Being a reader of science fiction and a lover of graphic design I have always admired the cover art of science fiction novels especially the ones printed in the 50's, 60's and 70's. Whenever in charity shops and boot sale type places I always keep my eye open for these generally torn a tatted items.
I recently found a number of old novels some in great condition which had probabaly never been read. Whether your a science fiction fan or not you can't help but admire the skill of some of these pre-computer age graphic artists.
Researching the covers led me to discover the work of two exciting graphic designers;
David Pelham and Franco Grignani.
David Pelham became Art Director for Peguin Fiction in 1968 creating a number of covers himself including the two covers above, both Alfred Bester novels. He also created the famous cover artwork for the Antony Burgess novel
A Clockwork Orange. Pelham also commisioned other artists like Italian Franco Grignani.
Grignani went on to create a series of
sixteen covers for Penguin including the cover shown below right for Fred Saberhagen's 1970 novel Berserker. The cover depicts a distorted robotic figure towering over hordes of humans, it takes on a more sinister twist when you note that the novel is about cold alien killing machines programmed to destroy all life in the universe!
In a time before any computer aided design the two slightly psychedelic covers below are interesting. The face in the middle is Issac Asimov himself.
You can view more Penguin Sci-Fi cover art here:
www.penguinsciencefiction.org Also a selection of
Panther Science Fiction covers
