As the associate art director of Alfred A. Knopf Books, Peter Mendelsund has designed the jackets for hundreds of books ranging from best sellers such as The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo to works by Joyce, Kafka, Dostoevsky, de Beauvoir, and Foucault to contemporary novels by Martin Amis, Tom McCarthy, Ben Marcus, Jo Nesbø, and James Gleick.
What's fascinating about Peter is that he has no formal training in design. In fact, his current job at Knopf is the first design job he has ever held. After spending 11 years training to be a classical pianist, Peter taught himself design and applied for a job at Random House.
In his words, "Without any training, and without the time or money to acquire any, I was forced to haunt the shelves of Barnes and Nobles. There used to be an entire 'design' section in these stores There, at B&N, I bought 'how-to' books; manuals on the various software I'd need to know how to use (Quarkxpress 4!) but also books made up of the design work of others-either volumes like, say, 'best business cards, 2002!' or 'Stellar Identities!' or else anthologies of the work of one particular designer. I learned, like most designers do, through looking."
Now his book jackets are the envy of an entire industry. Cover contains Peter's completed book jackets along with ephemera from his previously unseen creative method, including jacket sketches, interior art and editorial illustrations, and scores of rejected drafts.
The book also includes essays from James Gleick, Ben Marcus, Jo Nesbø, Jane Mendelsohn, Jed Perl, Chip Kidd, Nicholas Fox Weber, Tom McCarthy, Alexander Maksik and others.