We are in the middle of a huge Nabokov series redesign. Tying into Nabokov's love of lepidoptery, I asked twenty different designers to design specimen boxes for the twenty different books. The only restrictions were that one had to use paper and pins to illustrate the title. The boxes are then photographed by Alison Gootee. Since Playboy is already running a piece on these, I thought I'd offer a quick look. These first four are coming out very soon. The rest will follow in the coming months, hopefully dovetailing with the Knopf publication of Nabokov's final manuscript, "Laura", in November. Clockwise from upper left: Stephen Doyle, Yentus and Booher, Carin Goldberg, and Michael Bierut.
Coming soon: Dave Eggers, Chip Kidd, Marian Bantjes, Sam Potts, and, of course, many others.
Much more to report on these in the coming weeks.
You've been going, what, a week? and this is already about my favourite blog. Thank you. Keep up the great work.
ReplyDeleteAny restrictions on color? These four look like they coordinate now. Unique design and concept...
ReplyDeleteNo restrictions on color, just some like-minded thinkers.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, beautiful, beautiful. The current PBs were impressive when they were new, and they held up remarkably well for a long time, but this new design is a breath of fresh air, doing a far better job of hinting at the playfulness and perfectionism that underlie so much of Nabokov's prose. Well done!
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. I want all of them. Lolita should be interesting in this style...
ReplyDeleteAll wonderful, but I especially love that Speak, Memory reaches back for the type to an edition I saw (and photographed, poorly) at the Printers Row Book Fair in Chicago two years ago.
ReplyDeleteTHAT is a fantastic concept. Amazing, amazing.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad you're doing a redesign on these. I've read Nabokov's Russian novels (in translation) twice, but never hung onto the existing Vintage paperbacks because I've always disliked the design (and the, er, cheap paper). If the final covers are like these samples, I'll have no problem buying them again and, this time, keeping them.
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