Fwis: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where do you live? Where do you work? Family? John Gall: I am Vice President and Art Director for Vintage and Anchor Books an imprint of Alfred A Knopf, which is a publishing group within Random House Inc. a company that is then owned by Bertlesmann Corporation. We publish about 200 books per year. We are located on the windiest corner in mid-town Manhattan in brand new building with elevators, “teaming rooms,” and a secret shower stall.
Currently residing in Maplewood, New Jersey with wife, two kids and a house that needs a shitload of work.
F: They say you can tell a lot about a man from the company he keeps, the tip he leaves, and the shoes he wears. We do not subscribe to this notion. Instead, we judge a man by his favorite movie. JG: Impossible question. I don’t think I can name my favorite movie, I don’t think I can name my single favorite of anything. But I did watch the James Caan̵s Rollerball this past weekend. It had some great “futuristic” typography. In fact, just about any sci-fi from the 70s is worth a look. Silent Running, Westworld, Logan’s Run. Solaris, Death Race 2000 (sorry Bladerunner, two years too late). It’s the cool, cheesy, paranoid, liquid crystal future we were promised but never got. Except for the paranoia.
What do we have? Cellphones? iPods? Segways?? I want a telepathic dog.
F: What kind of formal training do you have? JG: Once painted two “sale” signs for a local grocer near where I grew up. I think it took me two weeks to make them look like “real” supermarket signs. Got paid ten dollars. Then studied art and design (though unfortunately not business) at Rutgers University.
F: How did you first get interested in book cover design? How did you get your foot in the door of the industry? JG: Well, coming from a New Jersey college and looking for work in NYC, I was at somewhat of a disadvantage competing against graduates from the New York art schools. But my college professor Frank D’Astolfo sent me on my why with a page full of contacts. So here I am sitting in my family’s kitchen making cold calls, "Uh, hi, is Massimo Vignelli in?"
Finally answered an ad in the Times for a cover designer, at a mass-market publisher. Lasted about ten months. It was very difficult and really the antithesis of everything I had learned about design up until that point. Then I left to work for Landor Associates. Never wanting to work in publishing again.
F: Landor is well-known for their branding services; Clearly, authors or genres carry certain identifying attributes which could be described as 'brand', but on the other hand, there seems to be a lot of freedom from the many constraints that might be place on, say, the redesign of an orange juice carton. Why do you think this is? Is it a challenge you encounter regularly in your current position? JG: Funny, as crazy as that mass-market job was, I worked with a bunch of really talented people who almost all went on to do great things. Steven Brower, who eventually become art director at Print Magazine was the first person I met when I walked in the door and James Victore even worked there for a short period of time just after I left. This was the late 80s just as book cover design was starting to become interesting again.
I steer clear of words like “branding”. So much goes into making a “brand” — including lots and lots of money — that it doesn’t seem appropriate to compare the launch of a new Cormac McCarthy novel with, say, the launch of Ultra Caffiene Free Diet Coke With New Anal Seepage Reducing Splenda. These author brands, and I hate calling it that, are built over the long haul.
At Vintage/Anchor we do design packaged looks for authors but that is probably as far as it goes for me. Branding on a very small scale.
F: And what drew you back in to publishing, for that matter? JG: While at Landor, where my lowly job meant tweaking things like the orange to blue gradation on a box of Tide or creating the best possible pearlescent effect on a bottle of shampoo, I actually kept my hand in publishing via freelance.
F: What sort of pressure, if any, do you feel when approaching covers that other designers have already treated in a past iteration of the book? This becomes especially poignant when you consider that you share hall space with some of the most talented designers working today.
JG: No pressure from that end really. At first it was a little weird having to redesign these wonderful Knopf jackets but now I just look at the existing jacket as a road not to venture down. It makes things easier in a way. There are many, many possible solutions to any given problem and the existing jacket is just one direction not to go in. The real pressure comes from the deadlines (constant).
