Striking but unconventional. Four shouting elements – an extra bold slab serif title, a strangely cropped up-close picture, the blurb text in red and a classical vignette – all together on the front cover of a book and yet kept perfectly in balance. 

This is the work of a master. Dick Bruna, forever famous as the father of ‘Nijntje’ or ‘Miffy’ in English, designed hundreds of book covers for ‘Zwarte Beertjes’, a Dutch pocket book series that published mainly thrillers and sci-fi. This is a hard cover book, the linnen embossing making the tabloid-like approach even more surprising.