Penguin science fiction

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The Drought, 1968; design by Richard Hollis, photography by Dr. J Comroe.

James Pardey contacted me earlier this week announcing his site devoted to Penguin Books’ science fiction covers. I posted some of my own dishevelled copies a while back and this news gives me an excuse to throw up another Ballard cover. Pardey’s site is just the kind of thing I enjoy seeing, with a comprehensive collection and detailed notes for each design. The front page is especially good since you can see immediately how the look of the titles evolved, from spare layouts and pictorial covers through to bold graphic design which culminates in David Pelham’s great run as designer during the 1970s. Creative Review posted a talk Pelham gave a couple of years ago which explores his work at Penguin and touches on the covers he did for Ballard. A shame they didn’t do a complete set of Ballard’s titles at the time, I’d have loved to see how he treated the other books.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The book covers archive

Previously on { feuilleton }
• Penguin Labyrinths and the Thief’s Journal
• Penguin Surrealism
• Penguin book covers

The art of Anthony Goicolea

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Premature (2003).

It’s difficult to avoid the word “dreamlike” when looking at Anthony Goicolea‘s carefully-staged tableaux, all of which use the artist himself as their subject, redressed and multiplied by Photoshop into an army of clones. The artist-as-model isn’t a new thing—Cindy Sherman has been doing this for years—but the possibilities of digital manipulation still seem rather under-explored in the contemporary art world; whether that’s down to a lack of the necessary aptitude on the part of artists or simply avoidance of a medium more commonly associated with advertising and illustration is hard to say.

Continue reading “The art of Anthony Goicolea”

Ropetackle Golden Ale

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The last of the current round of new work updates is a beer label design for the Adur Brewery. The company specialises in bespoke brews and so commissions labels for each new ale. This one will be sold exclusively at the Ropetackle Arts Centre in Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex. If anyone sees a bottle in the wild this summer, send me a photo and I’ll post it here.

Update: Andy at Adur Brewery tells me that the beer isn’t exclusive to the Ropetackle Centre but will be sold elsewhere. Cases are already being sent out.