Classic books enjoy gorgeous makeovers

We've been told not to judge a book by its cover, but nobody said we couldn't judge a cover by its design. Publishers know that some people prefer aesthetics and, based solely on the jacket design, readers may decide whether a book is or is not for them. Enter Recovering the Classics, a joint project from The Creative Action Network and DailyLit that hopes to make literary masterpieces, with their fresh cover art, appealing to contemporary readers.

"Sadly, many of the greatest classics in the public domain are left with poorly designed or auto-generated covers that fail to capture what makes these books exciting and inspiring to us. So we invited illustrators, typographers, and designers of all stripes to create new covers for 100 of the greatest works in the public domain."

Anyone can contribute, and aside from book covers, there are also posters, hoodies, and t-shirts available, with proceeds going to the artist. Below are some of the brilliantly designed covers from Recovering the Classics that you should add to your collection today.

[h/t: HuffPo]

Comments

Gilbert Legrand turns mundane stuff into delightful characters

Gilbert Legrand doesn't see the world like the rest of us. You see a scrubbing brush, he sees an Apache chief. You see a a pair of scissors, he sees smooching lovers. The French artist's imagination is so wild and unrestricted that he can turn the most ordinary objects into unexpected sources of delight. I just spent half an hour lurking on his website, and you should, too.

Nick Smith creates NSFW prints using Pantone color chips as pixels

Scottish artist Nick Smith , known for his Pantone mosaics, recently unveiled his latest work at London's Lawrence Alkin Gallery . Called Paramour , the erotic images look like they've been heavily pixilated, almost like 8-bit art. If you look at them up close, you'll only see the Pantone color swatches, but if you step back—or zoom out—you'll see the NSFW pieces. "Marking 400 years since Shakespeare's death, Paramour employs Nick Smith's signature 'colour-chip' methodology, combining modern nudes with excerpts from the Bards' sonnets and plays. As well as Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet and Venus and Adonis , the works feature racy text from poetry and prose by DH Lawrence, John Cleland, EM Berens and Sarah Walters. Exploring lust, love and appreciation of the female form, Paramour brings classic literature to the modern conscience, telling stories of illicit love through evocative imagery." [h/t: WideWalls ]

The Salimbaa

Here's a strange tribal instrument I never heard of before now. Originally from the Tinananon tribe of southern Philippines, the bowl-shaped Salimbaa is made of metal and wood, has 30 bronze wound strings, and is played using two small sticks. Caleb Byerly, who makes lost/extinct musical tools in his North Carolina workshop, has an interesting story on how he made his first Salimbaa. WATCH: More details about Caleb and his craft over at Our State .

finding cain

Search This Blog