Dorothy Parker never really had a great cover for any of her books until almost 40 years after her death. Now that hard work by Seth, the amazing Canadian artist who created the 2006 Portable Dorothy Parker cover with French flaps, has been rewarded. The Design Museum in London (on Shad Thames, which I think is an address of some type) has announced its first Design Awards. Maybe because Penguin is owned by a British company it was eligible? The Brit Insurance Graphics Award was given to Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition, to creative director Paul Buckley and co-art director Helen Yentus (design by various artists for Penguin Group USA).
In addition to Seth’s work on Dorothy Parker (a book that has been in print since 1944, and had a horrible cover for 60+ years), the other stunning designs in the initial series (since expanded) included:
*Voltaire’s Candide (cover by Chris Ware);
*Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales (cover by Anders Nilsen);
*Stella Gibbons’ Cold Comfort Farm (cover by Roz Chast);
*Paul Auster’s The New York Trilogy (cover by Art Spiegelman);
*Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle (cover by Charles Burns).
Congratulations to Buckley and Yentus, but more importantly, the artists/cartoonists/designers who did the hard work for such great books.