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Product Description
Product Description
The illustrations of Brian Cook from the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s have become iconic. His heightened use of colour, in a flat colour poster style, is much imitated, but never surpassed. His jacket covers for the Batsford series of books that celebrated British life are now very collectable. This collection of his best work is a beautiful publication that should be enjoyed not only by collectors but all lovers of good design and illustration. Brian Cook describes his working processes, the then new printing process that allowed him to pioneer his characteristic bold colours, and the design principles and practical methods of his craft. A stunning book for designers.
About the Author
Brian Cook is the nephew of the late Harry Batsford, chairman of the family publishing firm from 1917 to 1952. He himself became chairman of the company in 1952. His design work, almost exclusively for Batsford, was pioneering and timeless.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Over the years, I collected a number of the Batsford books on the British countryside. The dust-jackets, when I got them at all, were often tatty but I still admired the work of Brian Cooke who designed so many of them. as he would - a member of the Batsford family and latterly company Chairman!
His poster-like style was well suited to book covers and captured the countryside in a way that somehow manages to be both both literal and impressionist at the same time.
I was too slow to by the previous tribute to hos work which quickly went out-of-print and as expensive and collectable as good copies of the Company's original books. So I snapped up this expanded new work and advise anyone else who loves the countryside to do the same.
His poster-like style was well suited to book covers and captured the countryside in a way that somehow manages to be both both literal and impressionist at the same time.
I was too slow to by the previous tribute to hos work which quickly went out-of-print and as expensive and collectable as good copies of the Company's original books. So I snapped up this expanded new work and advise anyone else who loves the countryside to do the same.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a fabulous book showcasing the iconic art style reminiscent to me of the numerous railway, bus and underground travel posters of a bygone age. The colours are vibrant and cheerful enabling one to see the countryside in a rather different, stylised and somewhat rose-tinted manner. My one criticism is that so many pictures have so-called "detail" images depicted on facing pages. These "details" are scarcely larger than the actual detail within the complete and superbly delineated original images, thereby making them entirely redundant. The many pages thus wasted could have been so much better utilised in showing more of Brian Cook's work, assuming there is more. I know there is at least one more because I have seen in it in one of Peter Ashley's "Unmitigated England" books.
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A timely publication of Brian Cook's wonderful, exuberant dust-jackets for Batsford's English town and countryside books from the Thirties and Forties. The only other book about his work was published by Batsford in 1987 and I thought it had a serious editorial flaw in showing so much of his work in mono. The 108 illustrations in the book only had forty-eight in colour, though, admittedly, several of the black and whites were of Cook's lovely pen and ink illustrations. The book is well out of print and expensive but this latest book is so much better because it is all in colour.
One feature in the 1987 book really should have been used in this new title: an explanation of the Jean Berte printing process. This gave the Batsford covers their unique look. The process used rubber plates and five waterproof inks, the three primary colours, grey and black as a fifth working to tighten up the look of the designs and for the type. It was the overprinting of these flat colours that created the rich, vibrant designs. Perhaps more importantly to the look of the covers was the fact that the rubber plates were cut by hand which meant that the design had to be fairly easy to create. Fine lines were only possible in black.
It still needed the creativity of Brian Cook to decide what colours to use for each cover. I was always impressed by his use of solid mauve for hills and trees and the way the really bright yellow almost jumped off some covers. These books must really have stood out in bookshops back then.
The book is a wonderful page-turner and every page sparkles with remarkable cover artwork. Almost the perfect book but not quite (but still five stars) because, as another reviewer has mentioned, someone decided it would be a bright idea to enlarge sections of the pictures and place these on the opposite page facing the original. Twelve pages have been wasted on these unnecessary enlargements and that means we've missed out on a possible twelve additional covers.
`Landscapes of Britain' is a beautiful celebration of an artist and designer who created some stunning book jackets more than five decades ago but they still look fresh and exciting today. The book is so much better than the 1987 edition, too.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
One feature in the 1987 book really should have been used in this new title: an explanation of the Jean Berte printing process. This gave the Batsford covers their unique look. The process used rubber plates and five waterproof inks, the three primary colours, grey and black as a fifth working to tighten up the look of the designs and for the type. It was the overprinting of these flat colours that created the rich, vibrant designs. Perhaps more importantly to the look of the covers was the fact that the rubber plates were cut by hand which meant that the design had to be fairly easy to create. Fine lines were only possible in black.
It still needed the creativity of Brian Cook to decide what colours to use for each cover. I was always impressed by his use of solid mauve for hills and trees and the way the really bright yellow almost jumped off some covers. These books must really have stood out in bookshops back then.
The book is a wonderful page-turner and every page sparkles with remarkable cover artwork. Almost the perfect book but not quite (but still five stars) because, as another reviewer has mentioned, someone decided it would be a bright idea to enlarge sections of the pictures and place these on the opposite page facing the original. Twelve pages have been wasted on these unnecessary enlargements and that means we've missed out on a possible twelve additional covers.
`Landscapes of Britain' is a beautiful celebration of an artist and designer who created some stunning book jackets more than five decades ago but they still look fresh and exciting today. The book is so much better than the 1987 edition, too.
***SEE SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Fewer repeated picturs would be nice
This is a lovely book depicting lots of Brian Cook's paintings.
Some of them are reproduced twice - only very slightly bigger on the opposing page. Read more
Some of them are reproduced twice - only very slightly bigger on the opposing page. Read more
Published 9 months ago by A. J. Flynn
what a beautiful book
Could not be any better - crammed full of really good illustrations well worth the very reasonable price tag
Published 10 months ago by j
Landscape's of Britain Brian Cook
Beautiful book full of colourful plates of adverts touring Britian. A real look at the history of posters and prints from the era.would appeal to art lovers of art deco
Published 16 months ago by P. Collier
Sumptuous pictures
A lovely book, a fine tribute to the 'throw-away' dust-jacket art that is a big part of selling a book. Read more
Published 17 months ago by A. Culley
Could Have Been So Much Better
As a proud owner of the 1987 book 'The Britain of Brian Cook' I was intrigued to see how different, and indeed how much better this book could be than the original. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Chris M.
Listmania!
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