Peter Mendelsund

Peter Mendelsund is a book designer and author of Cover and What We See When We Read. He has designed classic re-workings, non-fiction, contemporary fiction and New Yorker covers. His work is highly design-lead, striking and vibrant with a focus on typography. 

The above image makes clever use of a holographic finish which adds an unusual and interesting dimension, while the second contrasts against it with solid blocks of neon and careless, black marker font.

Mendelsund was previously a pianist, and it is perhaps this musical background that lends itself to his art of composition. Never able to rely on a single illustrator and a generic font, each cover is designed thoroughly with little if any reference to past editions. The uniqueness of each title is perhaps the most intriguing this about Mendelsund's collection on his blog.

 It is clear that each post is designed with the content in mind, and comes from an angle that hasn't been seen before. In an interview with Print Mag, Peter Mendelsud states that the most common comment passed on his work is 'How did you get that approved?' While this could sound like a derision - and appears to be taken as such by the artist - it attests to the originality of his work. It also signifies the opinion that some people have about publishing as a whole, and indicates that it can be viewed as a stuffy business. This makes Peter Mendelsund's work especially valuable in the process of breaking down these stereotypes, and perhaps lends itself to him success.

In this same interview, speaking of his work, Mendelsund states ' I don’t see any covers that seem particularly outré or overly daring' which is also valid, as the covers seem to settle in and come together logically upon reading the work. Each cover has a particular symbol which once understood, is unforgettable.The imagery used isn't particularly controversial or offensive, but just striking enough to stand alone. 

In this interview, Mendelsund also gives a significant list of 'do's' and 'don'ts' for aspiring or existing book designers, with lines such as:

•  An editor or author may know more about a book and its audience than you do, but also: they may not.
• “Why?” is always a valuable question to ask.

Questioning everything (and everyone) appears to be a common theme in his design process. This enables Mendelsund to formulate concepts without answering to others. However, while it first appears that he works as a lone artist, publishing - as I have learned over the course of this year - is an extremely collaborative process, and it is perhaps more true that his work offers a fresh insight to old and modern classics, which is welcomed by the industry. Working with such a diverse range of publishing companies attests somewhat to the importance of a designer to be a collaborator and to work in partnership as a unit to publish an well-designed, saleable edition.

 

 

  

 

 

 

In an interview with The New Yorker, while speaking of his design process, Mendelsund states 'the reading, the translating of the reading into the imagination, and the translating of the imagination into an actual physical artifact' [sic]. This could be transferable to a range of designers, but it is these abstract imaginative concepts that can be attributed to the strength of design. Rather than reproduce an image literally using photography or illustration, Mendelsund focusses on a concept or an idea that runs through the text. 

In the same interview, the line 'It has to be generalized enough that other people can look at the cover and say, “That’s the kind of thing I would imagine as well” ' suggests that Mendelsund takes marketability and saleability into consideration when formulating his book design. While the covers are all suitably abstract and thought-driven, they are similarly clean and simplistic enough to be digestible to a reader perusing for a book on a website or on a shelf. 

Rather than rely on subtlety and inference, the designs evoke a plain-speaking and overt sense of description, which is particularly appealing to the modern, digital-speaking audience. The covers draw immediate attention from a scanning reader, and portray Mendelsund's knowledge of visual culture, and true understanding of What We See When We Read.