Re-Covered Books: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

Re-Covered Books: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

All the way back in 1900, a 44 year old L. Frank Baum released a book titled The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which has now become one of the most well known.. movies. Most of us now know the Judy Garland film of nearly the same name, The Wizard of Oz, which isn’t quite so much like the original book. I think that’s what makes this a good contest, because you need to know about the real book, not the movie, in order to win. Easy enough though, you can read the full book by clicking here.

So here’s your objective. Make a contemporary version of a modern day classic. Don’t make a cover to the movie, make it a cover to the book. But make sure it feels fresh and new. I’d suggest looking at the work of Neil Kellerhouse, who is leaps and bounds ahead of everyone else when it comes to contemporary design. Make it fresh, make it new, and make it amazing.

This time around you’ve got a pretty sweet prize. This time around we’re giving away an Apple TV (which is American, not sure if it matters), so you really need to throw some blood, sweat and tears into this one. Sound like a plan? Here are the rules.

RULES

• Please save your images as JPGs no larger than 800px wide at 72 DPI/RGB mode, there’s no height restrictions (within reason). Feel free to play with the dimensions and have fun with what you make. Making a front and back cover with certainly help your chances, but is not required.

• Label your files “Firstname-Lastname-Wizard-of-Oz.jpg”

• Send all entries to [email protected] with the subject “Re-Covered Books: Wizard of Oz“. Cut and paste what I wrote there, it’s super easy and it helps me keep track of your entry.

• All entries are due Saturday, February 11, 2012 by Midnight, PST.

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

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Bobby Solomon

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January 17, 2012 - See more posts by Bobby

Book Worship



I was clued in to Book Worship through the fine folks at Dwell and since then I’ve been loving it. Started by Shawn Hazen who used to work over at Dwell, Shawn is basically a book nerd who finds these great old books which having amazing covers. Sometimes you might run across a Flickr group that showcases cool old book, but Shawn is like a curator of fine book art. Lots of great stuff to see, be sure to check it out.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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September 2, 2009 - See more posts by Bobby

Cover Versions by Littlpixel

I came across this great project by Littlepixel yesterday while I was searching the Penguin Paperback Spotters’ Guild and I thought it was a pretty great idea. He describes it most succinctly as “Classic records lost in time and format, re-emerged as Pelican books”, and they actually look really great. While this vintage book-inspired redesign idea has been around for a little while, it’s nice to see this idea continuing to evolve.

Click here to check out the rest of the covers.

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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June 2, 2009 - See more posts by Bobby

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Thomas Allen

The Desktop Wallpaper Project featuring Thomas Allen

Thomas Allen

Good Wednesday everyone, I hope you’re all having a good one. I’m really excited about today’s wallpaper, in fact, I only got it yesterday and I’m already posting it, that’s how excited I am. This week’s artist is the insanely talented and creative Thomas Allen. You may not know him by name, but if I told you he was that guy that makes really neat images out of cut-out book covers, then would you know him? I’ve been in love with his work for a while now, I’m enamored with the fact that he makes such great art with such simple materials.

His desktop is called ‘Infectious’, and features a man with his hand wrapped and slightly bloodied, looking quite concerned about the southern belle standing over his shoulder. It’s a great image that makes an equally great desktop wallpaper. Also, if you’re on a Mac, you may want to throw it into Preview, flip it horizontally and save it, that way your icons aren’t over there image.

Bobby Solomon

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May 27, 2009 - See more posts by Bobby

I Was Dreaming of Just You | A Kitsune Noir Mixtape

I Was Dreaming of Just You | A Kitsune Noir Mixtape
Click here to download

For months now I’ve been trying to come up with a really good summer mix, something that would hopefully be relevant as the summer goes on and would pick up on the vibe of summer that I so love. This mix started out as two different beings, one was a list on my iPod of songs that I thought could work, the other a list in my iTunes. Eventually they became merged into one in Garageband and then went through another 4 versions from there, until it finally felt right. I’ve been driving around listening to this mix, and I think that’s where it’s best suited for. In my mind this mix is meant to be thought of as a night out with your friends and loved ones. You start the night out strong and with no cares, but eventually the night winds down, it’s late, it’s chilly, and you’re left with memories of that night.

The songs on this mix come from all over the place really, though several of them are pretty damn new that you may have never heard them. There’s new Beck, Dr. Dog, some pretty recent Deerhunter, coupled with some old Modest Mouse, a Radiohead B-Side and much more. This mix has 14 songs and runs 46 and a half minutes long, making it one of the longest mixes I’ve ever made. For all of you in the U.S. I hope this provides for some good Independence Day tunes, and for everyone else, here’s to an awesome summer.

01 Eternity One Night Only by Cut Copy
02 Fireworks by Animal Collective
03 The Old Days by Dr. Dog
04 Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da by The Beatles
05 Gamma Ray by Beck
06 Summer by Modest Mouse
07 Bowl of Oranges by Bright Eyes
08 Summertime by Goldenboy
09 All Our Weekends by French Kicks
10 Worrywort by Radiohead
11 Beach Party Tonight by Yo La Tengo
12 Dark Moves of Love by M83
13 Twilight at Carbon Lake by Deerhunter
14 Deep Water Portishead

Bobby

Bobby Solomon

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July 4, 2008 - See more posts by Bobby