Graphic Journey Blog

Persephone Books: A woman’s vision realised

There are still single-minded independent publishers dotted around Britain, quietly doing great things with the minimum of staff or the specialist departments of the London-based conglomerates. One of these is Persephone Books until two years ago was tucked away in Bloomsbury, just a short walk from Mecklenburgh Square, home to Leonard and Virginia Woolf’s Hogarth Press back in 1917. I met with Persephone’s founder, Nicola Beauman a little while back, to talk about how it all started. There is a scene in the classic British movie Brief Encounter (below) where Cecilia Johnson (as Laura) is collecting a book she had ordered from the Boots Library – yes, Boots had its own libraries in the 1940s/’50s. 

“Miss Lewis had, at last, managed to get the new Kate O’Brien for me. I believe she’d kept it hidden under the counter for two days.” LAURA, 'BRIEF ENCOUNTER' (1945)

Nicola Beauman kept that image in her head when she was formulating her idea for Persephone. What books would Laura have read and loved? Now in its 25th year, Persephone has gone from a few hundred enthusiastic readers back in 1998 to over 30,000 today. And what occurred to me while talking to Nicola is the fact that she has created the true meaning of a ‘brand’. It is a complete reflection of what she believes her publishing house should be, down to the last detail. No committees, just her. It is such a delight to know that this kind of independence still exists in this crazy age. Ironically, the Woolfs’ Hogarth Press is now part of the conglomerate Random House.

“...whether they are on an office desk, by the Aga, or hanging in a bag over the handles of a pram, it is important to take pleasure from how they look and feel.”

NICOLA BEAUMAN ON PERSEPHONE BOOKS 

Persephone hunts down neglected fiction and non-fiction by mid-20th-century women writers and now has 150 books in print. It is located in a little shop on Lamb’s Conduit Street, Bloomsbury. Here, everyone, including Nicola Beauman, often glimpsed behind a vase of freshly cut flowers, sits working away in the space. The lighting is warm and at a low level. On the walls are an eclectic mix of posters from the 1920s to ’50s, juxtaposed with a classic Massimo Vignelli wall calendar, along with aprons and mugs for sale.

The original Bloomsbury shop interior.

Below that are shelves filled with Persephone books, sporting their distinctive grey covers. “I don’t like book covers,” Nicola told me over a croissant and coffee in a nearby cafe, but what is very clear is that she does care. There is an intuitive sense of style ticking away in her heart. She takes great care of her books’ production. Printed in Germany, the process uses what is known as ‘dispersion binding’ – this allows the book to open and lay flat, with none of that irritating springing shut. The endpapers are carefully selected textile designs sourced from the period of the novel’s publication. The distinctive grey covers (below) were inspired by the New York coffee shop Dean & DeLuca’s cardboard cups.

The original Bloomsbury-based Persephone shop was instantly loveable, with all of Persephone’s staff making it their place to keep in touch with their customers on social media and running afternoon events throughout the year where authors and books are discussed. Persephone is one woman’s vision realised.

Here is their new Bath-based shop, looking every bit as charming as the old Bloomsbury one.

Persephone Books are at 8 Edgar Buildings, Bath BA1 2EE

 

 

LOVED COVERS No.67

All those in creative areas start by being inspired by others in their particular discipline, and their early work often replicates those they admire. The essence of AI is doing precisely that, minus the emotional dimension. It absorbs entire histories of existing work, and when given the necessary 'prompt,' it will produce something along the lines of whoever the prompter has suggested. The AI will then, in seconds, spew out as many variations of the prompt fed as you want.

Long before AI and the digital world, this kind of thing has been happening for decades in the book cover landscape. As a 19-year-old desperate to design an actual book cover, I visited bookshops to check out the new arrivals, zoom in on bad ones, read the essence of the story, and later, at home at the kitchen table would create my reimaginings of those covers I disliked, all hand made back in those analogue days of the 1960s. The results of my efforts were added to a little A4 folder with others, hoping to show them to anyone in publishing who would afford me their time.

