Small Is Bountiful

I generally confine news wrap-up posts to my other blog, The Rap Sheet. However, a number of small design-related items have passed across my desk recently that, while they may not justify posts of their own, might be of interest to some readers.

• UK comics expert Steve Holland has put together several collections of covers from old Fontana Books editions of novels, some of which belong in the crime-fiction category. He’s broken down many of them according to their cover artists (John Keay, Eileen Walton, and John Rose), but others are grouped by author (Laurence Meynell, Alistair MacLean and Ngaio Marsh).

• The Casual Optimist celebrates British designer Stuart Bache “wonderfully stark” covers for Spectre’s lline of John Le Carré novels.

• I’ve spent much of my career editing print mags, so I found this video in The FontFeed utterly delightful. You should, too.

• For authors who choose (or are compelled) to go the independent-publishing route, which means they may have a greater say in how their books are presented, Jane Friedman of Writer’s Digest offers “10 Tips for Effective Book Covers.” It’s hard to argue with her simple suggestions.

• The Book Designer’s Joel Friedlander talks with Joshua Tallent of Ebookarchitects.com about “many of the issues self-publishers face when they try to move their books to e-book formats.”

• And even before actor Daniel Craig stimulated debate over super-spy James Bond’s hair color, Pan Books’ 1955 paperback edition of Casino Royale introduced the idea of a blond 007.