This link is from the blog of Alexander Charchar. He’s a designer/philosopher of sorts, and I follow his blog in part because I’ve always been fascinated with the thought process behind design (mostly minimalist--Jan Tschichold is a household name around these parts, but more on that later). But most importantly, this guy knows his stuff.
Take his most recent post. He set out to redesign the cover of George Orwell’s 1984—not to boost sales or max out on sleek, modern design, but to try and embody the deepest themes and message of the book. In other words, exploring the concept of a book and hopefully, communicating this abstraction on a level that you don’t see in conventional book design.
This isn’t something that’s even remotely commercially viable, but the idea fills my head with marshmallows and pixie dust. I just love creations of this nature—it reminds me that in any creative venture, you’re breathing in the dust from ideas that came before you. Art begats art, and etc. Just the inkling of it fills my head with ideas--a copy of Wuthering Heights that comes as three or four separate diaries, scratched letters, and photographs. On the Road bound as one long, connected roll of a manuscript (complete with food smears and coffee halos).
Of course, I like to think that one of the artists’ greatest tools—whether they’re painters, writers or filmmakers—is a healthy supply of tracing paper. As Picasso said (which I repeat too often):
“Good artists borrow. Great artists steal.”
Read on: Reimagining Nineteen Eighty-Four [retinart].
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