Literary Journal Cover Design

Today Granta published a slide show revealing how they created the cover image for the upcoming issue–a peek at the editorial layers and process behind a literary journal cover.

Granta artistic director Michael Salu explained the steps in a short essay. The image meditates on the evolution of print and the beauty of the old fashioned printing press.

Here’s an excerpt: “I began to think about how our preservation of memory has evolved over the years and considered how memory is becoming increasingly virtual (with even its meaning changing somewhat). Creating a cover for this issue seemed the ideal opportunity to produce something in homage to antiquated and largely obsolete processes. After quick-fire discussion with the Granta team, I decided the most apt response to the text would be to create a typographic cover comprised of pieces of metal type used on old printing presses.”

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