Anger. The Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger by Bill Landis
Dust jacket for The Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger, written by Bill Landis and published by HarperCollins in 1995. From the inner flap:
Known worldwide for his bestselling Hollywood Babylon books, Kenneth Anger is an underground filmmaker whose tremendous influence has been acknowledged by by directors as diverse as Stephen Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and Dennis Hopper. As the father and most highly regarded member of American cinema’s avant-garde, Anger made three films now considered masterpieces: Fireworks, Scorpio Rising, and Lucifer Rising. More than forty years later his aesthetic ripple is still being felt in contemporary mediums such as rock videos.
Designer Chip Kidd spells out the artist’s pseudonym in crammed letters from Franklin Gothic – it’s either the Condensed, widened, or the regular width, squeezed. In combination with the color red, this adds up to a typographic visualization of the the word’s meaning. For the smaller text including the subtitle and the author’s name, Kidd opted for ITC Franklin Gothic, Victor Caruso’s 1980 revision and expansion of Benton’s classic, distinguished by a larger and higher ear in g, among other things. These lines are set with very loose letterspacing, further increasing the claustrophobic expression of “Anger”.
Kenneth Anger died earlier this month at the age of 96. See the obituaries by the New York Times and the Guardian. RIP.
1 Comment on “Anger. The Unauthorized Biography of Kenneth Anger by Bill Landis”
About this jacket, Chip Kidd writes in Book One. Work: 1986–2006 (p. 265): “Design-wise, I’m dangerously close to ripping off Barbara Kruger here.” At least he didn’t use Futura…