Best Book Cover Designs
The best book cover designs take considered
account of the potential reader, and the marketplace. A pithy
title will read more quickly, and present stronger design
possibilities than a lengthy one. If your title requires many
words, it’s worth considering a rework that will result in a
brief title, supported by a subtitle. To the designer,
book covers present a unique challenge to capture the
eye of the reader, and convey a book’s essence, in a limited
space and a potentially brief view.
Color, contrast,
and type size are all important variables in the best book
cover designs. These take into consideration such
factors as the age of the viewer, the taste of the audience, and
the ability of this particular book cover to stand out on the
shelf from other book covers designs.
Today’s book shelf has increasingly become the web browser,
and today’s browser of choice is often a laptop, ipad,
or even a cell phone. This puts severe limitations on the
visual display size and space, and further defines the absolute
need for economy in style and words. Judicious use of a tasteful,
provocative, or witty visual, whether photographic or illustrative
in book covers designs, can determine the
critical ‘next step’ in browsing.
In many
ways, the best book cover designs are like
billboards, attempting to catch the eye of a mobile viewer.
Most billboards use six words or less; hopefully this allows
the viewer to read and comprehend at 55 miles per hour, in less
than 3 to 5 seconds. In a similar time frame, your viewer needs to
know a lot about your book: genre, subject, and tone.
One infallible source of information is to look at a wide
range of book covers designs. Study book and
illustration annuals to determine award-winning styles being used
by designers of book covers. Best
sellers have often gotten their beginning, if not from Oprah
Winfrey, from the thought and consideration put into the book
covers designs.
Look at LOTS of
books. Oliver Sack’s, The Mind’s Eye,
(designed by Chip Kidd and published by Knopf) is a picture of how
a witty use of typography can convey the message. The
Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death, (designed by
Christopher Sergio and published by Ballantine Books)is a fine
example of contrast in illustration and design, as well as a
creative use of the type/calligraphy. God: A
Biography ,(designed by Michael Beirut and published by
Vintage Books)has sheer, simple beauty.
Finally,
consider the words (paraphrased below) of Chip Kidd, book designer
for Random House, in a TED talk given recently entitled: Designing
books is no laughing matter. OK, it is:
“A book cover is a distillation; what do the stories look
like?”
“The book designer has to be an
interpreter and a translator.”
“The book
cover provides a first impression; the book designer gives form to
content.”
“The book designer’s
responsibility is three-fold: to the reader, to the publisher and
most of all, to the author.”