I’ve been rather long-winded lately so, in honor of Banned Books week, I’m going to shush and let them speak for themselves.
Or, I suppose, let some miscellaneous internet art speak for them.
(Internet art is intended for informational purposes only. It is not, nor is it intended to be, a substitution for literary content. Any resemblance to texts, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and not intended by the author. No books were harmed in the making of this post.)
Naturally, as soon as I posted mylast treatise on cover treatments, I immediately found more outstanding examples I had to share. I think it’s been long enough that I can finally make this update, eh?
Foil Stamping
Aside from being a ridiculously glamorous design, the Penguin Deluxe Edition of Charlotte Bronte’sJane Eyrefeatures a subtle foil glimmer over the lantern. Designed by renown fashion illustrator Ruben Toledo, this cover was enough to make me instantly buy a copy of a book I already owned. Two copies of.
Glow in the Dark Ink
While overdoing this could quickly become garish, in Lauren Redniss’s Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, the subject matter and predominant graphic design makes it a creative choice. I’ve been struggling to make this description appropriately dignified, but I feel like I really need to emphasize that omg this is a book cover with glow in the dark ink!!
Box Set
Okay, yes, Six Feet Under is actually an HBO series about a family-run funeral home, but the creativity of this design makes it a worthwhile exception. The simplicity of the dirt and root system highlights the hilariously ingenious fake-turf glued to the top of the box.
As before, if you find any creative covers, feel free to let me know : )
I loved seeing your cover designs—including the ones you didn’t post!—and have decided to stay on theme, for once But instead of focusing on the art-design aspect of book covers, I want to talk a bit about the interesting things you can do with cover treatments. Obviously, design plays a huge role in the execution of these treatments (and without a great designer, none of them could have been pulled off), but I think it’s also important to look at some of the mechanics of these designs. So without further ado…
Spot Gloss
It’s pretty common for covers to be matte or glossy—or to use spot gloss to highlight the author’s name or title. But, as the cover below shows, Spot Gloss can also be used for impressively creative detail.
Brain Camp, by Laurence Klavan and Susan Kim
The top cover is the artist’s design, and the pink in the second cover shows where the gloss will be applied. According to the art designer for First Second Books (another imprint of MacMillian, by the way!), the idea for the spot gloss didn’t occur immediately. They went through many iterations of the cover, and when they finally had to scrap the bird/claw image, they figured out a way to work it back in. The final result, as I think you can see, is amazing:
I love this cover not only because it’s a brilliant and terrifyingly effective use of spot gloss (key word: terrifying), but also because it shows that brilliant ideas don’t spring up fully formed. To find out more about Faith Erin Hicks and Colleen Venable’s design process (and for one of the most frightening gifs you’ll ever see!),click here.
Spines
Since, probably, time immemorial, authors and designers have been in an epic battle with bookstore owners over the display of titles. The thought has been—and rightfully so—that front covers (“face out” books) get much more attention that books with the spine out. And so authors or fans will turn their favorite books face out and weary bookstore employees will return the books to their proper position and on and on and on…
But then there are books like Patrick O’Brian’s Master and Commander series that use their inevitable spine-out position to great advantage.
We couldn’t get a picture of the full set (over 20 books long!) but as you can see from these images, when shelved in their proper order, the spines make up an epic naval scene that spans the entire series. It’s an eye-catching and truly impressive use of extremely overlooked book cover real estate.
Belly Bands
I used to think these were pretty much the most annoying things ever—half the jacket for all the price! Way more fragile—and ineffective bookmarks to boot! Plus, as far as I can tell, the official name is actually a “belly band,” which sounds pretty gross right there. But these two designs have changed my mind forever:
On the one hand, you have something absolutely gorgeous. On the other: symbolically relevant. How could you resist?
Transparent Dust Jacket
Apparently one of the “Best Covers of 2011,” 1Q84 has been admired from every angle. I haven’t read it yet, but layered reality and distorted perception apparently play a huge role in the book, which is evident in this innovative cover.
A different take on this design is Random House’s biography of Van Gogh: The inside cover is Van Gogh’s iconic self-portrait, while the translucent jacket gives such relevant information as title and author.
Die-cut Dust Jacket
The cover for Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far combines crazy die cutting with crazy interior design. 15 unbound signatures allow you to view the book and change the cover in many different ways. In fact, the cover is really more of a slipcase, but with all the delicate lacework, this decision was probably for the best
Once again, I have you to thank for showing me this one: the design, of course, plays a key role in the effectiveness of this cover—the pipe and the inkblot are classic symbols of Sherlock Holmes. But the die-cut inkblot reveals the foil-stamped Sherlock in profile (deerstalker included!) on the inside cover.
For a particularly impressive use of die-cutting within a book, check out this video of Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes (another book I haven’t read but feel obligated to check out immediately):
Embossing
These are cool on a couple of levels—Jillian Tamaki hand embroidered these covers!!—but to make them even cooler, Pengin is embossing the image of the threads so they actually are raised. Like spot glosses, embossing is usually limited to an author’s name or the title (and often only in the romance novel set), but here, it takes these visually stunning covers a step further into an amazing tactile experience.
