“This limited, numbered edition of Chang-rae Lee’s On Such a Full Sea will be available on January 7th, 2014. Riverhead art director Helen Yentus and members of the MakerBot team designed the slipcase, and 200 of them will be made with the MakerBot® Replicator® 2 Desktop 3D Printer with MakerBot PLA filament, a bioplastic made of corn, fabricated by MakerBot in Brooklyn, New York. Each copy is signed and numbered by the author.” From www.riverheadbooks.com  Is this the first 3D-printed slipcase?  Yea or nay, this effort is clever.  As the book slips from its case, the words of the title on the slipcase are completed. The design will surely make purchasers give “pride of space” to this book on their bookshelves and renewed sense to the word “outstanding”.

Additional cover design and art direction by Helen Yentus can be viewed here.

Related articles:

Lindsay Ballant, “Helen Yentus”, Print, 1 June 2007, accessed 5 January 2014: http://www.printmag.com/article/nva_2007_helen_yentus/

Todd Halterman, “Print Is Not Dead – Pulitzer Prize Hopeful Wraps His Novel In A 3D Printed Slipcase”, 3D Printer World, 12 December 2013, accessed 5 January 2014: http://www.3dprinterworld.com/article/print-not-dead-pulitzer-prize-hopeful-wraps-his-novel-3d-printed-slipcase

“Cover Designer: Helen Yentus”, DecorWrite, 1o February 2011, accessed 5 January 2014: http://www.decorwrite.com/?p=458

“Helen Yentus”, The Book Cover Archive, nd, accessed 5 January 2014: http://bookcoverarchive.com/Helen_Yentus

“MakerBot Creates First-of-Its-Kind 3D Printed Hardcover Book Slipcase for Award—Winning and New York Times—Bestselling Author Chang-rae Lee”, press release, 10 December 2013, accessed 5 January 2014: http://investors.stratasys.com/releasedetail.cfm?releaseid=812980

“Riverhead Goes 3D for Chang-rae Lee”, Publishers Weekly, 11 December 2013, accessed 5 January 2014: http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/publisher-news/article/60331-riverhead-goes-3d-for-chang-rae-lee.html