Retro Modern Letterpress Book Cover Design, or: The Pleasures of Nostalgia
August 11, 2010 | Tags: Adam Smith, book design, graphic design, Kierkegaard, letterpress, Nietzsche, showcase
Some months ago, in a great little bookstore in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn—the kind of place that stay open later than some of the local bars—I was stopped in my tracks by a shelf of beautiful little paperbacks that looked like a novelty letterpress imprint from some local basement publisher:
Upon closer inspection, I learned it was about as un-boutique a publisher as you can get: Penguin, in a new “Great Ideas” series—the Russians, Nietzsche, Kierkegaard, Adam Smith, etc….a sort of brainy undergraduate’s dream team. At least it had been for me. Minus the Adam Smith.
Only this week did I run across the designer of the gorgeous, highly tactile covers: Mr. David Pearson, a London-based designer who specializes in book design and branding.
Aside from his portfolio, very definitely worth a look is his Flickr site, where he shares delicious scans of some of the original old-school sources of his inspiration, including these vintage Russian matchbook covers:
