Adrian Jackson's Blog: Covers to Cover - Posts Tagged "ian-fleming"

Once a writer develops a canon, his or her subsequent book covers tend to take on a templated look. Ian Fleming’s Bond books – first editions (http://www.ianfleming.com) – are individualistic and very simply designed until From Russia With Love, which is the standard bearer for the rest of the collection with a couple of exceptions. Most of the books have a recurring slab of wood on the cover and colors are from a muted palette. While I appreciate the hand drawn artistry of these covers, a more recent collection caught my attention.

The book covers by artist Michael Gillette (http://www.michaelgillette.com/#/portfolio), done in 2008 for Penguin Books, are phenomenal! Sometimes artists are intimidated by a larger than life project like this one – a rerelease in celebration of Fleming’s birthday – but Gillette puts it all on the graphics table for these books. The covers have a swanky-pop ’60s and ’70s style that reminds me of old movie posters.


If you look at other iterations of Fleming’s Bond books, you’ll see what other artist do wrong when tasked with representing such high profile collection. After you laugh at the absurd recurrence of a red dot (current collection on Amazon), cruise over to Pinterest to savor Gillette’s work. Link here: http://pinterest.com/adjack2000/covers-to-cover

The iconic “Bond Girls” are featured on the cover collection in watercolor. Each cover color uses a different color scheme but they are all related by their subdued quality. The girls are sexy, sassy and funky. They are scantily clad or not clad at all, but tastefully done.

Design Grades:
A+// Once the artist made the decision to put Bond Girls on the cover, he could have gone cutesy with color choices, but he didn’t. He went weird, cheeky, and far outside of the box.

A+// Great continuity of the collection! Each cover has it’s own color palette but they all work together in harmony.

A+ // Excellent interpretation of each book with very little use of weaponry – two guns, one martini.

Extra Credit: Michael Gillette, you could have gone establishment with this kind of client, but chose to show talent and confidence instead. Head to the front of the class, sir.