One of the great things about working in this department is just watching what comes spitting out of the printer on a daily if not hourly, basis. Amazing, inspiring cover designs to make you jealous all day long.
F: That sounds amazing, especially considering your peers. In that environment, do you find that there is collaboration or cross-pollination? Do you ever find yourself working collaboratively or as a team on any particular projects?
JG: Believe it or not, there is not a lot of collaboration going on. Occasionally, but it’s not the norm. Sure, there’s some “What do you think of this?” “It’s great!” talk but not much actual design collaboration. I know Barbara and Chip used to collaborate from time to time but I see less of that now. It’s really more of an autonomous situation with each designer responsible for his or her own work. Of course, in an art directorial position I have to provide feedback now and then, but I try not to get my hands involved.
F: Did getting your book Sayonara Home Run [a collection of Japanese baseball card art] published change your understanding of the book design process? What other obscure hobbies do you have?
JG: Getting the book published offered a very interesting and probably much needed look at things from the other side. Interesting to hear things like “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in reprint”. Aha! yea right. But it was great fun working on my own piece of original material. Makes you think, why am I spending all this time on other people’s stuff? (I kid.)
Between the two kids, my husbandly duties and the “social” drinking there is not much time for hobbies. But like anyone in this profession I collect, or should I say, randomly gather all kinds of different things. I am presently trying not to collect original Jamaican “version” 45s or get good at foosball.
F: Foosball? Are you in the WGDFC? If so, how’d you fair at the championship?
JG: Considering we got knocked out in the first round the last two years, we did quite well this year. Ninth place! Most Improved Team 2006! Next year we’ll even try to practice more than once. (Editors note: Likely excuse!)
F: As the Art Director at Vintage, how many manuscripts cross your desk at any one time? What percentage of those covers do you handle yourself? Do you have the luxury of choosing the covers that pique your interest the most? JG: Of the 200 or so we do a year, I oversee almost all of it, then will take on about 10-20% to design myself. I can take the pick of the litter if I want, but I try to divide up the work pretty evenly. We each get some plums, some things we don’t mind working on, and then we’ll each take on a soul-crushing booby prize. The division of the work can’t be totally 100% equitable, but I try, we each do a little bit of everything, mechanicals and whatnot. We also freelance out a small percentage.
I’m lucky to have a really really great staff without whom nothing would get done. There’s the incomparable Megan Wilson, our Associate Art Director, who I consider to be the soul of Vintage and who could probably do my job better than me. We have two wonderful young designers, Mark Abrams and Helen Yentus both whom you will be hearing things about in the not so distant future. Mary McClean, our on staff art researcher, knows everything and everyone art/photography-wise. Our Administrative Assistant Jenny Pouech keeps track of where the bodies are buried. Of course, this all exists under the brilliant and graceful guidance of Carol Devine Carson.
F: Do you make it a point to read the book before you design its cover? When's the last time you were intimidated by a title, or the book's contents, or by the author's reputation? JG: The age old question. Of course it is important to read the book. I don’t necessarily read every word, nor even finish everything, but I try to read as much as possible of the books I am personally working on and have some working knowledge of all the books on the list. If an idea gels 1/3 of the way through, so be it, but it’s really important to get a feel for the author’s voice. Believe me, I’ve tried to not read the books. Doesn’t work out too well.
Much of nonfiction (biographies, history) is a little different and doesn’t require as much intensive reading. But one needs to dig in though.
F: What of your work have you been disappointed by? JG: There are covers that I really like and others that don’t make the grade due to a variety of factors (difficult author, bothersome author’s spouse).
I’m human, I get bummed if something I like gets rejected.
So I generally choose crappy books by critically marginal dead authors as my preferred projects. Actually not dead authors, since author estates are notoriously difficult to deal with. So maybe dying authors.
I don’t necessarily get disappointed when a job starts going south due to outside factors.
