(Source: www.creativereview.co.uk)

As is increasingly the way with mainstream book publishers, repackaging readers' ‘favourite' novels is a way of bringing back attention (and sales) to popular works. Each of the titles in Faber's new Revolutionary Writing series, however, feature covers that adhere to the spirit of independence contained within each book...

Often, in order to relaunch several editions, whole sets of books are united by a particular subject, though the books themselves may have little in common other than an arbitrary thematic connection.

Faber and Faber's Revolutionary Writing series, out in July, includes eight novels linked by the theme of revolution and reflects a diverse range of countries in which political upheaval has taken place: from Uganda and the Dominican Republic, to the US and UK.

Thus the diversity of the writing is also reflected in the new Faber covers. Other than sporting "Revolutionary Writing" on each, they have all been tackled by a different designer, in a different style.

For inspiration, the Faber design team – under the art direction of senior designer Eleanor Crow – looked to the low production values and vibrancy of revolutionary posters, banners and fly posters from each country featured in the series. Five of the covers were designed in-house, with the other three created by designers Wallzo (who produced the cover for The Children of Men), Alex Williamson (Snow) and Letman (The Last King of Scotland).

So, here's the complete set, with some details on the design of each cover from the designers themselves.

The Last King of Scotland

Front cover design: Letman/Big Active

The artwork is inspired by African bead-patterns. For the original drawing (approximately A3 size) I used paint-markers on black paper. The colours refer to the flag of Uganda, where the story is set.

The Children of Men
Front cover design: Wallzo

The cover is a tongue-in-cheek imagining of how a home office document might look like in the near future. Specifically, a science report on why the human race can no longer reproduce. The typeface was developed especially for the cover, with the modular components also forming the sets of disintegrating chromosomes that populate the background.

Snow
Front cover illustration: Alex Williamson

I took the idea of two-tone printed material, mass-produced on fading cheap copiers. Red and black seemed obvious revolutionary colour choices. I wanted to use a lot of white around the images as the heavily snow covered town is a big part of the story. The book is set in Turkey and is slow-paced and contemplative. The main character is a poet and I wanted to get across the idea of people observing events unfold in the snow; hence the watchers on the steps. The social and political tussle is between Islam and the secular state, hence the mosques casting their shadow over the watching figures. Reading the book you get the feeling everyone in the Turkish town of Kars (where the book is set) is watching events unfold in mysterious and tension-filled silence. The revolutionary violence and passions arise from somewhere deep inside this silence, it feels dreamlike in places.

Read the rest of this great article at www.creativereview.co.uk.