Sunday 22 August 2010

Puffin Magic II

Having very much enjoyed Puffin by Design (see here), I am very keen to see, in physical form, these upcoming Puffin Designer Classics, released to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the children's publishing imprint. These six books, each designed by major artists,architects and designers, are rather beautiful. The only downside is that, at the price of £100, and as limited editions, you wouldn't dare let kids anywhere near them.

They are:

Little Women by fashion designer Orla Kiely,


Oliver Twist by artist Sir Peter Blake (see more of his cover work here),
  
Treasure Island by architect and sculptor Frank Gehry,

 and my favourites, Around the World in Eighty Days by architect David Adjaye,

James and the Giant Peach by sculptor Antony Gormley,


and The Secret Garden by author and illustrator Lauren Child (a really nice use of layers here, though presumably this will make the book fairly fragile). Says she: "I thought it would be interesting to do a cover where one could peel back the paper layers, one by one until the garden and the girl are revealed - it was just a nice way to conjure the secretness of the garden."

(Click for much bigger images)

8 comments:

Jess the Chipster said...

love the little women cover. hope the secret garden cover is removable, otherwise it will be incredibly inconvenient to read.

Meytal Radzinski said...

"Around the World in Eighty Days" is definitely the coolest cover, though I also like the look of "Treasure Island".

Anonymous said...

I love the "Giant Peach" cover. That one is my favorite in terms of design. The Secret Garden cover is lovely too, except it reminds me of a Hallmark Card. I don't know if that's good or bad.

Bob Fingerman said...

Nice as some of these are, I am not convinced any of these are worth the price. The Oliver Twist is pretty awful looking, actually (in the league of many of the cover designs featured on that TV show, Work of Art). £100? Really. That is steep.

Bob Fingerman said...

BTW: I am well aware of Peter Blake's cachet and legacy. He's done some remarkable work. This just happens not to be up to that quality. It's very "art studenty."

Craig D. said...

Weird, they didn't bother to photograph the blowjob machine that must be included to justify that price tag.

JRSM said...

Marketing blowjob machines to minors is always a tricky area, I suspect.

Thomas Hogglestock said...

I love Treasure Island but even taking a close look at the boat on the cover I would never guess that it was designed by Frank Gehry.