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Design Category
Book design, 2006
Design firm
Alfred A. Knopf (New York, New York)
Collection
(2007) 50 Books/50 Covers of 2006

Description

The story is about a mid-20th-century Russian love triangle (two men, one woman) set in the Gulag. Lots of fun. The house in question is for conjugal visits in the prison, thus the bed. This was my first collaboration on a book jacket in many years with my colleague Peter Mendelsund. It was his idea to actually build a three-dimensional “room,” which Geoff Spear then shot. There was no digital manipulation—you are actually looking into a “house.”

Credits
Creative directors/designers: Chip Kidd, Peter Mendelsund
Jacket designers: Chip Kidd, Peter Mendelsund
Photographer: Geoff Spear
Production director: Claire Bradley
Picture editor: Loriel Olivier
Author: Martin Amis
Editor: Gary Fisketjon
Trim size: 5.375 x 8.625 inches
Pages: 242
Quantity printed: 25,000
Compositor: Mimi Rozenwald
Typeface: Squidgy big
Jacket printer: Coral Graphics
Publisher/client: Alfred A. Knopf
Juror Notes

“The overall design draws us into this forbidding place; the little color Stalin portrait leads us there—very effective.”