Imagine buying some books in the store…
‘We’ll have two blue ones, a crimson and a nice soft yellow, please’
‘We only sell the crimson under the counter sir.’
‘Well can you wrap that separately.’
‘Certainly sir and could I interest you in this risque deep purple, or some iffy shades of grey’
Book spines have long offered designers an opportunity to add
colour and even art to a wall. Hotels and interior designers have often bought
books by the yard, not to read, but to ‘furnish’ a room, lobby and make a statement.
Whether it was the iconic Penguin paperback ‘pantone’ jackets of
the Lane era, the leather bound law and medical books that gave a false rare
book feel, or the uniform classics of Wordsworth, OUP, Everyman, the spines can
offer more than just information, they offer decoration. We often all look at a
private library shelf and find our eyes drawn to those neatly lined up collections
that are not alphabetically stacked, but offer a ‘uniform’ look of colour.
Random House Canada now want to shout about the ‘beauty of books’
and are experimenting with readers classics with solid Pantone covers. Thirty
titles have been selected for an exclusive Indigo offer and include Canadian
stalwarts such as Margaret Atwood in purple, Michael Ondaatje in blue and
Wayson Choy in orange. Random have attempted to align colours with the themes
with darker shades for deep books and lighter shades for less serious tomes. They
even price the pantone editions at a slight ‘collector’ premium.
Will the book attract
designers, young aspiration professionals wishing to make a statement on their
shelves and maybe the odd reader will be an interesting question. Unfortunately,
even if the they sell well there remains the questions as to why they were
bought and if they are to be read, or merely decorate yet another wall, or even
to provide a literary collection?
The price variance can be some $5 with the pantone edition being
some $17. But they do offer two for $24, but hardly prices to go out and buy
the collection! Perhaps buyers are drawn to the potential rarity of such
editions or maybe it is down to the block of colour.
So do you arrange your bookshelves by colour and would you
expect to find books in a store based on the colour of the spine?
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