What I do is not art.
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Peter Mendelsund
Peter Mendelsund is a book cover designer, although he wasn’t always one. Before he started designing, he was a moderately successful pianist. He didn’t actually like working as a pianist because of all the competition, it just wasn’t fun for him. So he chose to design. With no background in design, he taught himself and built a portfolio.
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Through the help of a friend, he managed to land an interview with Chip Kidd, who was impressed with his work and hired him as a book cover designer at Knopf, despite Peter being completely self taught.
c lo c k w i s e f r o m l e f t
Plain Heathen Mischeif Doctor Zhivago Esther’s Inheritance The Buried Giant Wizard of the Crow Antoine’s Alphabet Blow-Up Hearts of the City Things We Didn’t See Coming My Prizes
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Dostoevsky Series
Peter designed covers for Dostoevsky works, and was inspired by older abstract book covers. Abstract illustrative book covers weren’t really being made anymore, so he wanted to bring it back. With this series of covers he wanted to bring back that style in a timeless sort of way. This was achieved with a simple white cover, with abstract shapes relating to the story in one or two colors. This minimal approach went against how literal and specific book covers became, and instead was a piece of art rather than just a book cover.
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from left
Demon The Double and the Gambler Crime and Punishment The Idiot
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The Idiot
The Idiot was the first cover he did out of this series, and is the one that made him beg Vintage Books to let him design the others. The completely black and white design uses different elements not seen in most other covers, such as a non pictorial illustration, and three different types of fonts with varying
weights and sizes. The black cross in the center carries some symbolism of the book. It represents a crucifix, which shows the undoing of the doomed main character, and the Christ figure.
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Kafka Series Another innovative series of covers Peter designed was for Kafka. These covers were all clean, clever, illustrative, and graphic. The eye motif he uses can be seen to represent the paranoia seen in Kafka novels, but also as the visual awareness the main characters come to. Each cover uses an eye in a way that also is symbolic of the story.
s The Trial The Trial is one good example of the eye being used to represent the story. One eye being singled out in color reflects how in the book, one man in singled out. It highlights the difference and already gives you an idea of the story before you read it, without being too obvious or specific.
from left
Amerika The Sons The Castle Metamorphosis Aphorisms The Trial
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Jame’s Joyce
Handwriting sometimes gets used in Peter’s designs, and in the case of his series of James Joyce covers, he combines it with a sans serif type from the computer. Despite being incredibly simple designs, they are very clever with how he uses and places the hand type, and which words or letters he picks to use.
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c lo c k w i s e
Ulysses Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man Dubliners
De Beauvoir
With these covers, Peter used simlified drawings and hand type. He was inspired by the wall stencils seen in the 1968 Paris riots. A politically charged inspiration fit with the politically charged writer. Peter wanted the covers to not be the typical covers seen for female writers, and instead wanted a balance wof both pretty and ugly.
c lo c k w i s e
The Woman Destroyed Adieux Simone De Beuvoir
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The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo
The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo is arguably the most well known of Peter’s designs. With a vivid yellow color and intricate design, it is an unexpected cover for a Swedish crime novel. At first the cover was all white with centered off white text and blood splatters. That design wasn’t liked for being too boring. The final cover was unique and eye catching, and sold extremel well.
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Draft Covers
Final Covers
Peter also designed the sequels, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest, and both of those designs were clever and not too obvious or specific. As with the first book cover, the design played with illustrating the title in an abstract sort of way.
from left
The Girl With a Dragon Tattoo The Girl Who Played with Fire The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest
from left
Later draft of Girl wih a Dragon Tattoo All-white version of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo Early draft of Girl with a Dragon Tattoo (before title change)
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Designed and written by Maia Parsons Composed in Futura (Paul Renner, 1927) and Avenir (Adrian Frutiger, 1988) Printed from a Big Gray printer onto Hammermill 60# text. Copyright Š 2017 Maia Parsons, Portland, Maine, Maine College of Art Information and photos from: Cover, Peter Mendelsund, 2014 New York Times