Today, young and not-so-young graduates show their reimagined covers on Instagram for all to see and hopefully to garner a commission. Hundreds of established cover designers post all their published covers online, often including outtakes. There are also an increasing number of online directories like I Need a Book Cover with portfolios of cover designers around the globe. And there are oddballs like me who share their interest in the discipline. With all this work displayed 24/7, it's no wonder there is a plethora of inspiration, imitation, and downright copying on an industrial scale that has nothing to do with AI but flesh-and-blood designers behaving like the thing they fear. The two covers shown took my attention to the above topic. The notable US designer Peter Mendelsund published his unused 2008 cover design (on the left) when the book's title changed to 'Girl With the Dragon Tattoo'. (On the right) In 2017, this cover appeared in the UK as published by Vintage. Coincidence or inspiration? This similarity is one example of thousands of covers these days that closely follow others to become a 'trend.' The downside of this open-source sharing is that every cover designer has to have a variety of trends in their armour. Consequently, the once-recognised 'individuality' of a designer has virtually disappeared.

LOVED COVERS No.3

This cover from 1963 was designed and photographed by Larry Carter (1933 - 2019); he was one of a group of creatives that emanated from the Royal College of Art and Central School in the early 60s that led a new graphic agender in the UK moving from a traditional realist approach to a more cerebral modernist direction, embracing a fusion of minimalist Swiss precision and American wit. You are looking at a beautiful 'one-colour' non-laminated cover that still stands up in this age of increasingly overloaded and produced committee-delivered covers.

Mike Dempsey: Cover Meeting

This week’s episode is with Mike Dempsey - he’s been a practising graphic designer since 1964. From the late sixties, he worked as an Art Director for two leading British publishing houses. In 1979, he founded the design consultancy Carroll & Dempsey, which later became CDT Design Ltd. His work has earned him many awards, and in 2012, he was presented with a unique Black Pencil for the most-awarded designer in D&AD’s 50-year history. To listen, click HERE

 

Coveting covers 23

The polymath Jonathan Miller also turned his hand to book cover design. Tom Wolff's novel, "The Kandy-Kolored Tangerine-Flake Streamline Baby, from 1966, perfectly captures the undulating psychedelic world of the period with its flowing, organic-looking lettering, almost identical to that created to decorate The Korova Milkbar featured in Stanly Kubrick's 'A Clock Work Orange' five years later.   

 

Coveting covers 16

The touching and strange story of the eminent English poet Edmund Blunden and his love affair in Japan with teacher Aki Hayashi in the 1930s is as much about the fusion of English and Japanese culture as their passion for each other. I have a soft spot for this cover I designed 35 years ago for this tender little story. It was published in 1988 by Macmillan Press.

Coveting covers 3

This striking 55-year-old cover for Len Deighton's 'Only When I Larf' (The East London, pronunciation of Laugh) is about a trio of con artists on an adventure of highly profitable dirty tricks, successfully seeing them laugh all the way to the bank. It was designed by Raymond Hawkey, a Royal College of Art student in the 1950s, along with the book's author, Len Deighton. Published by Michael Joseph in 1968. For more about Raymond Hawkey, click the link HERE:

Coveting covers 1

Starting today, I will be posting a book cover each day. All will centre on ideas rather than the current deluge of decorative fodder that overwhelms the books shops.

Cover designed by Michael Morris 1969.

Fletcher 3

Here is part three of six stages of Alan's creative life in words only. A link will always be at a foot of this series to visit Alan's wonderful archive.

1962-65 Fletcher/Forbes/Gill

Alan introduced Bob Gill to Colin Forbes. They all seemed to get along swimmingly, admiring one another’s work. Discussions of getting together formally became a regular talking point, which, as Alan recalled, was endless. It was only after some clairvoyant advice given to Gill in a caravan that they finally agreed to join forces.

Work was divided up and they found a nice little space thanks to Gill, who persuaded an ad agency he’d been involved with to bankroll the purchase of a small house in a mews just off Baker Street. A year passed while the property was being renovated and on April Fools’ Day 1962, the Fletcher/Forbes/Gill doors were opened on what was to become a devastating force in British graphics.

At first, it was just the three of them, all very hands-on, plus a receptionist and her dog. With not enough work to occupy all of them, they would often spend time in nearby cafés bitching about London and philosophising about design while puffing away on Gauloises and downing copious amounts of coffee.

What little work they had came from Time and Life, Pirelli and Penguin Books. With the latter client, they’d argue over which of them was to design a cover, for the handsome fee of £30 (around £450 in today’s money).

One day Alan recalled coming back from a lunch to discover their receptionist painting her fingernails. Perturbed by this lack of conscientiousness, there were huddled discussions and talks of firing, but Alan had a better idea. He told her that they were going to promote her and that she was now going to be the receptionist and bookkeeper. It worked. The nail varnish never reappeared.

