hardcover to paperback: After Dark by Haruki Murakami

In typical fashion, John Gall has redesigned Chip Kidd’s After Dark (Knopf) for the newly released Vintage paperback edition. The cover features a woman’s face, a common theme in past US paperback designs for Haruki Murakami. The dots on the cover are a holographic foil. To my knowledge this is the first Vintage edition of a Murakami title to utilize any special effects.

The UK fan site for Murakami, Exorcising-Ghosts, is a great resource and has quite a comprehenisve list of book reviews for After Dark, and thumbnails for the cover designs of most international editions for Murakami books.

a classic redesigned: Animal Farm by George Orwell

On the left is the first American edition (1946) of Orwell’s Animal Farm. The dust jacket was designed by Art Brenner. Shepard Fairey designed the newly packaged book on the right. He also redesigned the classic, 1984 for Penguin.

[thanks to Joseph Sullivan at BDR for posting Shepard Fairey’s new designs today]

a classic redesigned: The Bonfire of the the Vanities by Tom Wolfe

On the left is the first edition (‘87) hardcover design and illustration for Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities by Fred Marcellino (which was in the AIGA’s 1988 annual book design exhibition).

About twenty years later, Henry Sene Yee repackages The Bonfire of the Vanities for the Picador backlist. He does a fantastic job giving the book a new and memorable look, while preservering the intent of the original jacket design.