14 Comments

Really nice.
Shaun Tollerton
2008-07-28 17:34:11

Such a great collaboration! Quite an unlikely one too...
Sam
2008-07-28 17:52:59

its the emperors new clothes innit?

huge amount of effort, technology, creativity, custom this custom that, valid on design design, smeddling wankcroprises, theoritical infinate possibilies, coded art direction, boundary limitations, bullying chimp manifestations of logic, extrapolations, decompostions, semi random fonticulations, data, paper. and then push the button and after a huge amount of humming, whirring, big big levers being pulled and loud mechanical noises, then a little fart noise sound. and one of these drops out.

'ooooh its wonderful, its so modern, so fresh, so beautiful sir. it fits you like a glove. we are so great arent we. we're so forward. so directional. arent we so so so so clever. so on it.'
dadif
2008-07-28 17:53:19

lovely post on a super-interesting project.

BUT - I think you should re-edit the typeface part and add credit where credit is due - to Corey Holms, who completed the type design and production;
http://www.coreyholms.com/portfolio/project.php?id=35
Yotam
2008-07-28 23:18:54

@dadif

"theoretical infinate possibilities" ??

You sir are a statesman.
Greg J. Smith
2008-07-29 01:33:15

One doesn't expect the concept to line these books but considering the place it's aired I find little wrong with that Dadif / John Ludd of the intellect. The article is meant to illuminate the process.

I think it's a very elegantly solved problem and an excellent collaboration.
honest joe
2008-07-29 10:25:02

These covers are wonderful, but it's a shame that Faber didn't carry this passion through to the contents, which are badly set, or the manufacture, which is shoddy.

Moreover, anyone who works in books knows that white covers are a disaster as they become grubby before they ever reach the customer. That's appalling design.

For more on this, see this post, if you'd like...
James Bridle
2008-07-29 11:40:03

I have mixed feelings about this. Whilst I applaud any publishing model that can resurrect lost and out-of-print books which might otherwise have never appeared, I am not sure the design was wholly appropriate.

Whilst the typeface, with its swashy flourishes, is undeniably pretty, these additions serve to unbalance what appears to be a cosmetically enhanced Bodoni typeface, making the titles appear somewhat blobby and uneven. This is only compounded by (at least on the title I bought) pretty slack letter-spacing, which neatly (or messily) detracts from what I assume to be the desired aesthetic. If you're going to hand control of the typesetting over to an algorythm, perhaps a more utilitarian font, with more even weight and consistent kerning might be more suitable.

Also, the content of the book (as metioned above) is riddled with typos.
Tom Bevan
2008-08-22 19:27:43

Does anybody know what typeface the Faber logo is made up from? I'm finding it very difficult to find a vector version for a college project. Thanks.
Michael Barker
2009-01-26 17:00:40

Did you get hold of a decent Faber logo? Also manage to get the Faber Film logo as well?

If you did, please could you help me out?

Thanks.
Jo Malcolm
2009-02-14 17:40:39

I think this is an interesting use of fledgling technology, but as an owner of three Faber Finds, I too have found the content pretty poor in terms of proof-reading. I think they used some sort of scanning software to create a master of the original pages. the number of errors is farcical in places. I have practically learnt a new language trying to interpret them.
Nicholas Flook
2009-02-18 15:03:34

Never mind the design, what about the content. I have read three of these Faber Finds, and while I am very happy they are reprinting the work of Lionel Davidson, the copy editing is appalling.

The text is riddled with errors. I would prefer a plain book cover with proper editing. And white does get grubby!
Nigel Southworth
2010-10-04 13:59:23

Whilst the concept of generating book covers is an exciting one and hats off to the developers, I think the outcome is less successful. Just looking at the Angus Wilson cover, the type is set erratically (using negative leading on the title & positive on the author's name) which looks untidy. The typeface itself is a horribly bastardised Didone or Bodoni and appears scrappy and uneven (not to mention the awful kerning, which I'm sure the software doesn't alter). This would be enough to let you off the hook, however, if you are using a program to generate type, surely pick a face that lends itself to un-kerned typesetting.



For a company in which words hold so much power and meaning, the type treatments should be of the utmost importance - rather they seem to be a secondary thought - pasted onto a beautiful, lovingly crafted graphic border.



I can only imagine that lack of time has caused the creators to spend a majority of their time dealing with the complexities of the image generation and the other elements have fallen by the wayside. I won't mention the content as I haven't read any of the series, but if the above posts are correct in saying the editing is awful … well, nuff said. Better luck next time folks and all due credit for the effort, I'm sure this was no easy task!
Ross
2011-01-20 18:26:00

Nearly finished John Cowper Powys' "Wood and Stone" and the typos are frequent and crass - notably about half the occurrences of the surname Romer appear as Homer - thus 'Mr Homer' - almost making me think that some twerp with a schoolkid's mind is sneaking references to 'The Simpsons' into a 1915 novel. All credit for reprinting some almost unobtainable gems, but I am going to have to go to the openlibrary.org online facsimile of the first edition to correct my Faber print copy, page by page! Grrr
Jonathan Hutchins
2011-05-01 18:16:56

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