We don’t usually post covers from the art/design genre, but I can’t help but make an exception for this one for the simple fact that I love this non-aesthetic too much not to.
non-aesthetic is right. wow so this is what a real live photo envelope looked like in the 70’s!? cool, i guess. it’s so ugly it makes you look closer, which could also be said of some of the photography. but god i still love everything phaidon does.
perhaps the title and author could be bigger- there is so much competition without any hierarchy. my eye goes straight to 21228
i really like the idea of going to the bookstore to pick up a pack of photos. the envelope design makes it more personal and informal, adds a sense of discover.
I am guessing this aesthetic appeals more to the < 30 set. I might be wrong but I bet some geezers would say, pffft.
But Phaidon does some of the best book design in the world. Don’t know if Julia Hasting is still in the NY office but she’s done some amazing work over there on Varick.
The envelope is great but the title, author, and imprint below are a mess. I would much prefer that they follow the grid of the Kodak form, sitting on parallel baselines. Given that the essential information is already buried below, there’s little reason not to further assimilate it into the design above, as opposed to a last, awkward grasp for distinction. Or it could all be relegated to the spine. (I am thinking of the covers from Peel Slowly and See: http://members.aol.com/olandem6/odcdbox.html#box3). There are different rules and expectations for art/design covers than trade or mass market, to be sure—the greatest being the relative freedom from obviousness.
I agree with Michael. The bottom portion is crap. Either include it in the game, or banish it to the spine (besides, the author’s name is already strategically written on the photo envelope toward the top, why again at the base?). Why does this art book have reservations about leaving off the publisher logo, title, author’s name, and destroying negative space? Why not replace Kodak with Phaidon if it’s so necessary to include it? A little more ingenuity could eradicate the hammy applique at the bottom where the execution pisses on the concept. And as vintage photo envelopes go, this is one of the more insipid ones I’ve seen.
A photograph of a photo envelope as the cover of a book about photos is fine… but what if the book came in a literal mock envelope where the reader had to actually remove the bound book from the envelope in order to read it? Heh!
It’s great. I’d pick up this book. Hardcore ephemera, but with a symbolic depth. And commenting as an Australian, to my eyes it does look classically American – the fonts, the numeric codes, the address, those white stickers with American prices on them.
C-dog, your vision came true. Indeed the book does come in a big ol’ photo envelop. What a nice idea. Perfect, fun and engaging. It gives the whole thing a new dimension. Great find.
Ca we see that posted here. It’s a great double take.
1. I expect that with this cover, the in-person experience differs markedly from the web-experience. Here, it looks awkward because you can’t tell if it’s a photo of an envelope or of a cover, but seeing it on a book itself, you KNOW it’s not actually an envelope. I bet the busy non-aesthetic would really pop on a shelf full of white space and aseptic sans-serif fontitude.
2. I couldn’t possibly disagree more with comments about putting the book info in the top portion. There are way too many designs in which folks repurpose some olden logo/design to include different information than conveyed originally. (My favorite remains Shellac’s 1000 Hurts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_Hurts). Once clever, this is way too played out and cheesy, the equivalent of those t-shirts that say Cia0-Ciao in the Coca-Cola script. So a mighty hell no to that idea. Plus, wouldn’t this kind of editing of the envelope text go against the very straightforward “this is an everyday photo that warrants your attention” kind of content in the book? Doesn’t mucking about w/ the photo of the envelope suggest the interior photos might be mucked about as well?
3. The negative space is part of the envelope & my guess is that this space was actually originally used for filing purposes or even comments. Back in my day (the 90s), we’d write the customer’s last initial and last name in the white space on the top of the envelope, to find it easier in the filing bin. Was this done on these envelopes? If so, was it perhaps filed upside down w/ only the white part sticking up? Hrm. If so, maybe I’d prefer the book info upside down or have the envelope flipped. In any case, I think it’s pretty key to break the grid when you want people to gloss over the top portion. Granted, the book info doesn’t jump out immediately, but the slanted Phaidon certainly brought my eyes down to the bottom. In person, I bet the blue is enough to figure out what the shit is going on.
This doesn’t make me swoon, but like many Phaidon covers, it gets the nod.
We don’t usually post covers from the art/design genre, but I can’t help but make an exception for this one for the simple fact that I love this non-aesthetic too much not to.
— Ben Pieratt, 2008-06-30 08:47:00
Boy was that an awkward sentence or what?
— Ben Pieratt, 2008-06-30 08:50:00
Great exception.
— ian shimkowiak, 2008-06-30 08:52:00
This is awesome! Love it!
— Arthur, 2008-06-30 09:09:00
non-aesthetic is right. wow so this is what a real live photo envelope looked like in the 70’s!? cool, i guess. it’s so ugly it makes you look closer, which could also be said of some of the photography. but god i still love everything phaidon does.
perhaps the title and author could be bigger- there is so much competition without any hierarchy. my eye goes straight to 21228
— shalls, 2008-06-30 09:57:00
i really like the idea of going to the bookstore to pick up a pack of photos. the envelope design makes it more personal and informal, adds a sense of discover.
