New Work: ‘Speak, Memory’

Faced with the task of designing 21 new covers for the works of Vladimir Nabokov, art director John Gall decided to ask 20 other designers for help. To create a series look—and to pay homage to Nabokov’s passion for butterfly collecting—he sent each of the participating designers a collector’s specimen box to serve as the centerpiece of the cover.

Michael Bierut was assigned one of his favorites, Nabokov’s 1951 memoir Speak, Memory. His solution began with by filling the box with old photographs under vellum, but an accidental test shot by designer Katie Barcelona that left out the photographs altogether was deemed more evocative.

The whole series, timed to the publication of Nabokov’s last work, The Original of Laura, with cover design by Chip Kidd, can be seen here.