creative review has a nice little feature today on a series of jd salinger book covers designed by seb lester.

It turns out that JD Salinger had some very basic (and strict) rules about how he wanted his book covers to look. He was adamant that the only copy that should appear on his books was his name and the title of the book. No quotes or plot summary, no author biography. And definitely no images. Just the title and his name. “Working with John Hamilton at Hamish Hamilton I developed two possible directions for the covers,” explains Lester of his approach to the commission. “One was relatively conservative and classical in nature [see the version on the left in the rough workings below]. The other [on the right, below] was more specifically American in feel, a mid-twentieth century style script.”

here are two concept-in-progress sketches…

and here are the finished comps…

oh my goodness, just think of the hours and hours of work that went into that hand lettering. turns out four book covers in total were designed, and the hand-drawn type is now known as “the salinger.”

you can see the finished book covers here.