Designing a Book Jacket. [How to Do It, number 65.]

Curl (Peter)

Published by Studio Publications, 1956

About this Item

FIRST EDITION, extensively illustrated with various examples, some with use of colour-printing, pp. 96, 4to, original yellow boards, backstrip lettered in black, top edge faintly dustsoiled, free endpapers faintly browned, dustjacket by the author, slightly nicked at extremities, very good. An excellent treatise from an artist whose own work included designs for science fiction titles from Michael Joseph and Faber - his cover for Arthur Koestler's 'Age of Longing' (Collins 1951) is perhaps his finest in the medium, evincing his belief that 'lettering is important'. Curl avers that, whilst such design-work has attained the 'standing of a serious activity for the graphic artist', it remains generally the preserve of those at the beginning of their career (often their 'first freelance commission') - the level of remuneration in comparison to other work meaning that most will have to cultivate work in other fields, commercial or creative. He emphasises the value of a literary sensibility, and suggests that the best examples show a combination of 'selling factor [.] taste in design and idea [.] with the expression of the spirit of the book' - in which cases they become 'more than an ephemeral aid to selling'.

Seller Inventory # 80636

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Designing a Book Jacket. [How to Do It, number 65.]
• Publisher: Studio Publications
• Publication Date: 1956
• Seller catalogs:
  • Art & Architecture