F: Do you have any stories about the more difficult projects you've worked on? What is the best cover you've done that the publisher shot down? JG: I have lots of war stories. Most recently, what I consider one of the all time dream jobs landed on my desk. A few years ago it was decided that we would redesign the Nabokov backlist and use the 50th anniversary of Lolita for the kick off. Well, one thing led to another (including an idea I had been gestating for two years being shot down in 2 minutes) and it was decided that we would only be redoing Lolita, which was already being housed in what I consider to be the classic cover. So boo hoo, whatever, still a good project.
After retrenching I came up with one of my favorite covers of all time. A very simple variation on a standard Lolita theme yet with a very subversive twist. I was surprised how well it went over, but after a day or so everyone started to get a little queasy looking at it (myself included). So the twist was taken out and we have what the New York Post said was the “raciest cover yet” for Lolita. If they only knew.
F: Are there any visual devices or resources you find yourself re-using? Feeding some sort of subliminal crutch or addiction to, say, a typeface or scanned scotch-tape? JG: I think I’ve successfully weaned myself off of the “old paper background thing”. Sort of. I’ve always worked with a small set of classic typefaces.
I also seem to like playing with shallow three dimensional space. Maybe it has to do with what can fit on a scanner.
F: Do you have any concept or initial sketches that you'd be willing or able to show? JG: We’re publishing this really cool book this year called Remainder. It’s about a guy who suffers a mysterious head trauma that causes him to disengage from the world. He attempts to reconnect by painstakingly recreating certain deja vu moments from his past and then reliving them over and over again. For instance: he recreates a crack in the wall of a room he remembers, and an elaborate scene where he duplicates a brief experience he once had walking out of the door of his apartment — which requires him to create basically a movie set to encompass the experience.
I so wanted to not literalize this cover and make it part of the experience. For the first design, which we actually proofed, the concept was to create this slightly damaged looking book (which also referred to an email exchange with the author, and the origins of the title where he found it amusing to title a book after the one thing you don’t want it to be, a remainder) complete with subtle trompe-l’oeil embossing etc.
As the proof sat around I was sensing an uneasy feeling about the cover from others and started to doubt it a bit myself, especially as it was being misinterpreted as the aforementioned crack in the wall. Also it was maybe a bit too quiet for a paperback original.
Reworked it last minute with, yes, a literal reference to the story but a more effective cover, I think. Geoff Spear did the final photography.
F: How much time, on average, do you have to design a cover? How does that effect your brainstorming process? For that matter, what is your brainstorming process? JG: We have about 6-8 weeks to get cover designs for around 70 books in place. Like most creatives the brainstorming process usually involves some combination of the following: avoidance, procrastination, mild sedation, cups of coffee, staring out the window, long walks on a spring morning, lack of exercise, talking to myself in a funny voice, feelings of worthlessness, turning on the music, turning off the music, kicking the dog, making lists, surfing the internet...
F: Where do you feel the industry is going? What's your take on eBooks and their potential effect on the big dogs? JG: I have no idea. The industry seems to be always on the edge of a precipice yet it continues to soldier on.
The first round of ebooks sucked and certainly and rightly tanked, though there is talk that these new reader’s coming from Sony and Amazon are much better. From my perspective as a consumer of technology, it’s not so much having another unnecessary electronic gadget to take on a trip as another freaking battery charger that I’d have to pack. I actually wouldn’t mind having something like that to carry around unwieldy unbound manuscripts.
But isn’t the book perfect as is? Like the wheel or the ice cream cone. But what do I know? I once thought 8 track tapes were the be all and end all.
F: What advice would you give designers interested in breaking into the industry? JG: Keep trying to work with the people you want to work with. Without being too annoying.
Such title… must be the most boring book on the subject. .. The white gridlines are very effective, producing a kind of imaginary background for the type. Excellent photo. But maybe the windows could have been cropped out?
I usually hate reading interviews. They’re like listening to live music recordings. It usually turns out that the band—especially the singer—really does need help from the studio and should not be allowed out on their own. In this case, however, I cracked up. Great interview!
