During a career of more than 50 years, [Paul] Bacon designed covers for more than 6,500 books, including “Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut, “Ragtime” by E. L. Doctorow, “The Power Broker” by Robert Caro, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” by Ken Kesey, “The Andromeda Strain” by Michael Crichton, “Jaws” by Peter Benchley and “Shogun,” by James Clavell. He is widely credited with pioneering what is known in the industry as the “Big Book Look” — typically a bold, minimalist design featuring prominent lettering and a small conceptual image. He did all of his designs, including the lettering, by hand.
One of his earliest and most imitated cover designs, for Meyer Levin’s 1956 novel, “Compulsion,” is composed of mostly gray blank space, with two small red figures running on the horizon, and a prominent title in ragged hand-drawn lettering.
“That jacket is almost 60 years old, and if you saw it on a shelf now it would jump right out at you,” said Peter Mendelsund, a book cover designer and associate art director for Alfred A. Knopf, who counts Mr. Bacon among his influences. “He directs your eye and shows you where to look. He shows you what’s important.”
Robert Gottlieb, a former editor in chief at Simon & Schuster and later at Knopf, said Mr. Bacon displayed more creative flexibility than many other artists and designers.
“He didn’t see himself as a sensitive artist; he was there to serve,” said Mr. Gottlieb, who worked with Mr. Bacon for many years. “If you rejected the first one, he was happy to do a 10th one. We worked and worked until it was right.”
The graphic designer Chip Kidd said that Mr. Bacon’s visual take on “Jaws” — a stark black cover with the outline of a massive shark rising from the bottom and a female swimmer floating above — was an especially powerful influence on his own work. He noted that it shows “just how much you can entice the reader on the content by using minimal form.”
