Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 

In History of Underground Design, we discussed underground cultural movements becoming mainstream. What if mainstream culture could become underground? With all of the recent events from the 2024 election, some policies and laws now being implemented are direct forms of censorship. 

The book cover designs for banned books can be considered underground now because they, in the future, are becoming more forbidden in schools. This brings up an interesting discussion about whether these books should be regarded as underground now. If we look at some of these books, we can see that the storytelling goes beyond the pages, and looking at the cover design for these books is a part of graphic design history.  Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 is now removed from some California, Florida, and Texas public schools. Ironically, the book takes place in a dystopian future where American society outlaws books and firefighters are forced to burn any found. 

The original artist of the first edition was Joseph Mugnaini, an Italian American artist and illustrator. He and Bradbury met as faculty members at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles in the early 1950s. In less than a year, Mugnaini worked on illustrations for two of Bradbury’s forthcoming books, The Golden Apples of the Sun and Fahrenheit 451. 

The burning man at the center of the Fahrenheit 451 dust jacket, wearing armor formed of newspaper pages, became an enduring representation of Bradbury’s famous cautionary tale. Mugnaini made more color illustrations for the unique edition books in future limited edition issues. 

He earned an Academy Award nomination and the Golden Eagle Award for his paintings for the film Icarus, a Bradbury collaboration. He was also the primary illustrator for many of Bradbury’s books. His paintings and illustrations are held in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institute, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

This topic is still in the early stages of development, but with the current events happening as we speak, this might signify a unique development of reverse underground culture. More and more books may or may not be banned in the future. Still, the push for these books to be removed would have an imprint on literature and literary history. Still, these original copies’ cover designs and illustrations would also affect graphic design and art history.