Awesome Interview! I hope more are on the way as I’m sharing this with my entire studio. Although, it’d be hard to beat a dude with this much personality and expertise.
That response to, “How much time, on average, do you have to design a cover?” just made my week. This was one interview that I was sad to see end. I’m looking forward to the next one.
You all should know that John comes to work every morning in rollerskates and full body armor. And we just chalked it up to his being arty and eccentric…
Great interview: good questions, humourous answers… I like Vintage’s books and then I keep reading good things about the people behind those books; ah. makes a change.
I love this interview. I like how he mentions “though unfortunately not business” because so many “artsy profession” people regret not gaining enough business education.
Great!great work i w`ld say,intrestingly they captivate your mind…making you wanna read the whole stuff behind,great i love it…keep this up and BOOOOM! ya know wha explosion of greatness…GOD blessya
Funny, I just came form the NY Time Blog spot for cover designs. Anyway, long story short: The cover for “A General Theory….” is under heated debate. Have not seen the discussion on this site about it, but apparently there are a number of cover out there, old and new, very similar to it. I guess what they are calling “furniture porn” or love (damn weirdos!) has been around for a while and is somewhat of a popular concept. I think Gall executes it with a finesse in “A general Theory…”, but the whole furniture sex culture thing was funny tid bit to run into—I wonder if Gall looked into it or came across it in reference to that particular project…
I read all the time. Lots of books, all at once. I sometimes buy books because of their covers, or, more often, I refuse to buy books I would otherwise love to read because they are ugly. Sometimes I re-cover them myself. (Not Mr. Gall’s.) I find the modern matte-covered, well-designed paperback almost irresistable.
Great to see a Rutgers Newark Graphic Grad making it! I am one as well, and LOVED Frank! I was attending when you worked on the cover of “The Ruined Map” with Ned Drew.
I reli love the designs for box man, the ruin map and secret rendezvous. These appear to be part of a series what was the underlying concept and the original question that got you to this design?
Fwis: Tell us a bit about yourself. Where do you live? Where do you work? Family?
John Gall: I am Vice President and Art Director for Vintage and Anchor Books an imprint of Alfred A Knopf, which is a publishing group within Random House Inc. a company that is then owned by Bertlesmann Corporation. We publish about 200 books per year. We are located on the windiest corner in mid-town Manhattan in brand new building with elevators, “teaming rooms,” and a secret shower stall.
Currently residing in Maplewood, New Jersey with wife, two kids and a house that needs a shitload of work.
F: They say you can tell a lot about a man from the company he keeps, the tip he leaves, and the shoes he wears. We do not subscribe to this notion. Instead, we judge a man by his favorite movie.
JG: Impossible question. I don’t think I can name my favorite movie, I don’t think I can name my single favorite of anything. But I did watch the James Caan̵s Rollerball this past weekend. It had some great “futuristic” typography. In fact, just about any sci-fi from the 70s is worth a look. Silent Running, Westworld, Logan’s Run. Solaris, Death Race 2000 (sorry Bladerunner, two years too late). It’s the cool, cheesy, paranoid, liquid crystal future we were promised but never got. Except for the paranoia.
What do we have? Cellphones? iPods? Segways?? I want a telepathic dog.
F: What kind of formal training do you have?
JG: Once painted two “sale” signs for a local grocer near where I grew up. I think it took me two weeks to make them look like “real” supermarket signs. Got paid ten dollars. Then studied art and design (though unfortunately not business) at Rutgers University.
F: How did you first get interested in book cover design? How did you get your foot in the door of the industry?
JG: Well, coming from a New Jersey college and looking for work in NYC, I was at somewhat of a disadvantage competing against graduates from the New York art schools. But my college professor Frank D’Astolfo sent me on my why with a page full of contacts. So here I am sitting in my family’s kitchen making cold calls, "Uh, hi, is Massimo Vignelli in?"
