I’m pretty sure some of our readers might be crazy. I haven’t done a Re-Covered Books contests in a little while, at least not since our failed attempt at trying to re-cover The Hobbit (we only received about 6 entries). This time around I decided to take a vote and let you the readers choose which book we re-covered, and and of the four choices you decided to take on Haruki Murikami’s, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

The novel is about a low-key unemployed man, Toru Okada, whose cat runs away. A chain of events follow that prove that his seemingly mundane life is much more complicated than it appears.

This is not only a bold choice, this book is really weird, but it’s also had the honor of having two spectacular covers by two amazing designers: Chip Kidd and John Gall. They’ve set the bar incredibly high, so I’m expecting some really great entries. For a bit of reference check out this collection of covers from around the world. Some are good, some are meh.

For your cover I want you to take the weirdness and originality of the book and channel that into the design. I think some contemporary with a slight bit of weirdness is an interesting take, which is also so different from what both Kidd and Gall have done. No bird toys either, that’s already been done. I think the idea of contemporary psychedelia could be an interesting route to try as well, for those of you who are brave.

UPDATE: I’ve partnered up with the Princeton Architectural Press to give away the pretty awesome prizes you see above. How cool is that?

RULES

• Save your images as JPGs at 800px wide, 72 DPI, RGB mode – this is super important! There are no height restrictions (within reason) but be sure to send images as separate JPGs. Feel free to play with the dimensions and have fun with what you make. Submitting a front and back cover will certainly help your chances, but is not required. You can enter up to 3 times.

The winner will receive a $100 gift card to Amazon, and perhaps some more fun goodies that I’m digging up.

• Label your files “Firstname-Lastname-Wind-Up-Bird.jpg”

• Send all entries to contest@thefoxisblack.com with the subject “Re-Covered Books: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle“. Cut and paste what I wrote there, it’s super easy and it helps me keep track of your entry.

• All entries are due Saturday, February 23, 2013 by Midnight PST.

If there are any other questions feel free to leave them in the comments. I look forward to seeing what you come up with and be sure to tell your friends/classmates/pets to participate as well. Good luck and have fun!

Matiukha Anton

Abbey Schuyler

Catherine Maguire

Hector Mendoza

Chantel Delulio

Michael Arnold

Samantha Morello

Metella Pegoraro

Kevin Kelly

Mirelle Ortega

Matt Gonzalez

Matt Wrightson

Gabriela Pascan

Sam Kittinger

Rob McDonald

Lori Schkufza

Juan A. Sánchez

Jennifer McMahon

María Maggiori

Joaquín Castro

Mark Grothman

Kevin Enriquez

Ayesha Kapadia

Cat Finnie

Róisín Gaffney

Heong Kheng Boon

Rebecca Duff-Smith

Juan Zambrano

Phuong Nguyen

Louise Norman

Anna Kövecses

Sandra Tenorio

Dione Lee

A.L.Kaplan

Samantha Holmlund

Kiryl Lysenka

Akua Afari

Conor Houghton

Zach Harris

Renault Sherborne

Griffin Van Dyke

Kate Aitken

Craig White

Nim Ben-Reuven

Cameron Hawkey

Alan Bragg

Andrew Russo

Mark Prescott

Shiman Shan