The wonderful thing about designing book covers, over most other pieces of print, is that they seem to last forever. They are the ultimate recyclable product. Take this for example, published 1963...
Found in a charity shop in 2009. I had bought an original copy back in the 60s because I loved the cover so much. And in doing so fell in love with J.P.Donleavy and devoured all of his book thereafter - such is the power of a book cover. It was designed by John Piper - art director of Corgi Books in the 60s - and was selected for inclusion in the very first D&AD annual in 1964. It uses Schnellfetter Grotesk, a typeface also used in many magazines of the period - Man About Town (later Town) art directed by Tom Wolsey from 1961...
But I first saw Schnellfetter used in the highly influential German magazine of the time, Twen...
It left everything standing at the time. Originally art directed by Max Bill but taken to a new level by Willy Fleckhaus, an untrained genius of the editorial page. Twen was a major inspiration for Nova magazine launched in 1965, originally art directed by the great designer and photographer, Harri Peccinotti...
I know that I tend to go on a bit too much about the sixties. And it isn't because I don't think that there are great things going on now, there are. It is the sheer innocents of the period, no focus groups, committees, reader surveys etc. They just got on and did it. And the results are still, to my mind, beautiful.