Recently in Design Category
Here's my pick for the books out July where I think idea and execution come together. Incidently, Go Mutants has a very cool site.
And Planet recent got itself a facebook page too. Although the clothing section has had its own page for a while, we thought we should have one to indulge our luv & wunderment of pop and off-centre culture. I'm already busy on it regularly posting pics and tubes that appeal to my sense of groovy, hip, cool and crap.
Our mascot, The Silver Turtle: Size of a Planet* says "check it out."
*I lied, we don't have a mascot called The Silver Turtle: Size of a Planet. Wish we did.
Best Book Covers for May
Though I use layout design combined with the execution of the art, be it photography or illustration, as to judge the quality of the final product I still pretty much just go with what I like.
Eh, what ya gonna do?
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Star Wars Sequel Anyone?
I almost forgot that on May 21st 1980, The Empire Strikes Back was released to an anxious audience. No need to tell everyone it remains the most liked of the Star Wars movies and often referred to as an example of a sequel that improves on the original (I prefer to think it builds on the first). It was a film that introduced the cinematic cliffhanger to a new generation and was the first downbeat ending that teenagers had encountered. That satisfied but still yerning feeling in the stomach when the credits went up was a new sensation for millions. And 30 years on it remains the best space adventure film. And the hand animated snowwalker battle on Hoth sequence is still superior to almost all since (yes, I'm thinking Avatar).
It remains a kick-arse adventure. Gotta be impressed.
Here's the trailer to remind you.
Oops, wrong trailer.
Eh, what ya gonna do?
Here's my choices of best book covers for April.
Well, actually, I cheated with the top three. Yes, Windup Girl is a paperback release for April, but the cover art is idenitical to last years hardcover release but I somehow missed it. Incidently, Windup Girl by Paolo Bacigalupi is fast being considered one of the hottest novels around and already slated to take numerous awards. Looks nicely po-mo which is always a bonus for me. Same with Mind Over Ship, I skipped the hardcover and also this paperback edition is a couple of months old. And oops regarding Pinion. This is the third book in Jay Lake's Clockwork Earth series and somehow I missed ordering it till April instead of March.
You probably have already guessed I'm a sucker for futuristic cityscapes and a penchant for the fantastic, so many covers usually come from genre titles. There are five graphic novels here as well. There's usually one, maybe two, but I'm seeing a growing trend by comic publishers to have the art direction more explorative. For the last three months there has been a cover by the publication house Vertigo and for April there are two, Area 10 and Luna Park.
And I assure you that the three covers with skulls is coincidence and not an indication that I have a thing for brain cases.
The world's pre-eminent artist of space and space technology Robert McCall died on Feb 26th at the age of 90. Within scientific and military world of space travel and aviation he is a legend. Among his many awards and honours is even the Yuri Gagarin Medal the Soviet Union gave him back in '88. He has left behind huge amounts of inspiring and influential art all over the place, from stamps to mission patches worn on the moon to a six-story-tall mural at the National Air and Space Museum.
Planet Blog marks his passing for one particular contribution. In 1968, Stanley Kubrick, asked him to do two paintings to be used as promotional posters for 2001: A Space Odyssey. Those posters did more than anything else to change the idea of the future in the popular 
consciousness. Prior to this the future was slick
pointy-tipped space ships, space men with bubbleheads and cars with fins. With his painting of astronauts working on the moon and the pinwheel space station the future became functional, a workman's environment. A place where people live lives dependent on hardware that look like white goods on steroids and effectively are.
And the romance of a sophisticated future as we still imagine it today is encapsulated like a genie in a bottle, ready to grant many a hi-tech wish, by Robert McCall's painting of the Pan-Am space plane exiting the double wheel station. It remains the symbol of the dream of humanity in space, the finger pointing to the imaginings of a speccy hardware future.
Not a bad contribution by a guy Isaac Asimov once referred to as the "nearest thing to an artist in residence from outer space".
But I do have one question to ask...
Does it goes this way?
Or this way?
... with a couple of Jan and maybe one from Dec.
In the past I've called this segment "Fav Covers". But screw it, I only called it my favourites cause I didn't want to come off as a tosser announcing what is superior design and art when I have no qualifications to do so. Then I realised that those who are "qualified" are simply people other people have allowed to be qualified as "qualified". So if you allow me, here are my best selects for the season.
And click on the pics to get a better scrut.
Here's my favourite book covers for titles that have arrived in Planet Books during November picked for design and execution. Two titles actually came in October but I had overlooked them at the time. I didn't think anyone would mind.