Finally answered an ad in the Times for a cover designer, at a mass-market publisher. Lasted about ten months. It was very difficult and really the antithesis of everything I had learned about design up until that point. Then I left to work for Landor Associates. Never wanting to work in publishing again.
F: Landor is well-known for their branding services; Clearly, authors or genres carry certain identifying attributes which could be described as 'brand', but on the other hand, there seems to be a lot of freedom from the many constraints that might be place on, say, the redesign of an orange juice carton. Why do you think this is? Is it a challenge you encounter regularly in your current position?
JG: Funny, as crazy as that mass-market job was, I worked with a bunch of really talented people who almost all went on to do great things. Steven Brower, who eventually become art director at Print Magazine was the first person I met when I walked in the door and James Victore even worked there for a short period of time just after I left. This was the late 80s just as book cover design was starting to become interesting again.
I steer clear of words like “branding”. So much goes into making a “brand” — including lots and lots of money — that it doesn’t seem appropriate to compare the launch of a new Cormac McCarthy novel with, say, the launch of Ultra Caffiene Free Diet Coke With New Anal Seepage Reducing Splenda. These author brands, and I hate calling it that, are built over the long haul.
At Vintage/Anchor we do design packaged looks for authors but that is probably as far as it goes for me. Branding on a very small scale.
F: And what drew you back in to publishing, for that matter?
JG: While at Landor, where my lowly job meant tweaking things like the orange to blue gradation on a box of Tide or creating the best possible pearlescent effect on a bottle of shampoo, I actually kept my hand in publishing via freelance.
F: What sort of pressure, if any, do you feel when approaching covers that other designers have already treated in a past iteration of the book? This becomes especially poignant when you consider that you share hall space with some of the most talented designers working today.
JG: No pressure from that end really. At first it was a little weird having to redesign these wonderful Knopf jackets but now I just look at the existing jacket as a road not to venture down. It makes things easier in a way. There are many, many possible solutions to any given problem and the existing jacket is just one direction not to go in. The real pressure comes from the deadlines (constant).
One of the great things about working in this department is just watching what comes spitting out of the printer on a daily if not hourly, basis. Amazing, inspiring cover designs to make you jealous all day long.
F: That sounds amazing, especially considering your peers. In that environment, do you find that there is collaboration or cross-pollination? Do you ever find yourself working collaboratively or as a team on any particular projects?
JG: Believe it or not, there is not a lot of collaboration going on. Occasionally, but it’s not the norm. Sure, there’s some “What do you think of this?” “It’s great!” talk but not much actual design collaboration. I know Barbara and Chip used to collaborate from time to time but I see less of that now. It’s really more of an autonomous situation with each designer responsible for his or her own work. Of course, in an art directorial position I have to provide feedback now and then, but I try not to get my hands involved.
F: Did getting your book Sayonara Home Run [a collection of Japanese baseball card art] published change your understanding of the book design process? What other obscure hobbies do you have?
JG: Getting the book published offered a very interesting and probably much needed look at things from the other side. Interesting to hear things like “Don’t worry, we’ll fix it in reprint”. Aha! yea right. But it was great fun working on my own piece of original material. Makes you think, why am I spending all this time on other people’s stuff? (I kid.)
Between the two kids, my husbandly duties and the “social” drinking there is not much time for hobbies. But like anyone in this profession I collect, or should I say, randomly gather all kinds of different things. I am presently trying not to collect original Jamaican “version” 45s or get good at foosball.
F: Foosball? Are you in the WGDFC? If so, how’d you fair at the championship?
JG: Considering we got knocked out in the first round the last two years, we did quite well this year. Ninth place! Most Improved Team 2006! Next year we’ll even try to practice more than once. (Editors note: Likely excuse!)
F: As the Art Director at Vintage, how many manuscripts cross your desk at any one time? What percentage of those covers do you handle yourself? Do you have the luxury of choosing the covers that pique your interest the most?
