Chronicle Books Blog

It’s fair to say that as designers at Chronicle Books, we genuinely do what we do every day for the love of it. And, in general, we are a humble lot. However, I would be lying if I said we weren’t over the moon about some recent design recognition and nominations, and thrilled for our fellow designers whose hard work and distinctive vision earned the following projects a place on these lists.

50 Books/50 Covers
Given that books are close to our hearts, we’re delighted to have been included in the 50 Books/50 Covers awards and accompanying exhibition. (For a full recap of the exhibition, see our Creative Director Michael Carabetta’s post here.)

2012 PubWest Book Design Awards
This year, PubWest honored us by including several of our titles in its 2012 PubWest Book Design Awards. As stated on the organization’s web site, the awards are given in recognition of “superior design and outstanding production quality” in the publishing industry.

Communication Arts
We’re also excited to receive recognition beyond the book world with the inclusion of Silhouette Art in the Communication Arts Design Annual and the amazing illustrations by Keith Graves (also the author!) for Orphan of Awkward Falls in Communication Arts 2012 Illustration Annual 53.

2012 Eisner Awards nomination
Referred to as the Oscars of comic books, the Eisner Awards will be announced on July 13 at this year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego. This year, Chronicle’s very own MAD Fold-In Collection has been nominated in the category of Best Archival Collection/Project–Comic Books.

2012 James Beard Award finalist nominations
And last but not least, the James Beard Foundation Awards are the crème-de-la-crème of honors in the food and beverage industry. This year, six Chronicle Books titles made the list of nominees. Winners will be announced at the annual ceremony in New York THIS WEEK on May 4 and May 7.

And the winner is . . . We’ll be on the edge of our seats waiting to find out!

Jennifer Tolo Pierce
Design Director

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April is National Poetry Month and we here at Chronicle Books love to celebrate stories told in verse. Whether it’s the waves and words of the children’s book Water Sings Blue, Lear’s poetry reimagined by Daniel Pinkwater and Caleb Brown in His Shoes Were Far Too Tight, or the inspired rendition of Shakespeare’s Love Sonnets as illustrated by the talented Caitlin Keegan, Chronicle understands the beauty of poetry. We also understand the beauty of marrying content with new forms, be it all-occasion notecards, recipe storage, or a portable pug. So, naturally, I’ve been curious about what forms beyond the printed book (and refrigerator door) poetry is taking these days.

E.E. Cummings letterpress poem by Raw Letter Press; broadside printed by Anna Fewster; print by Sycamore Street Press (photo by Nicole Hill Gerulat).

There is, of course, the classic letterpress approach to poetry, a tradition established through years of poets publishing hand-printed broadsheets as artistic representations of their work.

Wimpy poem photo by Celia Warren.

Design and poetry meet again in Berny Tan’s visual analysis of T.S. Eliot’s “The Wasteland,” while Wimpy partnered with children’s poet Brian Moses to create these fun napkins as a campaign to promote reading.

Artist Ebon Heath constructs these amazing poetry-in-motion paper-cut sculptures, reflecting the constant information exchange that surrounds us with various social media outlets. The documentary photographs are gorgeous in themselves, but I would love to one day experience these pieces in person.

And then there is Between Page and Screen, an experimental union of paper, webcam, and screen by poet Amaranth Borsuk and her husband, developer Brad Bouse. With no words, only black and white icons in the printed book, the experience of “reading” poetry takes on a whole new dimension.

Poetry is a flexible medium, as is design, so when the two get together the possibilities are endless.

Jennifer Tolo Pierce
Design Director

Popularity: 1% [?]

Spring has sprung here in the Bay Area, and the sunny weather has inspired me to think about gardening and what I might plant for the summer. What better way to dig in than to look for seeds to get things started? While many designers (myself included) swoon over the gorgeous hand-drawn type of vintage seed packets, there are more than a few contemporary takes on seed packaging that make me happy to be a gardener of this century.

The re-sealable packaging designed by Adam Paterson and Santi Tonsukha addresses the observation that many gardeners don’t use all of the seeds in a packet at one time. The packaging also allows for crop diversity through multiple compartments, each containing a different variety of seed. Seeds are held in thin rows that allow greater control over where the seeds land, while the seed tape can simply be torn off and placed on the ground.

These beautifully patterned seed packets designed by Chloe Dunn for The Balcony Gardener evoke the lush appeal of the Penguin Hardcover Classics series. One can only wonder what dramas will play out in the garden this season. Will Parsley and Aubergine find true love? Will the mysterious Carrot burrow even further away from the heady socialites of the upper humus?

Seed Bombs from VisuaLingual; Garden Bon Bons from Moulton.

There are Seed Bombs for the wild and Bon Bons for the sweet.

