art & design of the world

As announced a few weeks ago, I've asked three independent bookstores to contribute to this year's Favorite Covers of 2009 coverage. Here are the selections from the staff of WORD in Brooklyn, NY. Three more lists (including my selections) are on the way.

The only guideline I asked the good folks at WORD to follow was to limit their selections to books published this year, so I was glad to see them include some YA and children's books -- I don't get around to discussing either genre very often.

I couldn't chase down all the design credits, so if you know something I don't, please set me on the right track so that I can give proper credit for this fantastic work. And of course correct me if I've gotten something wrong.

There's a poll at the bottom of the post: vote for your favorite. The top three vote-getting designs from this list will eventually join the other favorites from the upcoming lists in a final poll.

Lastly: each title is linked to WORD's online store. Something tickling your fancy? Support indie bookstores and buy from them.

WORD's favorite covers of the year, in no particular order, are:

Wuthering Heights, design by Ruben Toledo: "This is our favorite of the three covers Toledo did for Penguin Classics Deluxe Editions."


The Sickness Unto Death, design by David Pearson: "This is really a shout-out to the entire line-up of the newest installment of the Penguin Great Ideas series, though this is probably our favorite cover of the bunch. These are some of the most irresistible book covers I have ever seen. They're all embossed. Almost everyone who looks at them touches them and then moans ecstatically."


There Once Lived a Woman Who Tried to Kill Her Neighbor's Baby, design by Christopher Brand: "This made our top 10 last month, probably solely on the strength of the cover."


The Stories of Vladimir Nabokov, design by Barbara de Wilde: "We love the new Nabokov covers, and this is our favorite of the bunch."


Seven Nights, design by Rodrigo Corral: "Love this so much that I continually re-display it just to look at it."


Pure, design by Cara Petrus: "a teen novel about purity rings and the girls who wear them (and a girl who breaks her pledge). "


The Book of Fathers: design by John Gall, collage by Nicole Natri: "The men and the arms on the cover are raised. It's possible we just like this because it looks like the art of a former employee. Didn't love it at first, but it has really grown on us since it came in, to the point that now we love it."



Che's Afterlife: The Legacy of an Image; design by Mark Abrams, cover image by Jim Fitzpatrick, original photo by Alberto Korda: "There could be no better cover for a book about history's most reproduced image."


The Children's Book, design by Stephen Parker, "adapted by Gabrielle Wilson" (per the jacket): "A beautiful cover that only gets more beautiful after you've read the book."


(I snapped this to show some of the detail; there's a much better photo here):


The City Out My Window: "The only die-cut we will ever like in this store (we hate die cuts because they inevitably rip on the floor, no matter what you do with them, and then nobody wants to buy them). But this one is thick cardboard, and obviously a perfect choice of a book of window pictures."


The End of Food, design by Mark Robinson: "Love when the paperback is way better than the hardcover."


The Lion and the Mouse, designer by Saho Fuji: "Not sure if this one counts, but we love it."


The Most Beautiful Book in the World, design by Emanuele Ragnisco: "Even though it feels kind of busy on this cover, the image is just so great."


Never Smile At A Monkey: And 17 Other Important Things to Remember, design by Scott Magoon, illustration by Steve Jenkins: "Even though it kinda scares me."

Design by Lisa Marie Pompilio
Photograph by Ken Rosenthal

The first of this year's favorite covers posts will appear tonight (I have to chase down a few design credits). In the meantime, feast on this, before it feasts on you.

Thin is in.

(The Pattern in the Carpet designed by Martha Kennedy; Changing My Mind designed by Richard Bravery and illustrated by Si Scott; Memoir designed by Rodgrigo Corral and illustrated by Corral and Ben Wiseman)

Johnny Depp is an american actor who has been famous around the world under the name Jack Sparrow the drunk captain from Pirates of the Caribbean movie series. He is a man of style and passion and changes his fashion styles very often. You can find some of his most popular celebrity haircuts here.

Johnny Depp used many hairstyles trends and he's got very huge fan following for his hair styles.He went from short to long hair, messy hair, conrows hair, curly hair, crop hair, layered hairstyles, latest side fringe haircut and he 's going for short layered hair with a small beard for his upcoming films in 2009. Take a look at these different Johnny depp haircuts for fall 2008.

A Heartbeat and a Guitar designed by Shepard Fairey
When Giants Walked the Earth designed by Orion Books

I don't do snarky very well, but on the way to see the new Shepard Fairey-designed book about Johnny Cash, I saw this new clearly-not-designed-by-Shepard Fairey book about Led Zeppelin. You get what you pay for.




UPDATE: Orion Creative Director Lucie Stericker was nice enough to point out that images of all four members have been produced as posters; here's everyone else:

Young boys in the teenage look more sexy when they apply side bangs to their haircuts up to their shoulder or long enough to give a fashionable look. Below there are so many great looking medium haircuts for men with very long bangs blended in various haircuts.These haircuts can be maintained easily and makes you much more attractive ..

BDR reader Cynthia pointed this out to me this morning; it's one of six in the Penguin Magnum Collection published earlier this year. Click for a much larger version -- and note the removable sticker. Cool.


Penguin has published a number of different editions over the years; here's a few. The first is designed by David Pelham (1970); the second is uncredited and is from 1966. (The first two images are from Seven Hundred Penguins.) Anyone know anything about the last two?




Illustration by Andy Bridge:


UPDATE: I missed this one, designed by S. Neil Fujita. (Read about the hatpin and Capote's reaction to it here):

Men need to look like a royal king in certain occassions like cocktail parties,weddings,company functions or any young guys going for their prom ballerina dancing ground.Tuxedos are very commonly used by every man to look stylish and give a formal look simultaneously.

Wearing a tuxedo with the right haircut that suits your body
perfectly can make you king of any party.Below are the latest formal
tuxedo haircuts for guys with long,short,curly,wavy,medium or any
type of thick, thin, blonde, black hair.