Judge a book by its cover
By Jean • Sep 4th, 2009 • Category: Special Report
After all, can you? Book City Jackets idea of turning every book beautiful means you can be reading a book called “How to Murder a Complete Stranger” and yet get away with it. We speak to Jeremy to find out more about his flap book covers.
Hi Jeremy, what is Book City Jackets all about?
Book City Jackets is about the idea of turning books into standalone pieces of art. Since books function as decoration in our homes and accessories as we read and the way they look shouldn’t be limited to what a publisher thought would catch your eye in a bookstore. With that in mind, I thought it would be interesting to create something that allowed people to change how their books look in order to better reflect their personalities and preferences.
So how did this project come along?
The project came from taking the subway to work every day and checking out other people’s books. It occurred to me one day that if two people with the exact same prescription strength eyeglass lenses can choose different eyeglass frames so that they can wear something that suits them best, then two people reading the exact same book should be able to choose different covers.
Is there a particular theme for the Number 1 Artists Edition?
Not really. For this set we were looking for dynamic pieces that would reproduce well in black ink on kraft paper and that would read well from a short distance away. Since we were looking for pieces that shared some important characteristics (for example, we wanted line drawings with no shading), diversity in subject matter and style became important so that each would be able to stand out.
You must have a strong interest in design and arts to come up with an idea like this. How much does your work involve creative/design?
Starting any company affords lots of opportunities to be creative and starting a company like this allows me to indulge my design preferences. But, there are plenty of mundane and non-creative aspects to it.
Design keeps evolving - who are the creatives/designers that you admire today?
The creatives and designers that I admire the most are the ones who have the will to sit down and work and work and work. A good example of this type of designer seems to be Jessica Hische, who creates amazing type and other beautiful things. What strikes me about Jessica is the insane amount of time she must spend working. (I don’t actually know her so I may be wrong — maybe she’s just faster than everyone else in the world.) And when I say spends a lot of time working I don’t mean that she has a lot of paying jobs (although I think she does); I mean that she is just constantly creating. A good example of this is her blog post from Sunday(!), March 29, which was about the business cards she had printed that weekend. I don’t know whether she did them over the weekend because she didn’t realize until Friday night that she really needed business cards on Monday but, one way or another, she was working hard that weekend. And it shows.
Any word of advice to designers who are submitting their work for the future Artists Editions?
I don’t have any advice in terms of what to create but I do in terms of how to submit work: PLEASE do more than just send a link to your website — think about which of your pieces would work best and point us to them so that we don’t have to click every last link to find your strongest work.
Book City Jackets is currently accepting submissions for future Artists Edition. More info after the jump.
i love my book city jackets!
I think the idea is fantastic! I own a few book city jackets from the first edition and can’t wait to order more of the artist’s edition. They is especially useful on the subway and at the beach when I want to read in private with millions of people around me. They are very tastefully done and totally non offensive. In fact, they add beauty to by every day.
Our planet is divided between the beauty makers and the beauty takers. Book City Jackets is surely the former.Great concept..