JG: Of the 200 or so we do a year, I oversee almost all of it, then will take on about 10-20% to design myself. I can take the pick of the litter if I want, but I try to divide up the work pretty evenly. We each get some plums, some things we don’t mind working on, and then we’ll each take on a soul-crushing booby prize. The division of the work can’t be totally 100% equitable, but I try, we each do a little bit of everything, mechanicals and whatnot. We also freelance out a small percentage.
I’m lucky to have a really really great staff without whom nothing would get done. There’s the incomparable Megan Wilson, our Associate Art Director, who I consider to be the soul of Vintage and who could probably do my job better than me. We have two wonderful young designers, Mark Abrams and Helen Yentus both whom you will be hearing things about in the not so distant future. Mary McClean, our on staff art researcher, knows everything and everyone art/photography-wise. Our Administrative Assistant Jenny Pouech keeps track of where the bodies are buried. Of course, this all exists under the brilliant and graceful guidance of Carol Devine Carson.
F: Do you make it a point to read the book before you design its cover? When's the last time you were intimidated by a title, or the book's contents, or by the author's reputation?
JG: The age old question. Of course it is important to read the book. I don’t necessarily read every word, nor even finish everything, but I try to read as much as possible of the books I am personally working on and have some working knowledge of all the books on the list. If an idea gels 1/3 of the way through, so be it, but it’s really important to get a feel for the author’s voice. Believe me, I’ve tried to not read the books. Doesn’t work out too well.
Much of nonfiction (biographies, history) is a little different and doesn’t require as much intensive reading. But one needs to dig in though.
F: What of your work have you been disappointed by?
JG: There are covers that I really like and others that don’t make the grade due to a variety of factors (difficult author, bothersome author’s spouse).
I’m human, I get bummed if something I like gets rejected.
So I generally choose crappy books by critically marginal dead authors as my preferred projects. Actually not dead authors, since author estates are notoriously difficult to deal with. So maybe dying authors.
I don’t necessarily get disappointed when a job starts going south due to outside factors.
F: Do you have any stories about the more difficult projects you've worked on? What is the best cover you've done that the publisher shot down?
JG: I have lots of war stories. Most recently, what I consider one of the all time dream jobs landed on my desk. A few years ago it was decided that we would redesign the Nabokov backlist and use the 50th anniversary of Lolita for the kick off. Well, one thing led to another (including an idea I had been gestating for two years being shot down in 2 minutes) and it was decided that we would only be redoing Lolita, which was already being housed in what I consider to be the classic cover. So boo hoo, whatever, still a good project.
After retrenching I came up with one of my favorite covers of all time. A very simple variation on a standard Lolita theme yet with a very subversive twist. I was surprised how well it went over, but after a day or so everyone started to get a little queasy looking at it (myself included). So the twist was taken out and we have what the New York Post said was the “raciest cover yet” for Lolita. If they only knew.
F: Are there any visual devices or resources you find yourself re-using? Feeding some sort of subliminal crutch or addiction to, say, a typeface or scanned scotch-tape?
JG: I think I’ve successfully weaned myself off of the “old paper background thing”. Sort of. I’ve always worked with a small set of classic typefaces.
I also seem to like playing with shallow three dimensional space. Maybe it has to do with what can fit on a scanner.
F: Do you have any concept or initial sketches that you'd be willing or able to show?
JG: We’re publishing this really cool book this year called Remainder. It’s about a guy who suffers a mysterious head trauma that causes him to disengage from the world. He attempts to reconnect by painstakingly recreating certain deja vu moments from his past and then reliving them over and over again. For instance: he recreates a crack in the wall of a room he remembers, and an elaborate scene where he duplicates a brief experience he once had walking out of the door of his apartment — which requires him to create basically a movie set to encompass the experience.
