Picking a winner for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle Re-Covered Books contest was a difficult challenge. The story is incredibly unusual which is certainly a part of the book’s charm. If you’re unfamiliar with the plot, here’s a quick synopsis.

In a Tokyo suburb a young man named Toru Okada searches for his wife’s missing cat. Soon he finds himself looking for his wife as well in a netherworld that lies beneath the placid surface of Tokyo. As these searches intersect, Okada encounters a bizarre group of allies and antagonists: a psychic prostitute; a malevolent yet mediagenic politician; a cheerfully morbid sixteen-year-old-girl; and an aging war veteran who has been permanently changed by the hideous things he witnessed during Japan’s forgotten campaign in Manchuria.

So you can see why this might be the toughest book we’ve ever taken on. We had a number of really beautiful entries and I couldn’t be more happy with the high quality of work that was entered. But there had to be one winner, and I chose this beautiful cover by Sam Kittinger.

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I mentioned briefly in our Re-Covered Books contest for The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle that we may have additional prizes, and so here are some additional prizes. In addition to the $100 Amazon gift card you’ll also get all the cool books and gifts you see above thanks to the Princeton Architectural Press. The folks at Princeton Press have an amazing selection of titles from the biggest artists and designers out there, and I’m so happy that they’ve chosen to help us out with our contests. So what do you get exactly?

Sign Painters by Faythe Levine & Sam Macon
Hand-painted signs are incredible and this book has so many great examples from so many fantastic artists. Plus it has a foreword by Ed Ruscha, so you know it’s gotta’ be good.

Brooklyn Makers by Jennifer Causey
Damn those Brooklynites and their creativity! This book makes me want to move to New York to start making pots and artisanal whiskey and clay pots. The photos in the book are also fantastic and will make you drool.

Instant: The Story of Polaroid by Christopher Bonanos
Exactly as it sounds, it’s the story of Polaroid. An immensely interesting company who’s mark on our global culture will never fade.

A Guide to Archigram 1961-74 by Dennis Crompton
If you’re not familiar with Archigram you absolutely should be. These young, British architects rethought the way our culture should be in the most radical ways possible. A must read.

What Did I Buy Today? Journal by Kate Bingaman-Burt
The always inspirational Kate Bingaman-Burt’s logbook will help you track your life and the objects that fit inside it.

MAPS Mini Journals by Paula Scher
Gridded, lined and blank, these three mini journals will help you keep your notes together and the awesome Paula Scher covers will make you feel really cool.

For a chance to win these prizes as well as the $100 gift card to Amazon all you need to do is enter our Re-Covered Book contest for Haruki Murakami’s Wind-Up Bird Chronicle. all entries are due Saturday, February 23, 2013 by Midnight PST so you better enter soon!

I’m pretty sure some of our readers might be crazy. I haven’t done a Re-Covered Books contests in a little while, at least not since our failed attempt at trying to re-cover The Hobbit (we only received about 6 entries). This time around I decided to take a vote and let you the readers choose which book we re-covered, and and of the four choices you decided to take on Haruki Murikami’s, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

The novel is about a low-key unemployed man, Toru Okada, whose cat runs away. A chain of events follow that prove that his seemingly mundane life is much more complicated than it appears.

This is not only a bold choice, this book is really weird, but it’s also had the honor of having two spectacular covers by two amazing designers: Chip Kidd and John Gall. They’ve set the bar incredibly high, so I’m expecting some really great entries. For a bit of reference check out this collection of covers from around the world. Some are good, some are meh.

For your cover I want you to take the weirdness and originality of the book and channel that into the design. I think some contemporary with a slight bit of weirdness is an interesting take, which is also so different from what both Kidd and Gall have done. No bird toys either, that’s already been done. I think the idea of contemporary psychedelia could be an interesting route to try as well, for those of you who are brave.

UPDATE: I’ve partnered up with the Princeton Architectural Press to give away the pretty awesome prizes you see above. How cool is that?

RULES

• Save your images as JPGs at 800px wide, 72 DPI, RGB mode – this is super important! There are no height restrictions (within reason) but be sure to send images as separate JPGs. Feel free to play with the dimensions and have fun with what you make. Submitting a front and back cover will certainly help your chances, but is not required. You can enter up to 3 times.

• All entries are due Saturday, February 23, 2013 by Midnight PST.

If there are any other questions feel free to leave them in the comments. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and be sure to tell your friends/classmates/pets to participate as well. Good luck and have fun!

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I remember clearly the first time I read The Hobbit. I was on a snowy vacation with my best friend and his family somewhere around Lake Tahoe. In between bouts of snow fights and epic hours spent building amazing snow forts I would dive nose deep into a world of fantasy. I read the book within a week, it’s pages filling my mind with craggily old dwarves, creepy spider battles, and a massive dragon with a nearly imperceptible weakness.

The Hobbit film will soon be upon us as well, so I felt the timing was right to build off of that momentum and get another Re-Covered Books contest going. I think for this contest, with such a unique book, that the goal will be to create something that is handmade. Or at least seems handmade. Nothing too modern but nothing too old and stodgy. This should be about craft, about creating a cover that feels well loved. A cover for a book who’s tale is timeless. Failure to adhere to these general guidelines means you probably won’t win, got it?

RULES

• Save your images as JPGs at 800px wide, 72 DPI, RGB mode – this is super important! There are no height restrictions (within reason). Feel free to play with the dimensions and have fun with what you make. Submitting a front and back cover will certainly help your chances, but is not required. You can enter up to 5 times.

• All entries are due Saturday, December 15, 2012 by Midnight PST.

If there are any other questions feel free to leave them in the comments. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and be sure to tell your friends/classmates/pets to participate as well. Good luck and have fun!

After a long delay I’ve finally narrowed down the winning entry for the Fahrenheit 451 Re-Covered Books contest. This was a great book to try to re-cover because of it’s strong themes and iconic imagery, though I was sad to see a lack of mechanical hounds. That said there were many fine entries but only one could win and that honor goes to designer Adam Maida.

I liked Adam’s cover for a few reasons — the style, the color palette, and the detail. I’m not usually one to pick the more retro, old feeling cover but I think it fits with the idea of knowledge and the age of knowledge. It also reminds me of the books that Montag has hidden away in the ventilator. I think the stacked books becoming an arm was a smart choice and I like that it’s not overly literal. I feel like the color palette Adam chose was spot on. The red is slightly dulled, giving it that aged feel, and that shock of yellow in the flame on the cover and on Bradbury’s name is just what it needed. The black on the cover also gives the book a bit of grounding, keeping the design firmly locked in place.

I think it’s also great that Adam did the glossary, especially because there are only 3 chapters to the book. I think the face in the flames could be better but I like the concept, which touches upon the older woman who burns herself alive. Overall I think my only complaint might be the font that the 451 is in on the cover which doesn’t really fit with the hand-drawn type of the Fahrenheit. Overall though it feels like Adam really considered a lot of details and executed them nearly perfectly.

I’ll try to think up another Re-Covered Books contest in the near future, so keep your eyes peeled.