After reading Jame’s Bridle’s recent post over at booktwo.org about making custom notebooks using Lulu.com and scanned classic book covers, I was inspired to make my own and it arrived this week. I have already got some funny looks on the train for appearing to write in George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four!

The copy that I scanned belonged to my mum, was printed in 1955 and apparently cost 15p! It has some stains on the cover and a small hole in the back cover, just to the right of Orwell’s eye. All of these bits of character are faithfully reproduced in the notebook version, albeit somewhat glossier (in the photos, original is on the left, notebook on the right).

I think this demonstrates the value that publishers with a long design heritage, such as Faber and Penguin, can extract from their artwork archives – after all, if Penguin can merchandise classic covers on to deckchairs and mugs (through Art Meets Matter), why not notebooks?

If you fancy trying this for yourself, James has instructions and a PDF for the notebook interior that you can download.

Simon A

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