Books News

Quirk and Bridgeman Art Library's Mash-Up design competition, details

By April MacIntyre Feb 1, 2011, 21:27 GMT

The iconic “Zombie Lady” on the cover of the New York Times Best Seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has become one of the most recognizable book jackets in recent history.

The Bridgeman Art Library and independent publisher Quirk Books proudly present the Art of the Mash-Up design competition.

The iconic “Zombie Lady” on the cover of the New York Times Best Seller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies has become one of the most recognizable book jackets in recent history.

Once the portrait of Marcia B. Fox, Quirk Books designer Doogie Horner obtained the image from Bridgeman Art Library and removed the flesh from her jaw line, reddened her eyes, and added a few blood stains to this once genteel image.

Since then, Quirk Books has used art from Bridgeman’s collection to create covers for the entire Quirk Classics series, including
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dawn of the Dreadfuls, Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, and Android Karenina.

Horner transformed the original artwork by repainting portions and merging the changes in Photoshop. The resulting mashed-up image was voted Amazon’s Best Book Cover of the Year in 2009.

To celebrate the March 22, 2011, release of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies: Dreadfully Ever After—the highly anticipated sequel to Pride and Prejudice and Zombies—Quirk and Bridgeman are inviting designers to conceive and illustrate their own mash-up covers using public-domain works of literature and art.

Entries must be submitted by March 11, 2011, and participants must be at least 18 years of age to be eligible to win the grand-prize package, which includes entrance to the HOW Design Conference in Chicago, a feature in GD USA Magazine, and a First Friday gallery show at Brave New Worlds in Philadelphia.

For more information and to enter, visit www.bridgemanart.com/competitions. 

“Bridgeman is delighted to have worked with Quirk Books’ talented designers on each one of their titles,” said Kim Tidwell, marketing manager at Bridgeman. “Quirk is the perfect partner for our annual design competition, with their unconventional use of fine art in a youthful, nontraditional way. Beloved novels and iconic paintings get new life when infused with mayhem and the unexpected.”

Brett Cohen, Vice President of Quirk Books, said, “Bridgeman's collection has been so instrumental in the success of the Quirk Classics series. We are excited to partner with them for this competition and to open the mash-up to the design community."

Bridgeman www.bridgemanart.com generates income for collections and artists who partner with us, trusting us to administer copyright and reproduction rights on their behalf.

Quirk Books is an independent publisher based in Philadelphia. Quirk publishes books in the genre of what they like to call “irreference” (irreverence + reference) as well as pop culture, parenting, food and drink, history, humor, and lifestyle.  www.quirkclassics.com.