Source: The Hypothetical Library. (C) 2010 Charles Orr
Such a cool idea: a graphic designer’s site with cover art for imaginary books. Neil Gaiman obviously likes it too as he’s submitted a title to designer Charles Orr, and this is the result:
Mr. Gaiman provided a very different kind of proposal. Here it is as I received it.
“The trouble with imagining a book I would never write is that when I think of it, I think ‘but I could WRITE that…’
So it would have to be a book of books I would never write. A book of ideas I would never have. A book of things I would never do in prose or in fiction. A book of things that should have remained unwritten, fragments and dreams and moments. Secrets too terrible to be learned. Things that would destroy me if I knew them, or hurt my friends. It would contain the secret name of God, and tell you how to pronounce that name.
It would be called IF YOU READ THIS BOOK THE WORLD WILL END.”
At first I thought this email was a cleverly worded rejection note, but after the second reading I took it to be what it was—a challenge. How do you design a cover for a book that should never be read?…
[more at The Hypothetical Library]
