I don’t have much to say about these beyond the fact that I’ve always enjoyed Vonnegut covers. I remember being attracted to the bare geometric simplicity of the series before I was even consciously noticing design.
There are things I’d probably change, but that’s neither here nor there. Especially at this point.
It’s interesting: this is one of the only series I know of that debuted as smaller, Mass Market titles (in dimention) and then only later jumped to standard Trade sized paperbacks… I first saw the Mass Market versions in ‘95 or ‘96 and started snatching them up for love of both Vonnegut, and their design. (I don’t recall seeing the trade size of Slaughter House Five using this design until well into the Aughts.)
1995 was before I was doing cover design, or probably even aware of the term Mass Market, but I remember thinking at the time how nice these covers were for “supermarket-line” ecconomy books. I was also glad to see that the designs were eventually carried over into the more dignified trade sizes. Although, I have to confess that the designs seemeed to fit more organically on the Mass Markets. ...Maybe just a case of first love. They had a nice tactile quality as well, as I recall.
Anybody know who did these? I wanna say Carin Goldberg….
...Although, if it was her, the Mass Market versions I saw in ‘95 may well have been hold-overs from trade versions of the late 80s, early 90s!
“Senge Fifth Discipline” @amazon brings us another series of “V” designs. There are six at present:
The Fifth Discipline (Century Business), 1993
The Fifth Discipline, 1994
The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations, 1999
Schools That Learn (A Fifth Discipline Resource), 2000
Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education, 2000
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, 2006
And – I’d say – the design even improves over time.
This post is missing the images to Vonnegut’s classic “Cat’s Cradle”, as well as “The Sirens of Titan” and “Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons”. I think I have about half of these titles, and some of them look better than others – Bluebeard, Cat’s Cradle, and Welcome to the Monkey House being particular standouts.
I recall seeing a couple of these many years back where the small images at top center had been placed on the wrong books. I can’t remember which titles were involved in the switch, but it was clear that the picture for say, Cat’s Cradle had been placed on Slaughterhouse Five and vice versa.
They excel in that they are a unique TYPE of composition, they create a brand, and they are easily identifiable as Vonnegut without having to read any text.
Having said that, I’m not taken away with them. They don’t titillate me too much—whereas the content of the books do. I suppose these multi-colored covers capture some of the quirky energy of a Vonnegut text, but I fail to see the striking innovation that the actual text offers.
I wouldn’t want them to change because I’ve grown to know this design so well. But I don’t embrace these books because of my affinity for their covers… I embrace them because the stuff inside rocks so much.
i’ve always loosely connected these covers with Salinger’s books from Little Brown. Both series allow me to think of the books without over-considering the covers, and i think that’s an accomplishment. It’s not so easy for me to pass quickly over the visuals.
While I can understand the need for a series to have a consistent look, it seems lazy to simply change the color scheme. I prefer the 1992 William Burroughs series by Grove Press.
To wit: http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/burroughs-books/TE_US_Grove_1992.jpg
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/burroughs-books/WB_US_Grove_1992.jpg
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/burroughs-books/NE_US_Grove_1992.jpg
And C-Dog is right. By the time I’ve read through all the comments my eyes hurt.
Real quick—another change I’d like to see: A frame that allows users to scroll through the comments without losing sight of the cover.
After reading most comments I want to go back a re-examine the cover, so I’m having to scroll up and down, up and down. But other than that everything is wonderful.
just press “command (apple) and the + key” on your keyboard to make the text bigger on this page. The size does not bother me, but then again, I am a young one…
Let’s be cordial, people. Usually, Ian has very insightful and informative comments, and it’s obvious he enjoys book design. I hope we can all coexist on this site without hatemail being thrown around.
I don’t have much to say about these beyond the fact that I’ve always enjoyed Vonnegut covers. I remember being attracted to the bare geometric simplicity of the series before I was even consciously noticing design.
There are things I’d probably change, but that’s neither here nor there. Especially at this point.
— Ben Pieratt, 2007-04-16 07:30:00
This series came out around the time I started getting involved in cover design and I remember being quite taken with them at the time – I still am.
— beauGeste, 2007-04-16 08:13:00
When’abouts was that?
— Ben Pieratt, 2007-04-16 08:15:00
circa 1997
— beauGeste, 2007-04-16 08:31:00
They really harken back to the “push-pin” aesthetic which I do have a soft spot for.
— beauGeste, 2007-04-16 08:52:00
These were designed by Carin Goldberg in 1989 for Dell
— Gregg Kulick, 2007-04-16 09:16:00
It’s interesting: this is one of the only series I know of that debuted as smaller, Mass Market titles (in dimention) and then only later jumped to standard Trade sized paperbacks… I first saw the Mass Market versions in ‘95 or ‘96 and started snatching them up for love of both Vonnegut, and their design. (I don’t recall seeing the trade size of Slaughter House Five using this design until well into the Aughts.)
1995 was before I was doing cover design, or probably even aware of the term Mass Market, but I remember thinking at the time how nice these covers were for “supermarket-line” ecconomy books. I was also glad to see that the designs were eventually carried over into the more dignified trade sizes. Although, I have to confess that the designs seemeed to fit more organically on the Mass Markets. ...Maybe just a case of first love. They had a nice tactile quality as well, as I recall.
Anybody know who did these? I wanna say Carin Goldberg….
...Although, if it was her, the Mass Market versions I saw in ‘95 may well have been hold-overs from trade versions of the late 80s, early 90s!
— Sergio, 2007-04-16 09:46:00
Take too long to type a post and someone will swoop in and answer all your questions. Thanks Gregg.