Series Design
I couldn’t decide whether this counts as “design” or “cover treatment” but I thought it was worth a brief mention—if only because it’s not something you see in the everyday experience of most books. When does one spread their books face up on a horizontal surface (except by laziness and happenstance)? So this series design for Oliver Sack’s books on neurology barely squeaks by, but is definitely worth some admiration.
Did I miss anything? If anyone has an interesting example of Foil Stamping, I would love to see it! I haven’t found any such covers that caught my eye, but I would love to add it to the list And what are some of your favorite covers? Have they done anything clever with the printing? Let me know in the comments below—or better yet, share pictures!
You know you are having way too much fun doing homework when you are chuckling maniacally to yourself as you work on the assignment. But when I was charged with finding the worst covers I could possibly find and then redesigning them, I couldn’t help it. The originals are bad. So so bad.
I decided that this project would be even more fun, and frankly easier, if I chose books I own and have read. That also means I have to fess up: yes, I have actually read these books.
And the thing is, they are all GOOD books, high up on my list, though you would never know it from their covers. Trust me; hide their covers with a paper bag and read them.
And the very best part of this assignment? The originals are so awful, poor things, that no matter what you do, your version looks fabulous in comparison.
Here goes nothing:
Feeling Sorry For Celia by Jaclyn Moriarty
Original
Does this cover appeal? I think not. Ugh, I promise you, there are no mournful girls staring out windows in this book. Libby, the main character, has a more than slightly eccentric best friend named Celia. Celia runs away to the circus, thus the stripes on my cover. The book is utterly charming because it is written entirely in letters and notes: notes from Libby’s mom tacked on the fridge, letters to and from her pen pal, letters to her divorced dad. And letters from organizations like The Association of Teenagers and The Society of High School Runners Who Aren’t Very Good At Long Distance Running but Would Be if they Just Trained. No insipid stock-photo-girls here.
My Version
The Mapmaker by Frank G. Slaughter
Original
This is a good, old-fashioned 1950s action-adventure novel. There is Venetian intrigue, pining love, heroic escapes from slave ships, contests involving gold, daring-do at sea, and maps. As the New York Times says on the front of my copy, it’s “A seafaring yarn…fascinating.” How can you resist? One look at that cover, that’s how. One of my classmates asked me if he is wearing pants in that picture. No he is not. He is wearing tights.
My Version
The Alleluia Files by Sharon Shinn
Original
I saved the best for last. As you very well know, I love this series, and the cover is the most embarrassing thing on the face of the planet. When I found this book at Powell’s, you and Stephi laughed so hard I couldn’t bring myself to take it up to the cashier. Stupid cover. It’s actually a really fun book, in a junk-food-for-the-brain kind-of-way (that was an excessive amount of hyphens, apologies). If you can believe it, it’s actually sci-fi. Ok, sci-fi-romance with angels. But at no point can I recall an angel flying aloft, naked, with a strategically placed bed sheet.
I realize my cover is excessively sci-fi. But, come on. I had to compensate for THAT.
My Version
Now I want to see the worst covers on YOUR shelves. I bet you have some doozies.
So I’ve been compulsively gathering book-related links from around the wild and wooly Internet and I just couldn’t keep them to myself any more. Also, I’m hoping all the shiny, pretty things will distract you from the distinct lack of a real post.
Shiny Thing #1: Tattered Cover’s Pinterest
Oh, Tattered Cover’s Pinterst, you are a thing of beauty. I just joined pinterest and if I’m not careful all my pins will simply be repins from the Tattered Cover.
Can you believe my restraint in posting only three of their pictures? You should be proud.
Pride and Prejudice Scarf
Can you imagine waltzing into your Jane Austen final with this scarf? “Yes, Professor, I just like to ponder my scarf as I answer questions about chapter 60″
I find all manner of fun things via Booklicious’ blog, but I particularly like these prints she found on Etsy. How can you beat stellar design skills combined with witty literary quotes? Go check out all of Obvious State‘s prints, but my favorite is:
You can’t beat Mark Twain.
Literary Devices…Literally
This is how we should have been taught about Literary Devices in school. Thanks to Grant Snider over at Incidental Comics.
Go Away. I’m Reading.
Do people keep bugging you in the coffee shop or on the bus, asking you about your book and all you want to do is FINISH THE LAST 20 PAGES. You may be in need of these book covers. YA writer Erin Bowman and her friends provide these printable PDFs so you too can now read in peace.
Out of Print
I found this clothing website. It is all book-themed clothes, all the time. If their shirts were set at threadless prices, I would wear nothing else.
But instead of focusing on the art-design aspect of book covers, I want to talk a bit about the interesting things you can do with cover treatments. Obviously, design plays a huge role in the execution of these treatments (and without a great designer, none of them could have been pulled off), but I think it’s also important to look at some of the mechanics of these designs. So without further ado…
