Archive for July, 2010


Objectivity, 1968

The land of Objectivity looks a little like where Q-bert lived.

Cover design by William Hollingshead.

Q-bert, geometric designs, 60s cover art, sixties book design, 1968 graphic design, phenomenological ontology, objectivity, william hollingshead, william earle, isometric designs, cubes


Feast of Fools, 1969

“A theological essay on festivity and fantasy.” Whoa.

Though it’s clearly of its time, it’s still a tight design, and the total package is quite well done. Jacket design by Gretchen Rosengren.

psychedelic design, 60s book cover, sixties jacket design

sixties graphics, overprint, 60s pattern, gretchen rosengren

psychedelic graphic design, harvey cox, dayglow book cover, fluorescent ink, 1969

Below: This is not some bit of RGB trickery: the end pages are crazy dayglow—hurts the eyes.

fluorescent ink sixties, 60s book design, gretchen rosengren, harvard books


Animate Illusions, 1974

A really beautiful, abstract composition. Jacket design by Jack Brodie.

abstract composition, circles overlapping, 70s graphics, 1970s illustration, jack brodie, university of nebraska publishing, harold toliver, blue overprint


Ionesco, 1958

An earlier Roy Kuhlman design. Damn. He needs his own category on this site…


This is one of my favorites. Unfortunately, no design credit.

70s book jacket design, seventies cover graphics, book cover design, geometric, abstract, 1977, seventies mustard yellow

70s pattern design, seventies geometric pattern, graphic design 1977, book cover design, jacket design
1997 graphic design, alan donagan, phiosophy book, seventies, 70s graphic design


The New Reformation? 1965

The illustration style is classic 60s (signed “Light”?), but what really caught my eye was the color palette.


The External Degree, 1973

Jacket design by Willi Baum.

70s graphic design, seventies book design, cyril o Houle, willi baum, 1973 education book

Also interesting is this very subtle overprinting detail at the center.


Philosophy Series

There are at least 9 others in this series. And I probably would have bought them all if they’d had them.

Left, 1971. Right, 1967.

60s and 70s book cover design, seventies graphics, sixties book design, abstract graphics, publishing design, oxford library, philosophy series, 1960s design system, 70's series


Otto von Bismarck, 1972

Cover design by Harold Pattek.

70s book cover design, geometric abstract graphics, seventies, 1972, harold pattek, otto von bismarck, hamerow, heath publishing


The Unnamable, 1958

An early one by our pal Roy Kuhlman.

50s graphic design, abstract book covers, roy kuhlman, samuel beckett, the unnamable, evergreen originals, grove press, 1958, book cover design


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