Kafka book covers by mendelsund

"New Kafka Book Covers by Peter Mendelsund

9:59 am Saturday Jan 29, 2011 by Emily Temple

One of our favorite book jacket designers, Peter Mendelsund (who is also the associate art director at Knopf and the art director proper of Pantheon), was recently charged with creating a series of cohesive covers for Schocken’s (part of Pantheon) backlist of Kafka books. Mendelsund, by his own account, has always wanted to design for Kafka, and his love of Mr. K’s works is evident in his meticulous artwork. The covers are playful and serious at once, able to convey all of Kafka’s strangeness, humor, and severity in seemingly simple designs. The new designs will begin appearing on paperbacks early this summer, so keep an eye on the backpacks of any thoughtful college students you know. Click through for our favorites and some of Mendelsund’s musings on the man."

More here

20 differences

In order to enhance our understanding of tiny differences and gain a grounding in the fundamentals of design, we conducted an exercise called '20 differences' as a homework assignment, in this we selected 20 items with a similarity in that they would normally be considered the same, however we individually made lists of their differences, however slight. I chose dried and salted sunflower seeds purchased from the student store, 'Tro Gro', and made sure that the selection of the seeds for my experiment was as random as possible to ensure thet there was no bias towards particularly obscure individual seeds. The differences i noticed were:

-One seed has a slightly paler complexion than its peers

-One appears particularly short and fat

-One of the seeds has its edible centre bursting from the shell

-One does not have an edible centre as it is only half a shell

-One seed has a very solid complexion

-One seed, while dark, has several very vivid and very light coloured patches on it

-One seed has a much more obvious light line around its edge than its fellows

-One seed, instead of patches, has a lightly coloured line running vertically through it

-One seed appears tiny

-One seed has the majority of its shell covered with a light patch

-One seed has three light dots forming a perfect line up its side

-One seed appears to have more salt residue on it than others

-One seed has not one, but three vertical pale lines running up it

-One seed has a strange wrinkle in its shell

-One seed has a much browner overall complexion than the others

-One seed has a chipped point

-One seed is flat on one side, but bulging up at the other like a wing

-One seed has a light patch on it in the shape of Italy

-One seed has very little lightly coloured patching on it atall

-One seed has one vertical line by itself and two grouped closely together

-The half seed appears to have little salt residue on it

-One seed is extremely long and thin

-That seed also has no salt residue on it

-One seed goes very sharply to a point at one end

-One seed is extremely flat as though it does not have an edible centre

Note that all of the observations were based on the seeds around that particular seed and were all comparisons

-Greg McGanty

Just to be impossibly original...

Similarities:

-worth

-material- copper

-"In God We Trust"

- Good ol' Abe

-imprint/ engraving

-shape

- importance-

-length/ width/ height

-notches on the edges

-use

- place of origin

-representation

-owner

-purpose

-name

-lifespan

-weight

-volume

-scent

-reflection

Differences:

-colour

-age/date

-travels/ experiences

-weathered/ worn down

-letter under date

- chips/ indents

- deeper imprints

-sheen

-green tinge

-cleanliness

-fate

-dirt engrained into metal

-heaviness

-stories

- hands they have passed through

- highlights

- scratches

-way of aging

- hair on Abe

-angle of the bow tie

Alphabetical differences.

Object: Letters. [in the form of Scrabble pieces]

Dimensions: 2cm x 2cm x .4cm

Material: painted wood

Inventory Date: N/A

Location Found: my Scrabble game box

1. Some letters are all curved [C, O, Q]

2. Some, all lines [E, F, H, I, L]

3. Some, a combination of the two [G, P, R]

4. Some letters are symmetrical. If cut in half, the letter is identical on both sides [A, O, I]

5. When spoken, individual letters form different mouth shapes.

6. 'O' could be confused for a number. dual-identity.

