Work Matters

Tag: Book Covers

  • The Best Book Cover Ever? The Denial of Aging

    The Denial of Aging
    I was exchanging emails with a Harvard University Press editor named Elizabeth Knoll and I commented that the cover of C.K.  Gunsalus' The College Administrator's Survival Guide is one of the best I had ever seen.  The designer, according the jacket cover is Jill Breitbarth. By the way, the contents of this Guide are also fantastic! 

    Well, when I mentioned how much I liked that cover, Elizabeth sent me a link to another Harvard cover, the amazing one above, which after some confusion (note this post is corrected), turns out to be by Gwen Nefsky Frankfeldt — apparently now retired.    I can't vouch for the book itself, but especially given the title, that might be the best book cover I have ever seen.  I am 58 and there are times when feel like I am that guy with big white beard! 

    Tell me what you think, and if there is a cover you believe is even better, I would love to see it.

    For fun, here is other cover I liked so much

    The-College-Administrator-s-Survival-Guide-Gunsalus-C-K-9780674023154

     

     

  • The Croatian No Asshole Cover: One of the Most Funny

    NAR in Croatian

    One of the most fun things about The No Asshole Rule is seeing all the different ways that designers have fun with the cover.  There are some wonderful variations. 

    I love the Italian cover, with its shocking red.  The Polish one is charmingly weird (especially the picture of the guy hanging himself from his tie). The Slovenian cover, with the pig is one of my favorites for its silly simplicity. The Russian cover is strange with the stop sign — several native speakers have told me the title is rather obscene.  The Portuguese cover is a bit dull.  I think the Japanese cover is the most beautiful. I have a hard copy of the Chinese translation, which has all these cute panda bears, but can't find a picture. And then there is another one that is Chinese too that has picture of a fly swatter smacking little people around (sorry the picture on the web is pretty small). I can't find a picture of the Korean cover on the web, but they say it has sold well and I still get inquires from Korean journalists about it.

      I also can't complain about the original design and how several countries including Denmark, Germany, Holland, France just used the original delete button.  The French version published in Quebec is different and the way they translated is pretty funny, something like "Zero dirty dogs,"  which similar to the Korean take on it, which I think is "Zero Asshole Rule." 

    I was reminded of all this last week when I got a few copies of the latest translation — in Croatian.  The cover just cracked me up, and everyone else in the family. That exploding head is pretty weird. I probably missed a few countries in my list here, but is was entertaining to go back and look at all the crazy versions.