Death by Design, Design for Dying and Design in Evil.
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Design Observer Twenty Years 2003-2023

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04.03.11

William Drenttel | Essays

Design of Crime, Evil and Death

Buried in our Winterhouse library are numerous and eclectic books with "design" in the title — things like Death by Design, Design for Dying and Design in Evil. These obviously are not books on the subject of design, but examples where the word "design" has worked its way into popular vocabulary or vernacular speech.

I'm wondering what else is out there? Are there other fun examples of "design" in book covers (popular fiction, pulp novels, romance trash, non-fiction, even scholarly titles) where the subject is evil, death, crime — even sex. Send us your images. We may turn this into a proper post and slideshow. In the meantime, enjoy these three examples.

Send images (.jpg at 525 pixels wide) and proper publishing citation to jade [@] winterhouse.com. If anyone knows the designers of these book covers, do send that information as well: we'd love to credit the graphic designers behind these titles.

Death by Design by August Derleth. Cover designer, unknown. Arcadia House, 1953

Design for Dying by Louis Trimble. Cover designer, unknown. Bartholomew House, 1946

Design in Evil by Rufus King. Cover designer, unknown. Popular Library, 1942

Posted in: Graphic Design, Media

Comments [7]

"The Devil in the White City"

http://www.amazon.com/Devil-White-City-Madness-Changed/dp/0375725601

Christian Nielsen
04.04.11
12:57

"Design for Murder"

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Murder-Death-Demand-Mysteries/dp/0553265628/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301937152&sr=1-1

SoSp
04.04.11
01:13

"The Grand Design" by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

http://todoebooks.blogspot.com/2010/09/grand-design-stephen-hawking-y-leonard.html

Lucas
04.04.11
02:56

"The Great Design: Particles, Fields, and Creation". by Robert K. Adair.

http://www.amazon.com/Great-Design-Particles-Fields-Creation/dp/0195060695

Lucas
04.04.11
02:58

21 pentagrams
The Student Prints
Glaserhead
The Brody in the Library
Bride of Lichtenstein
Murder on the QuarkXPress
The little Bauhaus on the Prairie
Strange Frutiger
Regarding Henrion
The Murder on the Links
Mississippi Kerning
In Cold Ink

gregsweetnam
04.04.11
03:19

Oh, boy. Hope Steve and Mirko see this one. Could be good. VR/

Joe Moran
04.04.11
06:25

Designing Women

Giles
06.09.11
02:02

William Drenttel is a designer and publisher, and editorial director of Design Observer. He is a partner at Winterhouse, a design consultancy focused on social change, online media and educational institutions, and a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management.

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