fine art. At what point does a publisher suddenly think - why have I not been asking the questions. Is it after 5 rejected designs, 8? 10? Equally at what point can the failure in this process be suddenly laid at the hands of the designers driving the mice and just using downloaded imagery? Did they ask for original artwork? Did they ask for it to be a watercolour or whatever they think they should have been receiving?
Now is not the time to get into the craft of art debate - i’m just venting!
- sources
- Now that pixels have replaced pencils the art of drawing has vanished. I'm so exasperated I'm designing my own book cover | Guardian Newspaper G2 Supplement (Aug.02 2006)
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Lionel Shriver annoys the fuck out of me. Harper Collins obviously just have a bunch of mac monkeys doing all their book cover design :|
I think it may be that her book just didn’t warrant anything worthy.
Personally, the biggest thing about book publishing today, is the lack of a creative director who brings designers or illustrators to the creative table. We’ll never get design along the likes of Penguin Classics.
I’m a big fan of penguin classics. I, in the face of clichéd opposition, also often judge a book buy its cover. Musci by its album art also.