days, ambiguity is much more frequent in book jackets, which may explain
why Bacon’s past and recent work seem dated to some. While the “Big
Book Look” is not precisely obsolete, it is no longer a design code for
readers, who today are drawn to fragmented and vague pictorial jackets
with skewed type.
Time and fashion have changed, and Bacon has officially retired
from the book jacket business, though he still gets calls for assignments. He
has returned to designing his first passion, jazz albums. “I certainly believe
that anything in the arts is a track meet, and when you run 10 flat and
somebody else can run 9.8, your day is done. To some extent, that happened
to me,” he admits, adding, “I still like the last things I designed—they’re
good—but they’re not competitive in that multigrained way that the things
being done now are.” There’s another reason, too. “I was seventy-eight last
December—I’m too goddamn old,” Bacon says. “But I’m lucky, in one
sense. I got phased out by myself and by publishing at the same time.”
tuis.
(Tuis.)
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