“Having had the honor and pleasure of designing all of Haruki Murakami’s books in hardcover since The Elephant Vanishes, I was especially looking forward to working on 1Q84, as it is his most ambitious and absorbing novel yet (and that’s saying something). Also, logistically the title is a book designer’s dream, because its unique four characters so easily adapt it to a very strong, iconic treatment. The plot follows two seemingly unconnected stories that eventually weave together. The first involves a woman named Aomame, who in the opening scene finds herself descending a service staircase off a busy elevated highway in Tokyo to escape a traffic jam. Once she gets to the bottom and out onto ground level, she eventually comes to believe that she has entered an alternate reality, one only slightly different than what she had known. She refers to this new dimension in her mind as 1Q84 (the book takes place in 1984 and in Japanese ‘Q’ sounds just like ‘9′), with the Q standing for “Question Mark. A world that bears a question.” This concept becomes one of the novel’s major themes.
Upon reading the manuscript, it soon occurred to me that the duality of Aomame’s situation could be represented by an interaction of the book’s jacket with the binding/cover underneath. By using a semi-transparent vellum for the jacket, and printing the woman’s image in a positive/negative scheme with the title on the outside layer and the rest of her on the binding, once the jacket is wrapped around the book it ‘completes’ the picture of her face. But something odd is definitely going on, and before the reader even reads a word, he or she is forced to consider the idea of someone going from one plane of existence to another.
“Plus, always to be considered, it looks pretty cool.” —Chip Kidd
1Q84 will be published on October 25, 2011.
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Outer vellum jacket for 1Q84:
Binding cover for 1Q84 underneath vellum jacket:
Composite of vellum jacket over binding cover on finished book:
Why does every novel have “A Novel” printed on the front. Is that really necessary? There’s absolutely no purpose for it whatsoever.
Other than that, that’s a pretty neat cover. Can’t wait!
usually a good cover’s intention is revealed after the reading of the book, where once you are finished with the book, you look at the cover with different eyes. thank you for your pre-intrigue in the design.
Indeed, it does look cool!
I like the two planes of existence approach. It has a terrific haunting quality to it. Even knowing how the two layered images work in tandem to achieve the effect, it feels like something *more* is taking place with the composite, and I keep coming back to puzzle it.
I also like how the four characters of the title are not all inline. The comparisons and connections to Orwell’s work are already strong enough, so it is nice to present the title in a way that let’s it breath in its own space a little, in way that “1q84″ (which I’ve heard suggested as a good idea) would not.
Great work! If only it were October…
When I first saw this book cover on amazon, my first reaction was : “wow, so ugly it must be a draft version”.
Knowing it’s the real one and designed by Kidd, what a disappointment.
Either he was not inspired, either Knopf is aiming for a very commercial bookcover. In that case, they might as well put a cherry blossom, or any other Japanese cliché.
And as for the semi-transparent effect, Kidd has done that before and in a much better fashion (i.e Rising Sun).
Best cover I’ve seen so far.
beautiful cover….BUT, I do hate the ‘a novel’ at the bottom, it really spoils it. Anyone buying this book is not an idiot.
LESS IS MORE:
I recommend to take a look on the German book jacket “1Q84″ (published by Dumont)! Silver background with green letters: impressing and powerfull as the story is!
@ Campanilla: Umm… seriously?!
seriously.. but unfortunately I couldn t find a link for you. all pics in internet looks just grey. the real cover is matt finished silver, the title has big glossy silver letters and the author s name is green, screaming green coloured. very special and I am looking forward november for part 3, hope the design fits:)
I read the first chapter. As ever, Murakami is one of the most amazing writers today. I almost can’t wait to read this.
Beautiful work! For the first time, I felt inspired to blog about a book’s design, even before reading the book!
Not only is the best book jacket ever, but the whole presentation of this beautifully bound and printed book is astonishing. I can honestly say that I’ve never bought a new hardcover book and felt I’d gotten more than my money’s worth. Each page has an attention to detail new to this reader’s eyes – on each page the title 1Q84 is printed in the margin in either normal or “mirrored” lettering, further emphasizing the “off-kilter” feeling of the alternate reality in the story. Even the paper of the pages is superior to the usual book. It’s an honor to own this amazing book! My thanks to the publisher!
To “Michael’ [3/25/2011 entry]: It would be “novel” for a novel not to have the word, novel, printed on the cover.
But all seriousness aside [as Steve Allen used to say], thanks, Chip Kidd, for telling me that the cover material is “vellum.” I wondered. Wondered if it was rice paper or something because of the Japanese connection. But felt it was so strong, durable, and had to be something else. Good job to say the least – which I didn’t achieve, noting the length of this entry.
Chip Kidd did an amazing job designing the book. As usual, I took off the cover jacket while I was reading it, so it wouldn’t get damaged, so most of my experience reading it was spent on the less flashy, but elegantly suggestive interior design: the mirrored titles on opposite pages, the moons in the section breaks, and the reflected page numbers rising and falling like the the staircase into and out of 1Q84. Having just finished the book, I think it is one of Murakami’s most satisfying and brilliant. There is especially a lot to think about if you are obsessed about recent Japanese history, in particular Aum Shinrikyo. All in all a totally aesthetically satisfying experience, heightened even more by the great book design.
I’m a big fan of Murakami and this is certainly one of his finest novels, right there with works like The Wind Up Bird Chronicle, Norwegian Wood, and Hard Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World. Similarly to those works, reading the novel felt like slowly sinking into a well of dreams, and being enveloped in a mood of curiosity and off hand beauty/absurdity.
So overall, if you love his novels like me, this is a must read and a good time : If you have never read him, you might want to start with something shorter like Hard Boiled Wonderland.