In the early 1800s, book covers were solely for protection and preservation. Usually, paper or calf hide were attached to or around the manuscripts. It was not until the 1820s that publishers began using the book jackets to attract buyers. The earliest known 'dust jacket was published in 1832.
The Bolted Book, the first attempt at industrializing books and typographic covers, was created in 1927 by Fortunato Deperno. There were advertisements and poems in the book, creating a mis-matched and disorganized composition. Deperno’s idea was to create a book like a machine
and make it look like it could fall apart at any second.
The Medium is the Massage by Quentin Fiore was another ground-breaking book. It did not follow the standard number of words per page and the layout of the cover was not inspired by its manuscript but was initiated by a designer. (1968)
The Telephone Book by Richard Eckersley featured complex and unique patterns of layout and spacing unlike other novels of the time. Its text was composed to look like a design itself--uneven spacing, different typefaces, and inconsistent styles of writing.
“The linearity of the average book wouldn’t work.”
“Each page was a performance-”
It is important to learn the history and milestones of book design so as to understand the complete evolution of print. The change in production and appearance allows insight into where book covers and design will go.
I particularly think that your blog is so important for people to read currently. As technology advances, society is engaging more with technology like ebooks that are replacing physical book copies. I love the way that you portray the evolution of the book and I learned a lot about the creation and style of texts over time. Keep up the great, interesting things you're posting. Excited to learn more about print.. since it is not the topic I chose :)
ReplyDeleteI really like your blog and I think it's really interesting because book covers make up a big part of the overall marketing of a book, which is obviously huge to the entire print industry. I especially liked this post because it's important to know the history behind something that might seem typical, or even normal. For some reason I'd never thought about the fact that at some point someone had to realize that book covers could be used as marketing techniques, but now that I think about it, it's a pretty ingenious idea. Keep up the good work!
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