Favorite Book Sketches

I used to dread the ridiculous "about me" assignments given on the first day of class. But if John Gall, art director for Vintage and Anchor books, would have been my professor, my attitude would have changed.

Gall asks his students to sketch the cover of their favorite book, from memory. Then he superimposes the drawings on a photograph of a blank book and presents them to the class.

Looking through these got me thinking about my own memories of book covers, especially the covers of my favorite books from childhood. Even though book cover design wasn't consciously important to me as a child, I can still vividly remember all the covers of my favorite reads. I'm not sure if it is from the repetition of choosing to read them over and over, or because when you're at an age where you can not read, images are so much more important.

I think at least one of Gall's students would agree with my thoughts on this, because their sketch is a pretty accurate image, but they have forgotten the title:


You can see more student sketches on Gall's blog.

(found via Public School; all images)