Great designers aren’t afraid to let the typography be restrained so that the illustration can take the center stage. Simple and understated typography is actually used with a lot of purpose on book covers - it elegantly balances the elements to best highlight the illustration. Let’s go now to the opposite end of the spectrum. Cover designs by (from left to right): Erin Fitzsimmons, Terry and Eric Fan, Kathleen Lynch. Simple typography shines a light on the illustration. (See: the typography for The Godfather, which became an instant classic on its release). Also: if it’s executed well, there’s a chance that the type can gain iconic status. You’ll frequently find it paired with books with emphatic titles, too - such as Eve Babitz’s Sex and Rage or Jonathan Safran Foer’s Here I Am. This kind of typography shouts: “This is a book that you want to pick up.” That, or: “Here… we… go!” Like elephants in the room, these covers demand attention.Įxpect to see this sort of typography splashed into the midst of bright colors, as subtlety isn’t exactly the game here. Cover designs by (from left to right, top to bottom): Asya Blue, Thomas Walker, Jon Gray, Neil Fujita, Mirandi Babitz, Adly Elewa.īig, bold typography on covers is another trend in recent years, and it’s not terribly hard to see why. Sometimes, the bigger and bolder, the better. It is a timely interpretation of violence.” 7. As LitHub points out, “While we expect explosions to create chaos, the impact of the bomb in this composition is very organized and evocative of networks. You’ll notice that the o’s in the title end up creating the “small bombs” that are at the heart of this book. Take the cover of Karan Mahajan’s The Association of Small Bombs, for instance: it does a brilliant job of conveying the book’s message in only a few strokes.
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Let’s start off with a bang: there’s no better illustration (!) of how powerful typography can be than a cover that turns its typography into an image unto itself.
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Cover designs by (from left to right): Christopher Brand, Matt Vee, Jennifer Carrow. Not to mention the way they allow designers to add that extra special touch! Where else can you find a cover upon which the “Y” is the wine glass that Gatsby delicately holds? Typography-focused book covers 6. From the softness of the illustration for Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor & Park to the gorgeously intricate cover of Runemarks, hand-drawn covers are so versatile that they’re present in pretty much every genre. We’re suckers for originality, which is one area that hand-illustrated covers certainly have covered. Cover designs by (from left to right): Harriet Russell, Aled Lewis, Andreas Preis. In a bit of a twist, you might see this technique adorning the covers of classics - giving books such as Charles Baudelaire’s Las Flores del Mal a very contemporary interpretation. As you can see, photo collages give the cover a bit of a modern look. Given the recent innovations in photomanipulation, they offer a vast sandbox of possibilities to designers. Photo collages are an exciting trend in the world of cover design. Cover designs by (from left to right): Raúl Lázaro, Christos Kourtoglou, Oliver Munday.
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Jeffrey Nguyen on designing Galloway's Justice. I try to create a cover that can sit within its genre while being striking and unique. I wanted the use of integrated photography, lettering, and illustration to make a compelling design. I chose to create an empty silhouette shape on top of a photograph to portray a missing piece. Designers who succeed often play it against the cover typography (as in David Nicholls’ Us) or make the silhouette itself exceedingly arresting (as in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian.)įor Galloway’s Justice, it was important to convey a mysterious tone and the idea of a missing girl. It’s so common that it can be tough to make it original these days. That said, you could say that the silhouette is a victim of its own nebulous triumph. Who wouldn’t glimpse a shadowy figure and automatically go, “Who’s THAT?” There’s a reason why it’s so ubiquitous on covers: it’s really, really effective at getting a reader’s attention. Cover designs by (from left to right, top to bottom): Joel Tippie, Christopher Brand, Alison Forner, Jeffrey Nguyen, Jarrod Taylor, Lynn Buckley.Īh, the silhouette.