Package designed by I Love Dust for Allotinabox.

Seeds for the novice who wants all of the essentials in one smart package.

Pangea Organics’ seed-strewn packaging; Back to the Roots’ Mushroom Garden.

Seeds embedded in compostable packaging to encourage new tree growth, and mushrooms emerging out of coffee grounds to provide food for our tables and a good use for the byproduct of our morning cups of joe.

Sprout Your Own Leafy Wonders and Sprout Your Own Sweet Scents from Chronicle Books.

And there are even seeds for the young gardeners cultivating their green thumbs and an appreciation for nurturing something all the way from seed to harvest.

With such a bounty to choose from, it’s impossible not to want to get my hands dirty and start planting. And if my summer herbs and veggies taste even half as scrumptious as their seed packaging looks, I’ll happily call my garden a success.

Jennifer Tolo Pierce
Design Director

Popularity: 1% [?]

Design school. The late nights, printer malfunctions, the adrenaline of tackling mind-boggling challenges in a (seemingly) disproportionate amount of time. It’s an experience in your life like no other. But amidst this energetic blur there is the WISDOM—those gems of design insight from your teachers that burn themselves into your feverish design brains with such force that they will remain etched there forever.

As designers at Chronicle Books, those pearls of design school wisdom continue to act as guiding lights for each of us, which got us thinking. How about a book that would pay homage to inspired design teaching while also providing timeless advice for students, young designers entering the field, and, yes, even those of us with a few years of design practice under our belts?

Thus, the idea for the book Design School Wisdom was born. And we want to hear from YOU, the first-hand beneficiaries of all the wisdom design school imparts. So, we ask you: Will you please send us the one or two BIG LESSONS (rules, mantras, advice…) you have learned in design school and will hold tight for all your designing days? And if you are a design teacher reading this, we’d love to hear YOUR big lessons in your own words, as well!

To send us your design school wisdom, please email designwisdom@chroniclebooks.com. The quote should be brief and to the point, one to three lines and should include the following:
• The quote/advice/lesson as stated by your teacher (or by yourself, if you are the teacher)
• The teacher’s name and the school at which he/she teaches (if not a teacher yourself)
• Your name and contact information, along with the school you currently attend (or at which you teach)
• If not a teacher yourself, the contact information for the attributed teacher (email and phone), if available, for permissions and verification only (your name will not be mentioned when we contact the teacher)
• Brief context for the quote, if applicable

If your contribution is selected for inclusion in the book, you will receive a copy of the finished book, as well as mention in the book’s Acknowledgments.

AND if you mention “Design Desk” in your entry, you will be entered to win a copy of the fabulous Pantone: The 20th Century in Color.

We thank you in advance for your participation and look forward to sharing your design school wisdom with designers everywhere!

Jennifer Tolo Pierce
Design Director

Popularity: 2% [?]

A new year is just around the corner, so in honor of bidding farewell to 2011 and saying hello to 2012, Design Desk is embracing the spirit of “New Year, New You” and featuring some of our favorite cover makeovers.

As with any makeover, a new cover can inspire a shift in perception and revitalize timeless and well-loved content. And as the Penguin Classics Threads series reminds us, a makeover has the power to transfigure the simplest of forms into an object of beauty.

Left to right: A classic Emma cover and the Penguin Threads version by illustrator Jillian Tamaki.

A new cover can modernize and surprise while attracting new audiences.

Left to right: Original cover and cover illustration by Lina Stigsson for Penguin Ink.

Multiple makeovers of the same cover ensure that there’s something for every reading personality.

Left to right: Wuthering Heights 2010 cover; cover design and illustration by Jessica Hische for Sterling Publishing; and cover illustration by Ruben Toledo.

Or reflect the cultural preferences of different countries.

Left to right: The U.K. cover and the Chronicle Books version, The Wonderful World of Fifi Lapin.

A new cover can inform readers that there’s new content to discover.

Left to right: Original and revised edition of Craft, Inc.

It can elevate and engage… and make you want to drink wine.

Left to right: Original game and Chronicle Books’ revised version of Winerd.

A new cover can turn forgotten treasures of yore into relevant pearls of wisdom for today.

Left to right: Originally written and published in the 1930s; Chronicle Books’ revised edition, Bubbly on Your Budget.

Sometimes makeovers call for entire reinvention, but other times, it’s about subtly leveraging one’s assets.

Left to right: The original edition of Allure; Bullfinch edition; and cover for the Chronicle Books edition of this classic book.

Though the adage “You can’t judge a book by its cover” may ring true when applied to most things in life, we would be remiss as book designers to apply that thinking to our own craft. You can, in fact, judge a book by its cover. And sometimes a makeover is just what a cover needs.

Jennifer Tolo Pierce
Design Director

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