The idea of passing on their wisdom in book form was established with A Sign Systems Manual, Identity Kits and Graphic Design: Visual Comparisons and were the beginning of many to follow. And up popped a new partner in the shape of Theo Crosby.

To visit the Alan Fletcher archive click HERE

Fletcher 2

Here is part two of six stages of Alan's creative life in words only. A link will always be at a foot of this series to visit Alan's wonderful archive.

2. Then there were two / 1959 - 1962

Alan’s journey back home from New York actually went via Venezuela (an ill-judged fantasy, but that’s another story) and then on to Italy with Paola. While there he spent time in Milan working for Pirelli.

When he did finally arrive back in London he still held the memory of his exhilarating time in the States, but that image was abruptly brought down to earth. London was even more depressing than when he’d left three years earlier. Teenagers looked like their parents, apart from the odd Teddy Boy. There was little design work to be had. The industry was still termed ‘commercial art’ and what good stuff there was, went to the established guard of the day: Milner Grey, Henrion, Misha Black, Abram Games et al. Alan longed to be back in the noise and neon of New York, where everything was big and blowsy, and work was plentiful and well-paid.

Thanks to the connections he had made in New York he’d secured a three-day-a-week consultancy for Time and Life in London, along with work from Pirelli and a one-day-a-week teaching post at Central School thanks to Colin Forbes, who was head of graphics. Alan rented space in Colin’s flat as a studio. With the security of some income from his two clients, he began to work.

During the tail end of Alan’s time in New York, he’d made a point of contacting the city’s creative set. He’d been keen to seek out Bob Gill, a young ‘hot’ designer at the time. But it never happened. Back in London, he settled into a daily routine in his basement studio at Forbes’s flat. One evening his phone rang: “Hello Alan, it’s Bob Gill. I’m in London. Can we meet?” The die was being cast for the beginning of something very special.

For Alan's archive click HERE

Fletcher 1

In 2013 Alan Fletcher's daughter Raffaella asked me to write the creative stepping-stones to Alan's remarkable path, for the website/archive she was planning as the permanent go-to place for all things, Alan Fletcher. It has been running now for almost a decade and is a treasure trove for any graphic student or fan of Alan's work. With evermore being unearthed regularly and made available. And I would urge you to visit the site. A link will always be at a foot of this series of six stages of Alan's creative life. So here, in words only, is part one.

1. Beginnings / 1952 - 1959
For many of us, Alan Fletcher was always part of the graphic landscape, fully formed and brilliant. So it’s hard to imagine him as a twenty-something trying to find a creative identity in the ravages of post-war London: a grim, rationed, fog-laden, gloomy place.

In 1950 he wove his way through a series of art schools, culminating in the prestigious Central School of Arts and Crafts. Here he found like-minded students: Derek Birdsall, Terence Conran, Colin Forbes and Theo Crosby. This little gang had a plethora of inspirational tutors at their disposal in the shape of Paul Hogarth to Victor Pasmore and Richard Hamilton to Eduardo Paolozzi and many more. The place was bubbling with experimentation, a sense of optimism and a vision for a future Britain.

That ethos continued later when Alan was awarded a place at The Royal College of Art, another hothouse of surfacing talent, including Len Deighton, Dennis Bailey, David Gentleman, Joe Tilson and Peter Blake. While there he managed to get himself an exchange scholarship to Yale School of Art and Design in the States.

In 1956, sporting a full head of hair and with his young wife, Paola, on his arm, Alan set sail to the land of plenty, bustling with vibrant colour and full of unapologetic energy. It was a revelation and something he embraced with open arms. At Yale, he was again blessed with tutors of exceptional talent, among them Paul Rand, Bradbury Thompson and Josef Albers.

While in the States Alan kept in touch with Colin Forbes and was sad to discover that he was having a depressing time in London. “Come over, you’ll love it”, suggested Alan. Forbes did just that and was picked up from the airport by Alan and Paola in a classic open-top roadster. They spent the entire evening driving around the dramatic skyscraper canyons of Manhattan. Forbes camped out in Fletcher’s apartment and the stay did the trick: when Forbes departed back to London there was a definite spring in his step and a seed had been planted in his mind that would blossom two decades later.

Before leaving America, Alan made a point of zooming around New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, making many lifelong friends along the way while freelancing for some of the most creative art directors of the time, including Saul Bass and Leo Lionni.

The experience of his time in America gave him not only a professional edge but also the confidence to head back to London with the intention of making some waves.

For the Alan Fletcher archive click HERE