Sparkle & Spin

This edition of "My Favourite Book Cover" is actually more of "my favourite book" this month. Designer of beautiful books, Kimberly Glyder has chosen the 20th century wonder that is "Sparkle and Spin" by Paul and Anne Rand. I'm so delighted that Kimberly picked this book as it is to my mind, one of the most playful and skilfully designed children's offerings that has ever been published. If you are stuck for a gift idea, I can't imagine this failing to put a smile on anyone's face. Over to you  Kimberly:

Over the years, I’ve been a big fan of Paul Rand (who hasn’t?), but it wasn’t until I had my daughter that I was introduced to the book he wrote with his wife Ann entitled, Sparkle and Spin. It has become one of my favorite designs, inside and out, and one in which I’ve drawn a ton of inspiration from. I love Rand’s genius use of graphic imagery, limited color palettes, and beautiful mix of typography. I blatantly try to use these design principles on my own covers whenever possible. The story itself is sweet and rhythmic and I have very fond memories reading this to my daughter and son (at this point I’ve memorized the entire book). Sparkle and Spin is a classic and a book that I’m happy to look at (and read) for a long, long time.

About me

I’m Kimberly Glyder, an award-winning book designer (and sometimes letterer & illustrator), living in the Philadelphia area. Most days, I’m working on book covers and book interiors which means I get to combine my two favorite pursuits, reading and design. My 13-year-old self would be pretty excited to know all that hard work illustrating covers for my book reports (sometimes at the expense of the reports) paid off...

To look at Kimberly's work visit her website http://www.kimberlyglyder.com

My Favourite Book Cover: Sian Wilson

Today the most talented and lovely book cover designer, Sian Wilson talks about her favourite book cover which is a real beauty of a 1960's Penguin Modern Classic, featuring a drawing by Duncan Grant.

"I can waste hours and hours looking for inspiration in old book covers. There seems to be so many restrictions on book cover design these days, it's great, and frustrating to see how much freedom book cover designers used to have. I've always had a massive soft spot for the art and design of The Bloomsbury Group, and this distinctive style says so much about the time in which Virginia Woolf was writing, as well as the tone of her books. But much more important than that I just think it looks absolutely gorgeous and really wish I had done it myself."

Thank you Sian, I wholeheartedly agree with all of the above.

Sian Wilson has been designing books for six years and is currently a senior designer at Little Brown Book Group. You can view some of her cover designs here.

My favourite book cover: Nico Taylor

Welcome to the next instalment of "My favourite book cover". This time I'm featuring the choice of the designer Nico Taylor who currently works at Harper Collins and is responsible for some extremely stylishly designed books being on our shelves in recent years. He has chosen a book I am very fond of "The heart is a lonely hunter" by Carson McCullers.

I always have to deal with a level of guilt and regret when thinking of this cover as one of my favourites. Having long been a fan of the book, last year I found an almost pristine copy in Portland's Powell's Book Store and foolishly decided not to take it home with me. Perhaps this personal regret will be the reason this jacket always stays with me, but I think it's more to do with the striking graphic quality it holds. For a novel that deals so subtly with the depths of humanity, it's interesting to see a cover so brash. Sadly I can't find a credit for the cover but it seems hard to believe this was created in the in the 1940's, with the dynamic script type dominating and an exaggerated drop shadow making the title seemingly jump from the cover. It could easily have been so inappropriate, but to my eyes it works marvellously. Predating the brilliant title-led jackets of the designer Paul Bacon (see original versions of Catch 22 and Portnoy's Complaint) this must have been one of the first covers to be commercially presented with the "big book" look and I think it does it fantastically.

Thank you Nico!

You can visit Nico's website here.