interesting covers, and as Glaser recalls, “They made an impact partially
because they were done in sequence, and could be grouped together in-
store.” But there was another, more arcane breakthrough, explains Glaser:
“At the time, hardcovers were not usually printed in process color, but the
paperbacks could exploit full color.” So he framed a subtly colored ink
drawing of Shakespeare’s characters on a white field with a color band
on top to identify the books and hold the logo.
Glaser understood that “the form of address had to be more
illustrative, and it was my presumption that it couldn’t be abstract or
typographical. But it could still stand out and didn’t have to be banal-
looking, like most mass-market books.” The cover illustrations helped
popularize Shakespeare’s works, and the affordability of these books made
Signet a mainstay in high school and college classes.
Following Signet’s lead, during the mid- 1960 s, other mass-market
paperback publishers reprinted serious literature and nonfiction, and
adopted more sophisticated design and illustration for new markets. Like
Glaser, Push Pin Studios cofounder Seymour Chwast employed an eclectic
array of graphic styles on covers for a wide variety of themes and authors.
“Paperbacks provided creative opportunities,” Chwast recalls. “I was not
told what to do, just given the parameters and a free hand.” Accordingly,
each style was integrally matched to the subject: “If it was something about
the South Seas, for instance, I’d do a primitive drawing.” For The Plague,
another of Albert Camus’s lugubrious existential dramas, Chwast
introduced a stark woodcut painted in an expressionist manner. “I couldn’t
do anything too fancy,” he says about the morose visage that spoke directly
to Camus’s angst. For a biography of the mystic Gurdjieff, he blended
Middle Eastern–inspired calligraphy with his eclectic, personal style.
Chwast’s variegated designs signaled that anything was possible in this
genre.
When mass-market paperbacks were first introduced during the
1940 s, the publishing industry shamelessly acknowledged that they were
ephemeral and destined for the junk heap. Although the advent of quality
paperbacks did not immediately change prevailing attitudes toward the
genre’s overall disposability, the quality of graphic design signaled more
serious (and perhaps more durable) content, and this did have a positive
impact on readers. Hardcover books will always be more prestigious, but
during the 1950 s and 1960 s the quality paperback cover as a wellspring of
innovative modern design—and even as icon—surpassed hardcover jacket
design in freedom and ingenuity. Ultimately paperback covers earned the
respect that the designers brought to them, and influenced the state of all
book jacket and cover art today.
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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