Archive for February, 2012


Designers love arrows. Especially overprinty ones. Design by Maxine Renee Clement.

sixties book design, 60s graphic design, book cover psychology, overprint, abstract, arrows

book cover design 1960s, 60s design, sixties graphic design, maxine renee clement, psychotherapy

overprint, abstract, arrows, 60s cover design


The Black Cloud, 1960

I’ve been staying away from Penguins lately in favor of more obscure publishers, but this one caught my eye. The “cover drawing by John Griffiths” is a little different for them.

penguin cover, 60s book cover design, sixties graphic design, science fiction cover


Language in Society, 1965

Proto-punk typography. And I love the blank back.

ransom note type, mixed fonts, 60s typography, sixties book design

60s graphic design, sixties book cover, red and purple, minimal


No design credit. Another one that was hard to shoot without a moire.

70s book cover design, seventies graphic design, abstract book jacket

abstract book cover design, op art, 1975

70s book jacket design, abstract op art cover, helvetica


Cyrano de Bergerac, 1966

Gotta love this. Design: Gips & Danne.

cyrano, graphic cover, gips and danne, 60s book design, sixties graphic design

60s book cover, sixties graphic design, cyrano de bergerac, bantam 1966


The Jazz Scene, 1961

Great typographic cover by Alan Fletcher. Always interesting to find a cool Penguin from prior to their more well-known layout configuration. Oh, and of course, yay overprinting!

alan fletcher, 60s book cover design, penguin sixties, jazz typography

60s condensed type, alan fletcher design, penguin cover, overprint, sixties typographic


Illusions, 1968

Just couldn’t make a version of this without a crazy moire! So click to zoom and check out the detail image. Love the teeny little shapes caught in the trippy spiral. And that tight Microgramma.

sixties book cover design, trippy spiral book jacket, 60s graphic design, andre maurois

illusions, maurois, columbia, 60s graphic design, spiral, microgramma


At first glance I thought this was new—the constructed type seems so contemporary. A book on Swedish, in English, printed in the Netherlands.

70s graphic design, seventies book cover design, bitmap typography 1970s, swedish, dutch design

seventies book cover, 70s graphic design, swedish, dutch book


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