Even now, with e-mails and text, I like keeping in contact with dear friends through the post. I received a small envelope in the post from a friend, which included a letter, some trading cards, and a postcard of a Pelican book cover. The postcard is of Creativity in Industry by P. R. Whitfield, with the cover image by David Pelham. I really appreciate the visual pun of the pencils and their led scribbles representing a busy factory’s smokestacks and exhaust.
I thought to look at other, older Pelican book covers, and found some that struck me as visually distinct or clever. I thought to share some of them here. I have sourced these book cover scans from other websites (which you could check out, if interested to see vintage book covers other than Pelican’s).
The traffic lights are all on red or amber, and so one can’t yet make a move. The glass of the stoplights imitate unnerving sets of eyes.
What start out as a row of uniform cubes, become more individualistic as the eyes move down the cover.
Another visual pun where the stylised tree also stands in for the literal branching of species’ development.
Deceptively simple, but clever. The amount of significance this image holds feels as if it is up to the viewer’s interpretation, much as a pice of fine art.
The juxtaposition of a skeletal arm on a cover with the words “life” printed above reinforces the knowledge of the death brought along with radiation.
These designs have to perform well enough for potential readers to opt to buy these books. I think these covers say something interesting, while holding back enough information to tease the observer’s curiosity.
I feel that as a student of design, it’s important to be taking note of both contemporary work and design from past decades, and to try and gauge what makes a piece successful (or even why a piece might fall flat).
DESIGN WORKS 