Design Work Life: Cataloging Inspiration Daily

Last night I attended AIGA’s My Dog and Pony IV, where I had the oppor­tu­nity to see four dif­fer­ent design­ers in vary­ing dis­ci­plines pitch a project. One of them was John Gall, of Vintage and Anchor Books. who focused on the cover redesigns for the works of Vladimir Nabokov. I’m not sure how I missed these when they were first unveiled to the pub­lic back in 2009, but I’m glad I had the chance to get a glimpse into the process.

In the end, the design was inspired by the author him­self, who had a pas­sion for but­ter­fly col­lect­ing. Each book fea­tures a shadow box, much like one you would use to dis­play insect spec­i­mens, that illus­trates the book’s title using paper. A series of esteemed design­ers were com­mis­sioned to each illus­trate each cover to add another level of inter­est to the series.

A few favorites are below, but you can see the entire col­lec­tion right here.

Peter Mendelsund

John Gall

Marian Bantjes