Wednesday, 14 December 2011

Vintage Versions [Part 1]

The first of two posts about Vintage UK redesigns of backlist books, this is a look at the Vintage 21. In celebration of the imprint's 21st birthday, they had 21 of their most popular books printed with text-only covers. More importantly, each of the 21 was printed all in one colour (with some variations of shade)--the front, back, text and even page edges were all matched.



The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, printed in white, might have seemed drab next to the others, but special extra-bright paper was used to fit it with the rest of the set.

Here are the three which I both did not already own and did want to read.




The effect is very dramatic, especially with several of them together, as you can see. Nobody is credited on the books themselves with the series design, so that must remain a mystery.
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9 comments:

  1. matthew.14 December 2011 at 20:04

    Can you post a link to the list of them? They look pretty snazzy

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  2. JRSM14 December 2011 at 21:24

    http://tinyurl.com/8yfsrp8 will take you to the listing of them at Amazon.co.uk, so that you can see the range of titles.

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  3. Brian Busby15 December 2011 at 05:45

    Each a thing of beauty and a joy forever. It's particularly nice to see the edge staining. So rarely done these days, but it does catch the eye. Still trying to remove the hook that entered several years ago ago when Gregory Maguire's Wicked was issued in mass market with vibrant green stain. Almost got me to buy the book (which I understand is good fun).

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  4. Anonymous15 December 2011 at 07:44

    This is probably a stupid question, but...the actual pages aren't that color, right? Just the edges? I LOVE looking at them in the color wheel.

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  5. Desperate Reader15 December 2011 at 12:09

    I loved the look of these and wish I wanted more/had less of them.

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  6. JRSM15 December 2011 at 13:25

    Brian: It's very effective, especially when you see a lot of them. The most recent Julian Barnes used black edge staining on the first print run, which worked very well, too.

    Thatcovergirl: Just the edges, don't worry, so the text is still legible!

    Desperate Reader: I feel the same--I have a number of them in earlier, less appealing editions, and am trying to persuade myself that I don't need to upgrade.

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  7. Ian Koviak15 December 2011 at 15:19

    damn.

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  8. Adam18 December 2011 at 15:05

    They are a god-send to bookshops, the displays they are used to create look wonderful.

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  9. JRSM18 December 2011 at 15:10

    I wish I'd seen some such displays--here they've just been mixed in with everything else, which is a missed opportunity.

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