I so wanted to not literalize this cover and make it part of the experience. For the first design, which we actually proofed, the concept was to create this slightly damaged looking book (which also referred to an email exchange with the author, and the origins of the title where he found it amusing to title a book after the one thing you don’t want it to be, a remainder) complete with subtle trompe-l’oeil embossing etc.
As the proof sat around I was sensing an uneasy feeling about the cover from others and started to doubt it a bit myself, especially as it was being misinterpreted as the aforementioned crack in the wall. Also it was maybe a bit too quiet for a paperback original.
Reworked it last minute with, yes, a literal reference to the story but a more effective cover, I think. Geoff Spear did the final photography.
F: How much time, on average, do you have to design a cover? How does that effect your brainstorming process? For that matter, what is your brainstorming process?
JG: We have about 6-8 weeks to get cover designs for around 70 books in place. Like most creatives the brainstorming process usually involves some combination of the following: avoidance, procrastination, mild sedation, cups of coffee, staring out the window, long walks on a spring morning, lack of exercise, talking to myself in a funny voice, feelings of worthlessness, turning on the music, turning off the music, kicking the dog, making lists, surfing the internet...
F: Where do you feel the industry is going? What's your take on eBooks and their potential effect on the big dogs?
JG: I have no idea. The industry seems to be always on the edge of a precipice yet it continues to soldier on.
The first round of ebooks sucked and certainly and rightly tanked, though there is talk that these new reader’s coming from Sony and Amazon are much better. From my perspective as a consumer of technology, it’s not so much having another unnecessary electronic gadget to take on a trip as another freaking battery charger that I’d have to pack. I actually wouldn’t mind having something like that to carry around unwieldy unbound manuscripts.
But isn’t the book perfect as is? Like the wheel or the ice cream cone. But what do I know? I once thought 8 track tapes were the be all and end all.
F: What advice would you give designers interested in breaking into the industry?
JG: Keep trying to work with the people you want to work with. Without being too annoying.
F: Much obliged to you, Sir!
— Fwis, 2007-01-14 23:26:00
This cover makes me feel like cuddling. I wouldn’t even mind having the photo framed on my desk.
— Eric J, 2005-11-07 14:09:00
This photo is great and the type seems to fit very well.
— eric durr, 2006-01-08 05:50:00
G e n i u s
— w.e.f, 2006-01-30 07:17:00
Brilliant!
— Alvin, 2006-04-12 21:54:00
aww-inspiring (:
— noelle, 2006-05-05 15:57:00
Such title… must be the most boring book on the subject. .. The white gridlines are very effective, producing a kind of imaginary background for the type. Excellent photo. But maybe the windows could have been cropped out?
— Priit Parmakson, 2006-05-09 14:32:00
Don’t agree with Priit. If the windows had been cropped out, the composition would be flat and not interesting at all. The picture as it is…wonderful.
— anne, 2006-05-19 18:49:00
this is just about perfect.
— Jeff E., 2006-05-25 09:00:00
PERFECTION! I need this photo framed on my wall.
— Louise, 2006-09-29 22:35:00
fantastic interview guys. thanks so much!
— mike, 2007-01-15 12:15:00
I usually hate reading interviews. They’re like listening to live music recordings. It usually turns out that the band—especially the singer—really does need help from the studio and should not be allowed out on their own. In this case, however, I cracked up. Great interview!
— Marc M, 2007-01-16 11:18:00
Thank you so much for this great interview!
— Ricardo Cordoba, 2007-01-16 17:13:00
Awesome Interview! I hope more are on the way as I’m sharing this with my entire studio. Although, it’d be hard to beat a dude with this much personality and expertise.
— Kevin Kelly, 2007-01-17 07:16:00
That response to, “How much time, on average, do you have to design a cover?” just made my week. This was one interview that I was sad to see end. I’m looking forward to the next one.
— Tim Belonax, 2007-01-17 12:23:00
Brilliant designer and terrific guy… proud to call him my next door neighbor
— John Zweig, Chairman, WPP Grou, 2007-01-17 14:02:00
Do you really have a dog?
