Need examples of textual graphics
October 10, 2012 10:25 AM Subscribe
Please suggest book covers (or others) I can look at that are extremely text-heavy images.
I want to have a piece of promotional material designed for a client. It's not a topic that lends itself easily to imagery and I am considering getting someone to design something that uses text instead of images.
Here are 2 examples of what I mean:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Things I Want To Punch In The Face.
I remember at least one other book cover that came out several years ago where the graphics were words in the shape of Manhattan Island but I can't remember what the book was.
Can you please suggest other examples of book covers (or similar, posters, whatever) where the main graphic component is text, so that I can show this to a designer? And if anyone knows how I could find out who actually designed these specific books, that would be amazingly helpful. Or point me to people whose work is similar. Thanks!
I want to have a piece of promotional material designed for a client. It's not a topic that lends itself easily to imagery and I am considering getting someone to design something that uses text instead of images.
Here are 2 examples of what I mean:
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and Things I Want To Punch In The Face.
I remember at least one other book cover that came out several years ago where the graphics were words in the shape of Manhattan Island but I can't remember what the book was.
Can you please suggest other examples of book covers (or similar, posters, whatever) where the main graphic component is text, so that I can show this to a designer? And if anyone knows how I could find out who actually designed these specific books, that would be amazingly helpful. Or point me to people whose work is similar. Thanks!
Best answer: This copy of Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang is the first thing that came to mind.
posted by komara at 10:43 AM on October 10, 2012
posted by komara at 10:43 AM on October 10, 2012
Best answer: Oh, and Rodrigo Corral designed the Green cover and Jon Gray did Safran Foer's.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2012 [1 favorite]
Best answer: (MeFi's own) John Scalzi has Your Hate Mail Will Be Graded.
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2012
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2012
Best answer: Fiddlesticks, I have a collection of these on another computer, will dig them out late tonight but in the meantime:
Also by Jonathan Safran Foer: The Unabridged Pocketbook of Lightning and Everything is Illuminated
The Carrie Diaries
The Chemistry of Death
Faces of the Gone
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Sixty-nine Cents
posted by humph at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2012
Also by Jonathan Safran Foer: The Unabridged Pocketbook of Lightning and Everything is Illuminated
The Carrie Diaries
The Chemistry of Death
Faces of the Gone
The Little Giant of Aberdeen County
Sixty-nine Cents
posted by humph at 10:44 AM on October 10, 2012
Best answer: The Vintage International collection of Thomas Bernhard novels
posted by perhapses at 10:48 AM on October 10, 2012
posted by perhapses at 10:48 AM on October 10, 2012
Response by poster: These are awesome, thank you, and 'It's Kind of a Funny Story' was the other cover I was thinking of but couldn't remember! More please!
posted by bq at 10:50 AM on October 10, 2012
posted by bq at 10:50 AM on October 10, 2012
Response by poster: And apparently 'Typographic book cover' is the search term I was missing.
posted by bq at 10:51 AM on October 10, 2012
posted by bq at 10:51 AM on October 10, 2012
The hardback cover of The Information by James Gleick is a fantastic use of a generic serif font on a generic white cover.
The style of the poster for The Social Network has been widely imitated since that came out but I can't think of any examples offhand.
posted by theodolite at 11:08 AM on October 10, 2012
The style of the poster for The Social Network has been widely imitated since that came out but I can't think of any examples offhand.
posted by theodolite at 11:08 AM on October 10, 2012
The edition of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction at the bottom of this article is my favorite. Some of the others might work as well.
posted by mlle valentine at 11:23 AM on October 10, 2012
posted by mlle valentine at 11:23 AM on October 10, 2012
My Dyslexia
Another recent piece of work by Rodrigo Corral
posted by drlith at 11:27 AM on October 10, 2012
Another recent piece of work by Rodrigo Corral
posted by drlith at 11:27 AM on October 10, 2012
I always liked the cover for the paperback of Salinger's Nine Stories.
posted by steef at 12:06 PM on October 10, 2012
posted by steef at 12:06 PM on October 10, 2012
Six Years is pretty much as text-heavy as you can get.
posted by LeeLanded at 2:00 PM on October 10, 2012
posted by LeeLanded at 2:00 PM on October 10, 2012
John Hodgman's first two books, "The Areas of My Expertise" and "More Information Than You Require" qualify, while the third book, "THAT IS ALL" is a study in minimal text.
posted by Sunburnt at 2:03 PM on October 10, 2012
posted by Sunburnt at 2:03 PM on October 10, 2012
As to finding out who did what, you might start at the Book Cover Archive. There's also a list of other book design sites at bottom; some are defunct now, but their archives are usually still around.
posted by Su at 2:48 PM on October 10, 2012
posted by Su at 2:48 PM on October 10, 2012
A list of gray318's covers from that archive.
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 5:01 PM on October 10, 2012
posted by urbanwhaleshark at 5:01 PM on October 10, 2012
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali
The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
The Night of the Gun by David Carr
posted by stampsgal at 7:30 AM on October 11, 2012
White Teeth by Zadie Smith
Londonstani by Gautam Malkani
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Alentejo Blue by Monica Ali
The Illumination by Kevin Brockmeier
The Night of the Gun by David Carr
posted by stampsgal at 7:30 AM on October 11, 2012
The Caustic Cover Critic recently posted these classic reprints, with pseudo word clouds ("pseudo" in that they are not based on word frequency, they're just important phrases in the book).
posted by timepiece at 12:06 PM on October 12, 2012
posted by timepiece at 12:06 PM on October 12, 2012
This thread is closed to new comments.
My personal favorite is older, though: How to Suppress Women's Writing.
posted by PhoBWanKenobi at 10:40 AM on October 10, 2012 [1 favorite]