The books are for reading..... we all know that. Still, there's something more about books.
The books suppose to produce a magic. They attract us by covers, illustrations, velvety paper touch and smell. Book covers are hard to design and nice to look at. An effective book cover manages to catch human’s eye and convey the idea behind the book on one single page. However, it’s getting even harder: to make a book really hard to forget, designers need to design the cover in a unique, creative and striking way. That’s not that different from Web where it’s important to build a sound information architecture upon a rather restricted design layout.
There are a few tips for making a good book cover:
1. Know the material
No matter the subject matter however, you must be familiar with it so you can set the mood and character of your design to match what the reader can expect. Nothing is worse than getting a book you did not want after being mislead by its cover.
2. Know the reader
Knowing the demographic of the reader allow you to craft a combination of type and graphics to grab that reader's eye, then instantly send the message that this book is for you. I know you think that's a no-brainer -- but it's seriously more difficult to do than say.
3. Show the essence of the message
Selling the essence of a book must be immediately understandable and recognizable. Imagine passing these on the street, with a quick glance in the bookstore window. What would you think? A book about babies. A book about glamor or cosmetics. A book about some sinister character. A book about a lost woman with a dark story. At first take, these books are not about photo manipulation. You only realize that upon more careful investigation.
4. Layout to promote eyeflow
One of the most important rules in graphic design is to organize the visual elements in such a way that the overall message of the cover is communicated clearly, quickly and efficiently to the reader. This is not just the type, or an illustration. This is the intelligent organization, sizing and positioning of all the visual elements in concert with each other and the edges of the window or view. Organization, sizing and positioning can actually help your reader through the visual information and achieve understanding more clearly and more easily -- or it can become a barrier to that understanding.
5. Choice of typography
You can create beautiful illustration, graphics and photography, but if the typeface, styling, sizing and positioning of the typography isn't correct, you lose the battle -- and the project. The whole project might evidenced an overall lack of type skills -- although there were some fairly nice pieces of type! But the type has to support the meaning of the cover, while working transparently with the other visual imagery and above all, being first seen, then recognized, then understood in the first moment of the visual gulp. If you fail here, game over.
The books suppose to produce a magic. They attract us by covers, illustrations, velvety paper touch and smell. Book covers are hard to design and nice to look at. An effective book cover manages to catch human’s eye and convey the idea behind the book on one single page. However, it’s getting even harder: to make a book really hard to forget, designers need to design the cover in a unique, creative and striking way. That’s not that different from Web where it’s important to build a sound information architecture upon a rather restricted design layout.
There are a few tips for making a good book cover:
1. Know the material
No matter the subject matter however, you must be familiar with it so you can set the mood and character of your design to match what the reader can expect. Nothing is worse than getting a book you did not want after being mislead by its cover.
2. Know the reader
Knowing the demographic of the reader allow you to craft a combination of type and graphics to grab that reader's eye, then instantly send the message that this book is for you. I know you think that's a no-brainer -- but it's seriously more difficult to do than say.
3. Show the essence of the message
Selling the essence of a book must be immediately understandable and recognizable. Imagine passing these on the street, with a quick glance in the bookstore window. What would you think? A book about babies. A book about glamor or cosmetics. A book about some sinister character. A book about a lost woman with a dark story. At first take, these books are not about photo manipulation. You only realize that upon more careful investigation.
4. Layout to promote eyeflow
One of the most important rules in graphic design is to organize the visual elements in such a way that the overall message of the cover is communicated clearly, quickly and efficiently to the reader. This is not just the type, or an illustration. This is the intelligent organization, sizing and positioning of all the visual elements in concert with each other and the edges of the window or view. Organization, sizing and positioning can actually help your reader through the visual information and achieve understanding more clearly and more easily -- or it can become a barrier to that understanding.
You can create beautiful illustration, graphics and photography, but if the typeface, styling, sizing and positioning of the typography isn't correct, you lose the battle -- and the project. The whole project might evidenced an overall lack of type skills -- although there were some fairly nice pieces of type! But the type has to support the meaning of the cover, while working transparently with the other visual imagery and above all, being first seen, then recognized, then understood in the first moment of the visual gulp. If you fail here, game over.
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