The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (Hebrew translation, Am Oved)
The cover for the Hebrew translation for The Catcher in the Rye (התפסן בשדה השיפון) by J.D. Salinger was designed by Shimon Zandhouse (Jogol) in 1972 when he began working for Israeli publishing house Am Oved.
According to Zandhouse, Salinger had a clause put in his contract with publishers to never use any images or illustrations for his book covers. Zandhouse however did not want to change the overall look just for Salinger’s book, since his series of covers for Am Oved relied on having both text (always in Oron), and a photograph (in color) placed inside a square.
So in this irregular yet Salinger-approved book cover, Zandhouse just left the shape of a square, where to him it symbolized the field of rye, and therefore “its color would be yellow” (from an interview with Zandhouse). The typeface Oron was designed by Asher Oron in 1966, and is used here in both its light and bold weights.
