Book covers look like well worn pocket books that you would find on a spinner rack in a second -hand shop, but they are not real novels.
The dropped and worn covers for films like “A Quiet Place”, “Do the Good Thing” and “Die Hard” are the work of designer Matt Stevens for his (very real) book, “Good Films As Old Books: films redesigned like vintage books”, Out this week of Chronicle Books.
Made digitally by the Stevens based in North Carolina, these false editions include “Ghostbusters” with three disturbing Silhouetted figures; “Speed” with a lamched fuse leaving a kilometric counter; And a range of authentic blankets to “go out”, “warmth”, “all everywhere at the same time”, “inception” and many others.
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But to be clear, it is not a book on books; It’s a book on films… right?
“It’s a book on films, that’s for sure,” explains Stevens, who admits that he has spent time fighting with the concept. “The films were such a large part of my life. I love the feeling that they can evoke. I love the connection they create between people who love the same films. ”
Illustrator and brand designer, Stevens says that the concept started when asked to create an old -fashioned book cover for an argument for customers. Taking advantage of the process, he continued, finally producing hundreds of images and two volumes in limited edition via Kickstarter.
“I was just looking for my next project on which to work on, and it was fun, so I transformed it into a series,” explains Stevens, who quotes pocket books Penguin and the graphic design inspired by Saul Bass as influences. “Even if no one saw it or no one else loved it, it would not be a waste of time, because I had such a good time doing it.”
“He just had a moment apart,” he says. “And so I continued.”
The following conversation has been modified for duration and clarity.
Q. What are the books, covers or designers who inspired you to do this?
I love things in the middle of the century in general. I have a Pinterest inspiration board which is probably 900 to 1,000 in depth. Really solid and simple ideas tend to be what I gravitate. Things that are just very emblematic, tThe hat is what I tried to do.
“Catcher in the Rye” is probably my favorite cover of all time if I had to choose something – you enter Barnes & Noble and it’s always the same thing. “Mouses and men” is the one I love, this old blanket. “The Great Gatsby” is also one of my favorites, with floating eyes. These are things that have really resisted the test of time.
It is less about trying to say everything and more of trying to say an important or memorable thing.
Q. Tell us about your cover for “Mad Max: Fury Road”? This one has a strong look inspired by the late 1960s.
Sometimes, as with “Mad Max”, I was just doing research and I found a style and I am going, I want to work in this style. So, what goes with this style in a really interesting way? This is one of my favorite films, but it’s so grainy and raw. So, mix it with this kind of psychedelic stuff in the late 1960s, in the early 1970s, it was an interesting combination that I have never seen before. So the experiment is really fun for me.
Q. Can you talk about the realization of the appearance of covers, wear and lines with stickers and color palettes?
First of all, it’s just diving into a ton of research, almost where it becomes second nature How you will approach things.
I used a lot of textures found, whether it is the aging of the book, the real folds and things like that. It was just to find a lot, scan it and refine it a lot so that I could use it.
Many price stickers that I would change and make them some small Easter eggs, like “the matrix” has a red and blue sticker, just like a kind of geek wink to that. It’s just to put these small funny touches – if someone notices it, great. Otherwise, I get the satisfaction of doing these little details.
Q. You include everything, “Saving Private Ryan” and “Whiplash” to “The Last Starfighter” and “Macgruber”. These are all the films you enjoyed, right?
The project is very personal. Each film that is in there, I like, or I connect in one way or another.
I am much more interested in what people like what they don’t like. And so the idea that there are all kinds of films, and it’s ok to love things that are really fun and stupid, and also as something deep. I think all kinds of things can move you.
Q. Yes, there are many ways to enjoy a film.
“Interstellar” is probably one of my favorite films of all time, and there are long articles – or Neil Degrasse Tyson talks about it – why it doesn’t work. It’s like, whatever. I cried a lot, and it was incredible. I had an experience and I will never forget it.
I do not mask anyone who wants to approach it this way. But that’s not really like that I approach things. It’s really much more an emotional response for me, that’s for sure.
Q. Since you mentioned “Interstellar”, I noticed that you really seem to like space combinations.
I do. Spatial combinations are fun. You have “Interstellar”, “First Man”, “Ad Astra”, “Moon”. Yeah, space combinations are fun to draw.
This is the funny thing. When you start to do enough of something, you start to see your own trends, and you are like, oh, I really like drawing the hands. I really like drawing space combinations.
Q. Do concepts come quickly or do you need time to develop?
I had an illustration teacher who looked a lot like: “The first idea you have is probably the first idea that many people will have”. And so he has always encouraged us to overcome them.
This is more about the process. As with the film “Network”, I returned and I returned it and I loved it. And so, how to capture people, raise this guy, this madman, to love this religious figure? The idea that Moses separates from the Red Sea – and the Red Sea is the colored bars of a TV – this thing excites me.
It is this feeling of hitting an idea, that’s what I really like.
Q. Jared Hess, director of “Napoleon Dynamite” and blockbuster of the box office last month “A Minecraft Movie”, wrote the introduction to the book. How did it happen?
I love Jared Hess. He had ordered a “free” impression, and so on, when it was time to try to find someone to do the preface, I sent him an email, and he could not have been nicer.
He says: “Oh, I’m in post-production on a film”. And I didn’t know he was working on this huge big budget film. And he took the time to write a preface. He was so nice. It goes away to me that the people who are busy and that you respect would take time and do something like that and ask for nothing in return.
When I asked him, I said, “I have always loved your films because they are crazy and foreigners, but you never feel like you are making fun of these people.” As a child who grew up feeling some of these ways, it was so cool to have someone like that.
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