GWR 2009 Cover Search

From the seat of Craig Glenday, Editor-in-Chief, Guinness World Records
26 August 2007
01:00 GMT
Somewhere over mainland USA

Well, here I am, back on a plane. This time, I'm flying to the USA not
for a record attempt but to investigate potential new cover materials
for the 2009 edition of the book. I'm travelling with Patricia Magill,
GWR's Vice President of Publishing, and enjoying a midnight snack of
whisky and ginger while watching series two of Battlestar Galactica.
(If you've never watched this excellent series, I urge you to seek out
the DVD boxsets – it's a fantastic show that's been keeping my gripped
for weeks since I got hold of the DVDs. Of course, I'm thinking: any
records here? Watch this space!)

We're flying to LA, during a bank holiday weekend, because the cover
of our book is so important to us. For over 10 years, we've
pioneered many new print-production processes in order to deliver the
most spectacular covers. The first of these new generation covers
appeared with the 1997 edition, which was a black cover dominated by
the book title blocked in using a holographic foil. We then looked at
3-D "lenticular" covers – the kind you can drag your nail down and
feel the grooves that give it a 3-D or motion effect – and more
recently lenticular foils.

The 2008 "vortex" cover is, I feel, the best so far. Obviously I'm
biased but a lot of time, effort and money went into developing this
revolutionary design. The idea came about this time last year during a
trip to Toronto. While on a book-store check (we travel round making
sure the book is available and prominent in as many stores as
possible), a shiny red-foil gift-bag in the stationery aisle really
caught my eye – it was just the colour I'd had in mind, and the foil
effect added to the richness of the colour in a way I'd never seen
before.

The foil effect on the bag was a simple one, but it inspired our
designer, Yeung Poon, to create the unique vortex effect you'll find
on this year's cover. We also, radically, distorted our logo and sent
it flying into – or out of? – the vortex, creating an exciting,
dynamic effect. Finally, we worked closely with Spectratek, the
LA-based company we're currently en route to, to produce a series of
foil lenses, each one bigger than the next, to produce the vortex
effect and give the impression of depth.

I really do hope you look forward to seeing what each new edition will
look like, especially when it comes to the cover. The feedback we've
had in research is that people enjoy collecting the books
because of the fascinating, ground-breaking covers. Of course,
the insides are what really matter, but why not make the cover
as fun and as cool as possible?

What this means, however, is that every year we need to work that
little bit harder to develop an ever better cover than last year.
Hence the 12-hour flight to the US over the bank holiday weekend. Ah
well, I've got a few more episodes of BSG 2 to get through and I'm
being offered another Johnnie Walker and Canada Dry. I'm not one to
complain…