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Ooligan is an award-winning not-for-profit general trade press that publishes books honoring the cultural and natural diversity of the Pacific Northwest.

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Bunko

Cultural Differences, as Told through Popular YA Cover Design

By Terence Brierly

March 27, 2017 by OoliganPress 1 Comment

Cultural Differences, as Told through Popular YA Cover Design

One would think these principles of cover design to be universal, and yet I’m staring at a couple Japanese novels on my desk, and can’t help but wonder if the standards of design are a little bit different (read: awesome) there. Japanese bestsellers, especially foreign titles, are often printed as bunko, which are similar in form and function to mass market paperbacks in the West. They do tend to be a bit shorter and slimmer than Western paperbacks however, and are usually only about two hundred pages long. Because of this length restriction, many Western bestsellers are often split up into multiple volumes. These criteria mean that cover designers have less space to work on per book, but potentially more books available. You might also notice an almost universal trend of more numerous and larger typographic elements on Japanese covers. As my team has been working on a YA cover, I’m specifically interested in that market. As a teaching example of YA cover design differences between Japan and America, one need look no further than America’s favorite dystopian series about ritual teen murder and bird-themed rebellion: The Hunger Games.

Filed Under: Design Tagged With: A Song of Fire and Ice, art style, book cover, Bunko, cover design, Japan, manga, Ooligan, The Fault in Our Stars, The Hunger Games, The Ocean in My Ears, Twilight, young adult

The Bizarre State of Japan’s Failing Book Publishing Industry: What We Can Learn

By Terence Brierly

November 25, 2016 by Digital Content 1 Comment

The Bizarre State of Japan’s Failing Book Publishing Industry: What We Can Learn

You step into a Japanese bookstore. Wall to wall you see nondescript, two-tone spines with black lettering, so you decide to search by author and genre. Unfortunately the books are grouped by publisher and you don’t know which one you are looking for, so you ask the attendant for help. He tells you, “That’s a […]

Filed Under: Publishing Tagged With: All Digital Future, book publishing, Bunko, Japan, production, publishing

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