— shalls, 2008-06-30 11:47:00
*discovery
— shalls, 2008-06-30 11:49:00
Brave!
— Luke Tonge, 2008-06-30 12:47:00
I am guessing this aesthetic appeals more to the < 30 set. I might be wrong but I bet some geezers would say, pffft.
But Phaidon does some of the best book design in the world. Don’t know if Julia Hasting is still in the NY office but she’s done some amazing work over there on Varick.
— Auguste, 2008-06-30 12:49:00
The envelope is great but the title, author, and imprint below are a mess. I would much prefer that they follow the grid of the Kodak form, sitting on parallel baselines. Given that the essential information is already buried below, there’s little reason not to further assimilate it into the design above, as opposed to a last, awkward grasp for distinction. Or it could all be relegated to the spine. (I am thinking of the covers from Peel Slowly and See: http://members.aol.com/olandem6/odcdbox.html#box3). There are different rules and expectations for art/design covers than trade or mass market, to be sure—the greatest being the relative freedom from obviousness.
— Michael McCartney, 2008-06-30 14:09:00
I agree with Michael. The bottom portion is crap. Either include it in the game, or banish it to the spine (besides, the author’s name is already strategically written on the photo envelope toward the top, why again at the base?). Why does this art book have reservations about leaving off the publisher logo, title, author’s name, and destroying negative space? Why not replace Kodak with Phaidon if it’s so necessary to include it? A little more ingenuity could eradicate the hammy applique at the bottom where the execution pisses on the concept. And as vintage photo envelopes go, this is one of the more insipid ones I’ve seen.
A photograph of a photo envelope as the cover of a book about photos is fine… but what if the book came in a literal mock envelope where the reader had to actually remove the bound book from the envelope in order to read it? Heh!
— C-Dog, 2008-06-30 15:08:00
It’s great. I’d pick up this book. Hardcore ephemera, but with a symbolic depth. And commenting as an Australian, to my eyes it does look classically American – the fonts, the numeric codes, the address, those white stickers with American prices on them.
— laura, 2008-06-30 15:51:00
title: phaidon
subtitle: american surfaces
author: stephen shore
OMG! im so below average…(for those readers whose not good at knowing publishers)
— monkey, 2008-06-30 18:17:00
This is the paperback cover. The hardback edition did come in an envelope…
http://www.photoeye.com/templates/mShowDetailsbycat.cfm?Catalog=PI149
— William Eggleston, 2008-07-01 05:16:00
C-dog, your vision came true. Indeed the book does come in a big ol’ photo envelop. What a nice idea. Perfect, fun and engaging. It gives the whole thing a new dimension. Great find.
Ca we see that posted here. It’s a great double take.
— ian shimkowiak, 2008-07-01 08:37:00
Done before (somehow) :
http://pinnwand.abendblatt.de/userfiles/ha/102/212/750511/thumb_1203094436_24207.jpg
That’s the only image I could find of 2002 Andre de Dienes’ s Maryline book for Taschen. Out of stock.
— gould, 2008-07-01 14:01:00
Bravo!
— al3sim, 2008-07-02 08:34:00
1. I expect that with this cover, the in-person experience differs markedly from the web-experience. Here, it looks awkward because you can’t tell if it’s a photo of an envelope or of a cover, but seeing it on a book itself, you KNOW it’s not actually an envelope. I bet the busy non-aesthetic would really pop on a shelf full of white space and aseptic sans-serif fontitude.
2. I couldn’t possibly disagree more with comments about putting the book info in the top portion. There are way too many designs in which folks repurpose some olden logo/design to include different information than conveyed originally. (My favorite remains Shellac’s 1000 Hurts: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1000_Hurts). Once clever, this is way too played out and cheesy, the equivalent of those t-shirts that say Cia0-Ciao in the Coca-Cola script. So a mighty hell no to that idea. Plus, wouldn’t this kind of editing of the envelope text go against the very straightforward “this is an everyday photo that warrants your attention” kind of content in the book? Doesn’t mucking about w/ the photo of the envelope suggest the interior photos might be mucked about as well?
3. The negative space is part of the envelope & my guess is that this space was actually originally used for filing purposes or even comments. Back in my day (the 90s), we’d write the customer’s last initial and last name in the white space on the top of the envelope, to find it easier in the filing bin. Was this done on these envelopes? If so, was it perhaps filed upside down w/ only the white part sticking up? Hrm. If so, maybe I’d prefer the book info upside down or have the envelope flipped. In any case, I think it’s pretty key to break the grid when you want people to gloss over the top portion. Granted, the book info doesn’t jump out immediately, but the slanted Phaidon certainly brought my eyes down to the bottom. In person, I bet the blue is enough to figure out what the shit is going on.
This doesn’t make me swoon, but like many Phaidon covers, it gets the nod.
— batz, 2008-07-03 08:55:00
“This is the paperback cover. The hardback edition did come in an envelope…”
SWEET! Great minds——
— C-Dog, 2008-07-03 18:49:00