What happens when product designer Philippe Starck needs 1,500 books — all with white spines — to fill out the shelves in a posh new Miami hotel? He calls on Thatcher Wine (that's a name, not a varietal) to curate the collection. Now Wine isn't a book designer, but he does design with books. It started as a hunt for special volumes at thrift stores and estate sales to resell on eBay. But his efforts soon expanded into an entire outfit. Wine's Boulder-based company, Juniper Books, cleverly fills out shelves using both custom covers created for classic works as well as a curated selection of existing editions. The result brings fresh design thinking to a centuries-old industry.

Books by the Foot What makes Juniper Books special is that it can manufacture new covers in-house on a large-format printer. So instead of scouring second-hand shops for an aesthetically pleasing array, Wine's four-person team can design, print, and assemble a beautiful bespoke library.

Classic literature, Modern Jackets Sometimes literary and aesthetic tastes vary. A given client may love Shakespeare's sonnets, but find the classic leather bound volumes — or its reimagined updates — unfitting for their modernist home. Wine buys books from publishers wholesale, defines a theme, and creates custom covers that link the collection together visually. He then sends them off to a client or sells them at an online outfit like <Fab.com>.

Handsome Hardcovers Part of Juniper’s appeal, says Wine, is that they create whole collections of books. Sometimes that means assembling a complete set of vintage first editions, and other times it means whipping together more integrated approaches. To create a unique offering for a Jack London fan, Wine commissioned a set of murals based on London's rugged themes. He then split the images into individual covers that combine to create a series of scenes.

The Big Picture Wine pushes the idea even further, also assembling custom jackets on a much larger scale. These medieval literature books take the form of an etching from the period. They stack to offer a bold visual statement that couldn’t be conveyed by a single volume — unless, of course, you have the Book of Kells in your study.

Paperback Puzzle Before Wine was a book dealer, he was a high tech entrepreneur. His patents cover a technique for breaking up big images into a procession of linked covers. Juniper Books uses the system to produce all their custom designs. (We’d love an app that would allow book collectors on a budget to recreate the effect, hint hint.)

Picking Up the Pieces Unadorned books, if assembled properly, can create a stunning visual. The challenge with this patriotic placement isn't just creating a Chuck Close-style assembly, it's finding smart books with themes that reflect the client's political beliefs. Wine’s well aware that a visitor might judge a client by their covers.

Ditching the Shelves Wine’s creations can be structural as well as pictorial. Here he constructed a literary Christmas tree from green books for a holiday party.