— Sergio, 2007-04-16 09:49:00
Why do they all say, “By the bestselling author of Timequake?” Was he well-known for that at the time, or is that just what happened to fit well?
— Jonas, 2007-04-16 10:44:00
My guess is Timequake was his new hardcover at the time and they released these to accompany that
— gk, 2007-04-16 13:27:00
“Senge Fifth Discipline” @amazon brings us another series of “V” designs. There are six at present:
The Fifth Discipline (Century Business), 1993
The Fifth Discipline, 1994
The Dance of Change: The Challenges to Sustaining Momentum in Learning Organizations, 1999
Schools That Learn (A Fifth Discipline Resource), 2000
Schools That Learn: A Fifth Discipline Fieldbook for Educators, Parents, and Everyone Who Cares About Education, 2000
The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization, 2006
And – I’d say – the design even improves over time.
— Priit, 2007-04-16 13:56:00
This post is missing the images to Vonnegut’s classic “Cat’s Cradle”, as well as “The Sirens of Titan” and “Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons”. I think I have about half of these titles, and some of them look better than others – Bluebeard, Cat’s Cradle, and Welcome to the Monkey House being particular standouts.
— GH, 2007-04-16 15:24:00
Yeah it’s missing at least a couple. I figured 9 was enough to get the point across.
But I just went back through and added all the ones I could find. I also went ahead and credited Goldberg as the designer.
— Ben Pieratt, 2007-04-16 15:44:00
Why did Ben choose the brown-brown-creme one for the large image? Because co-ordinated colors tend to work the best?
Series design is very interesting topic. Has anybody written seriously about it?
— Priit, 2007-04-16 19:05:00
It’s just the first one that came to mind when considering the series.
— Ben Pieratt, 2007-04-16 19:11:00
The type is very similar to what was used on the Raymond Carver books of the same era. For example: http://tinyurl.com/2dgqjw
— Joseph, 2007-04-16 19:16:00
I recall seeing a couple of these many years back where the small images at top center had been placed on the wrong books. I can’t remember which titles were involved in the switch, but it was clear that the picture for say, Cat’s Cradle had been placed on Slaughterhouse Five and vice versa.
— James, 2007-04-17 09:18:00
I’ve also always thought that these were fantastic, and if I’m not mistaken, are printed on a nice uncoated stock.
— Nick, 2007-04-17 09:41:00
I hate this design style. But I like how it looks acorss the series.
— Ian B. Shimkoviak, 2007-04-17 12:27:00
They excel in that they are a unique TYPE of composition, they create a brand, and they are easily identifiable as Vonnegut without having to read any text.
Having said that, I’m not taken away with them. They don’t titillate me too much—whereas the content of the books do. I suppose these multi-colored covers capture some of the quirky energy of a Vonnegut text, but I fail to see the striking innovation that the actual text offers.
I wouldn’t want them to change because I’ve grown to know this design so well. But I don’t embrace these books because of my affinity for their covers… I embrace them because the stuff inside rocks so much.
— C-Dog, 2007-04-17 18:10:00
BTW:
The size one serif font of these message boards is killing my goddamn eyes. Anyone else?
— C-Dog, 2007-04-17 18:13:00
Yeah the type is a bit small. It’s on our grocery list.
— Ben Pieratt, 2007-04-17 18:34:00
Font too small to read? On Firefox – hold the Ctrl key down and roll your mouse scroll wheel towards you and increase the size…
I’ll also mention that I think these covers are lazy. The publisher wanted to reissue with out spending much on the designs – get ‘em out…cheap!
— Dean, 2007-04-18 05:53:00
i’ve always loosely connected these covers with Salinger’s books from Little Brown. Both series allow me to think of the books without over-considering the covers, and i think that’s an accomplishment. It’s not so easy for me to pass quickly over the visuals.
— brian, 2007-04-18 06:04:00
While I can understand the need for a series to have a consistent look, it seems lazy to simply change the color scheme. I prefer the 1992 William Burroughs series by Grove Press.
To wit: http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/burroughs-books/TE_US_Grove_1992.jpg
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/burroughs-books/WB_US_Grove_1992.jpg
http://mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk/burroughs-books/NE_US_Grove_1992.jpg
And C-Dog is right. By the time I’ve read through all the comments my eyes hurt.
— gutman, 2007-04-18 07:25:00
Real quick—another change I’d like to see: A frame that allows users to scroll through the comments without losing sight of the cover.
After reading most comments I want to go back a re-examine the cover, so I’m having to scroll up and down, up and down. But other than that everything is wonderful.
— gutman, 2007-04-18 07:32:00
C-Dog, link us to a cover you find exceptional. Please! I’m just interested…
— your mom, 2007-04-18 07:35:00
just press “command (apple) and the + key” on your keyboard to make the text bigger on this page. The size does not bother me, but then again, I am a young one…
— Ian B. Shimkoviak, 2007-04-18 07:38:00
The more I see these, the more I like them…
— Ian B. Shimkoviak, 2007-06-08 19:47:00
you should give up on life i mean look at you ur a loser ur comments are a disgrace i would spit at you if i ever meet you face to face
— I h8 Ian B. Shimkoviak, 2007-08-06 15:27:00
wow. Glad to know I have a fan.
— ian shimkoviak, 2008-04-30 11:31:00
Let’s be cordial, people. Usually, Ian has very insightful and informative comments, and it’s obvious he enjoys book design. I hope we can all coexist on this site without hatemail being thrown around.
— nate s., 2008-05-01 10:01:00