7. All of the letters have the same number of syllables except for 'W'

8. Some letters have enclosed spaces [B, D, Q, O, R]

9. Some letters contain right angles [L, I]

10. Some letters have acute angles [V]

11. Others have obtuse/supplementary angles [X]

12. The letters symbolize different things: for instance, A=Good connotations, F= bad connotations

13. On their own, letters are arbitrary. But together, they gain meaning [words, XOXO, etc.]

14. Some letters can also be turned upside down, and stay the same letter [Z, I, O, S]

15. Others can be turned upside down, to become different letters [M, W]

16. Some look like certain objects [J=hook, Y=wishbone, S=snake, etc]

17. At least one of the following letters, A, E, I, O, & U, are found in all words

18. Some become new letters when lines are added on [with an add on, I becomes P... P becomes B...etc.]

19. Various shapes are found in the letters [O=circle, V=(almost) triangle, D=semi-circle]

20. When Written, some are rigid, & others are smooth [W=rigid, Q, S=smooth]

-Cassie Geibel

Pennies

U.S. PENNIES: 1972 - 2010



















OBJECT: PENNIES
DIMENSIONS: 0.75 IN DIAMETER, 0.061 IN THICKNESS
MATERIAL: COPPER/ZINC MIXTURES
INVENTORY DATE: 1/24/11
LOCATION FOUND: COIN JAR

VISUAL DESCRIPTIONS:
1. COLOR: DARKER/LIGHTER
2. SHINE: SHINY/NOT SHINY
3. RUST: HAS/DOES NOT HAVE (GREEN)
4. DIRT/GRIME: HAS/DOES NOT HAVE (BROWN)
5. DATE DIFFERENCES
6. EMBLEM ON BACK: CABIN/SHILED/MEMORIAL/CAPITAL BUILDING
7. ORGANIZATION/SIZE OF TEXT
8. MATERIAL: <1982:>1982: ZINC WITH COPPER PLATING
9. EDGE: HAS/DOES NOT HAVE
10. SCRATCHES
11. DETERIORATION DIFFERENCES
12. RAISE OF LETTERS: HIGH/WORN OUT
13. FINGERPRINTS
14. LINES ON THE STEPS OF THE MEMORIAL/ NO LINES
15. SHAPE: NORMAL/MANGLED
16. SILVER COLOR SHOWING THROUGH ('96)
17. SOME SAY "D" UNDER DATE/SOME DO NOT
18. LEVEL OF FACIAL HAIR ON LINCOLN: NEW ONES DON'T HAVE AS MUCH
19. DENTS
20. EDGES: SOME FLAT/SOME TAPER IN

(SORRY, I KNOW MONICA ALREADY STOLE MY THUNDER!)

~MOLLY BARNES

Differences: Pushpins

1. color: red

vs

2. yellow

vs

3. green

vs

4. blue

vs

5. purple

6. shiny

vs

7. dull

8. smooth plastic

vs

9. rough plastic

10. sharp

vs

11. blunt

12. straight points

vs

13. crooked points

14. more translucent

vs

15. more opaque

16. shorter point

vs

17. longer point

18. lighter

vs

19. darker

20. some scratched

21. air bubbles

vs

22. no air bubbles

23. more defined ‘x’ on top

vs

24. poorly defined ‘x’ on top

25. ease into cork board 

Avery Canty

20 differences in 20 Pennies

Object: Pennies

Dimensions: 1.27 mm (or .05 inches) thick. - .75 inches or 19 Millimeters in diameter.

Material: copper plated zinc

Inventory Date: N/A

Location Found: My Wallet

1. Year on Penny
2. Some are a bright copper color
3. Some are a very dark brown
4. Some have chips along the edge
5. Some are completely smooth along the edge
6. The oldest one(s) have begun to turn turquoise
7. Some of the years on the pennies are legible, others are not
8. Ones that are mid age blend into my hand; the older and newer ones don't
9. The newer ones would be more noticeable to the average person walking down the street
10. The older pennies feel thicker physical size
11. The newer pennies feel lighter in weight
12. All of the pennies in the bunch made before 2009 have the lincoln memorial on the back
13. Abraham Lincoln is visible in any type of light on the newer pennies, but hardly visible on the older ones
14. One of the pennies has a shield like symbol on the back
15. One of the pennies has Abraham lincoln standing next to the Lincoln Memorial
16. One of the pennies has what looks like a log cabin on the back
17. One of the pennies has begun to erode away the copper and is turning silver on the edges
18. The older pennies have light copper accents and the newer pennies have dark brown accents.
19. Some pennies have been touched by trillions of hands, others probably only millions or thousands
20. The newer pennies are cleaner

Monica Ahanonu