It was re-released as the cover design in 2005, to coincide with the film, sduch was the nation's affection for it's garish video colours- with the idiotic omission of "Don't Panic" in big, friendly letters from the back.
Well lets look back at the task I've got. This is basically a relaunch. What have we had in the past that were striking and effective relaunches of one sort or another.
Penguin Great Ideas: Four Series of these slim, white books with typographic letter pressed covers. They are gorgeous. It is to my greatest chargrin that I only own a couple of them, cruelly faded by sunlight. They are simply lovely to hold. Jim Stoddart and his team have won enough awards for this range and need no further praise from me.
2008 Bond Relaunch, again by Penguin. Now what these do is entirely embrace audience expectations of the books and turns is back up them, volume set to 11. The texture and form of them is entirely pulp-y and sex-ploitation-y, but this become fitting an apt when seen as a set, fun and energetic. This is one of the outcomes of post-modernism, the embracing by not-so-much re-appropriation (how is it being re-appropriated, instead of just being used for the same-as-original purpose?) but reclamation and re-use. Whereas modernism would try to rationalise the end result of this process, in a post modern era we can amplify out emotional response. Sex and typography, as Robert Brownjohn might have it. (Images Via http://bullyscomics.blogspot.com/ and Kitsunenoir.com)
Bully's comics also provides an excellent view of Bond covers through the ages.
In 2006 penguin re-released some of their classics with covers commissioned from artists from the world of graphic novels, comics and cartooning. While seems seems to be faddish- following the success and media attention around films based on comics and graphic novels such as Sin City, the results were still quite interesting. Here are some via Amazon
Yes we are back to illustration- but where it's not expected, where it is interesting, sometimes critical, and original. None of them really change the 'look' of the book or shatter preconceptions- to the credit of the artists aptness is never in question. Which brings us to the problem that is a sticking point for me. People want what they expect. They also need to be surprised and shown things in a new way. Informal interviews have told me that both fans and non-fans of fantasy books have a stereotype in their heads of the sort of covers I blogged links to earlier on, spaceship and metal bikinis and musclemen, painted to varying qualities. But fans actually expected Fantasy/SF books to look much as they do now, with a heavy emphasis on how well they look as a set, and how identifiable they are. What the bond books achieved was new-old look, and they managed it by seeking out an approach that defied and yet was sympathetic to the expectations of the audience. Sympathy requires empathy and, usually, a measure of affection. Letter pressed 50s rocket ship in deep purple under an entirely typed layout? I need to get sketching.
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