Liselotte Watkins's Wildes

Penguin UK have just published a set of five books by Oscar Wilde: his sole novel, a collection of his verse, a collection of his stories, a collection of his essays and, instead of a collection of his plays (the obvious fifth volume, I would have thought), a collection of his aphorisms and other sayings*.

The books are designed by Stefanie Posavec, with illustrations of sinister and decadent young 1890s men supplied by fashion artist Liselotte Watkins. They make use of an appropriate colour scheme of purples, yellow-browns and blues, and they look really good. Click for bigger versions.

* This aphorisms collection has had a weird longevity for something originally published as a cash-in for the Stephen Fry-starring movie about Oscar Wilde from 1997: the book has been in print for the whole of the 13 intervening years, in several editions.

This is How to Do It

You're a publisher printing a series of classic books to raise money for AIDS relief (through the (RED) organisation). You want them to be eye-catching and beautiful. You make them look like these--absolutely stunning. (Click for huge versions.)

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

I asked Jim Stoddart, Art Director at Penguin Press, about who did each cover and how they came about. This is what he had to say: "We’re starting with a series of 8 titles in this collaboration with the Aids awareness fund (RED), with the prospect of putting more titles into this series in the near future. Each cover switches the usual black of Penguin Classics for the (RED) red and instead of using an image we’re using a quote from the text of the book, and I’m aiming to commission a unique typographer for each cover."

The designers responsible are as follows:

Anna Karenina designed by Fuel
Dracula designed by Non-Format
Great Expectations designed by Stefanie Posavec (Penguin Press Art Dpt)
The House of Mirth designed by Nathan Burton
Notes From Underground designed by Gray318 (Jon Gray)
The Secret Agent designed by Coralie Bickford-Smith (Penguin Press Art Dpt) (interviewed here)
Therese Raquin designed by Jim Stoddart (Penguin Press Art Dpt)
The Turn of the Screw designed by Studio Frith

I promised myself I would not buy books I already owned even if the new covers were amazing. But then again, this is for charity...

Poe!

Early next year Penguin UK is putting out a Peter Ackroyd-edited collection of Edgar Allan Poe short stories, with a very unconventional and really cool collage cover.



I love the way that even the Penguin Classics branding uses cut-up bits of old Penguin designs: a 1970s Modern Classics logo, a 1990s 'Penguin Classics' bit of type, and the author's name from the newest 2000s Classics type.

I don't yet know who did this, but big praise to whoever is responsible.

UPDATE: Designer Stefanie Posavec write to say that she provided the cut-up Penguin bits, and the original collage (see below) was altered by Harland Miller.

Also, if you ever see that film of 'The Black Cat', the poster of which decorates the wall in that collage, you're in for 65 minutes of serious bonkersness.

UPDATE: Super-star JonathanM of the Bookseller Crow points out what I was too stupid to realise, which is that this is a Poe-ised modification of Richard Hamilton's 'Just What Is It that Makes
Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?'.