Despite having been out for less then a week, there are few, if any things not said about journalist Michael Wolff’s early 2018 account of president D. Trump’s eventful first year. If there is anything left to add, it probably regards the type on the book cover (whose designer seems to go uncredited on the publisher website).
All capitals, and in your face, with the only possible color combination, a case could be made for it almost looking rushed. Then again, that is most likely the point: echoing the raw immediacy and faux-outsider aesthetics that underlined Trump’s entire campaign. Crude Helvetica is obvious as can be, but the red serif left me puzzled. It “should” be a system font, but isn’t. It’s not even Swift, king of newspaper wedges. What we are looking at is actually Union, a 2000 typeface designed by Gareth Hague. Suddenly, all those angled lines and idiosyncratic counter-forms made perfect sense. If only the same could be said about the book’s subject.
Alternative proposal by Edel Rodriguez, featuring Rockwell Extra Bold (smudged, with chamfered corners), Helvetica and Garamond Premier:
I’ve been asked what I would’ve done with the 'Fire and Fury’ cover by some folks who think the existing cover design is a disaster and a missed opportunity, so here is what I might have done with it pic.twitter.com/xV8W3L8oYu
5 Comments on “Fire and Fury by Michael Wolff”
Ha! That’s awesome!
State of the Union: 🔴
Alternative proposal by Edel Rodriguez, featuring Rockwell Extra Bold (smudged, with chamfered corners), Helvetica and Garamond Premier:
Here is the brazilian portuguese edition. They’ve kept the typefaces but any sign of good kerning was completely obliterated.