— Carol Carson, 2007-01-18 11:30:00
You all should know that John comes to work every morning in rollerskates and full body armor. And we just chalked it up to his being arty and eccentric…
— Peter Mendelsund, 2007-01-18 11:53:00
Great interview: good questions, humourous answers… I like Vintage’s books and then I keep reading good things about the people behind those books; ah. makes a change.
— Simone Hutchinson, 2007-01-18 13:30:00
My God that Gall is Good!
I don’t really believe it but I once heard he killed an author.
— Henry Sene Yee, 2007-01-18 23:06:00
Brilliant!
— Gabriele Wilson, 2007-01-24 18:11:00
I love this interview. I like how he mentions “though unfortunately not business” because so many “artsy profession” people regret not gaining enough business education.
— David Wen, 2007-02-01 18:48:00
Great!great work i w`ld say,intrestingly they captivate your mind…making you wanna read the whole stuff behind,great i love it…keep this up and BOOOOM! ya know wha explosion of greatness…GOD blessya
— phillip ofoesuwa, 2007-03-12 07:47:00
Just an FYI the Kobo Abe books were a collaboration between John Gall & Ned Drew. I have those books at home and they are credited as such
— paul, 2007-04-02 10:45:00
Funny, I just came form the NY Time Blog spot for cover designs. Anyway, long story short: The cover for “A General Theory….” is under heated debate. Have not seen the discussion on this site about it, but apparently there are a number of cover out there, old and new, very similar to it. I guess what they are calling “furniture porn” or love (damn weirdos!) has been around for a while and is somewhat of a popular concept. I think Gall executes it with a finesse in “A general Theory…”, but the whole furniture sex culture thing was funny tid bit to run into—I wonder if Gall looked into it or came across it in reference to that particular project…
The world ceases to amaze me. Enjoy…
http://www.furnitureporn.com/furnporn1.html
— Ian B. Shimkoviak, 2007-05-11 16:11:00
Stumbled onto your work while mourning my father who just passed; we are Gall’s. It actually was a nice break from my sadness. Thanks.
— Patty (Gall) Jackson, 2007-06-11 20:09:00
I read all the time. Lots of books, all at once. I sometimes buy books because of their covers, or, more often, I refuse to buy books I would otherwise love to read because they are ugly. Sometimes I re-cover them myself. (Not Mr. Gall’s.) I find the modern matte-covered, well-designed paperback almost irresistable.
— Eric Hanson, 2007-06-13 20:13:00
I’ll love see more of John Gall’s covers. the interview is brilliant.
— Sunil Sil, 2007-07-04 06:23:00
great article.
theres a reason we call him pope john gall.
— felix sockwell, 2007-07-20 08:37:00
now that’s fucking funny… Pope John Gall. It works so well… good one.
But you know what would be even better? If FWIS posted another feature. That would rock. Kidd perhaps? Or a prominent lady designer? hint hint.
— Ian B. Shimkoviak, 2007-07-20 11:36:00
Great to see a Rutgers Newark Graphic Grad making it! I am one as well, and LOVED Frank! I was attending when you worked on the cover of “The Ruined Map” with Ned Drew.
— Elisa Robles-Carlo, 2007-08-29 09:20:00
john gall is a f-ing genius.
i am writing a book just so he can design the cover.
— seth taras, 2007-11-26 15:41:00
Hey I love reading interviews and I love to print them out, so I can give ‘em a good read.
But hate non-print friendly pages like this.
— muzzy, 2007-12-20 00:16:00
I reli love the designs for box man, the ruin map and secret rendezvous. These appear to be part of a series what was the underlying concept and the original question that got you to this design?
— Tracy, 2007-12-20 06:53:00
this site suks asss
— lol, 2008-05-13 09:03:00
how do you make you covers affective to the book?
— cali, 2008-06-05 07:30:00