Monday, 10 November 2008

The Noir of Michael Kellner

Many, many thanks to book designer Ian Shimkoviak for pointing me in the direction of Michael Kellner. He's an American designer who has done some lovely work, especially for a number of classic noir and neo-noir books. Click for bigger versions.











And here's another one of his, which while not noir in any way, is too cool and too odd to neglect.



UPDATE: Mr Kellner has added: "I'd like to share credit with my partner-in-crime-fiction photographer on some of these covers: Christopher Voelker. That's his forthcoming monograph at the end."
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6 comments:

  1. Ian Koviak11 November 2008 at 20:37

    http://bindings.lib.ua.edu/

    if you have not been here yet, please do check it out. Some amazing, old book design work and binding...

    I just thought it tied in with the whole specialty binding for these books that Michael does for Dennis McMillan Publications...

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  2. JRSM11 November 2008 at 21:11

    Wow--I'd never seen that site before. What an amazing resource: I suspect I'm going to be exploring it for a loooong time. Thanks so much for pointing me at it.

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  3. Ian Koviak26 January 2009 at 09:08

    on the subject of detectives:
    http://eduardoruiztapasdelibros.blogspot.com/2009/01/el-dilema-de-los-prceres.html

    I love the cartoon-meets-real quality of this cover... reminds me of Drummond's detective novel covers...

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  4. JRSM26 January 2009 at 14:26

    That's a great cover: just as you say about the cartoonish Holmes shadow regarding the "real" room. I'd never come across Eduardo Ruiz before--thanks for the link. There's some really nice stuff there. I just wish my translating software did a better job turning his commentary to English!

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  5. Ian Koviak26 May 2009 at 21:34

    more in crime fiction: Wonderful new book cover exposé from Joe Montgomery by The Design Works Group Face Out blog: http://faceoutbooks.com/28015

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  6. JRSM28 May 2009 at 01:27

    Thanks for that link, Ian: those new covers are really attractive, and have reminded me that I've been meaning to read more Ross Macdonald, and that these covers give me the excuse to do so!

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