Tropes: Political/Historical Biography

You have two choices: a three-quarters profile picture where the subject is looking at you, or a three-quarters profile picture where the subject is looking off the page.

With few exceptions, we're looking at a serif typeface (good on you for breaking the mold, Franco). With few exceptions, the title and author are either on the top and bottom, or together at the top or bottom (good on you for breaking the mold, Franco).

There really isn't much variation in this genre. You need an epic photo and an inoffensive typeface. It's easy to poke fun at the lack of options, but I think it's, overall, an aesthetic of literalism. There appears to be a small sub-genre of "graphic biographies":

Tropes Graphic Novels

Well this was hard because 'graphic novels' is really a genre it's a style of book that actually has other genres included so I decided to concentrate on superhero comics because that's what I know most about so, cover tropes.

Drama pose:


 

Holding gun standing dramatically pose:



Obligatory team shot:





Crying over your dead teammate pose:



There's tons of other tropes these are just the top four that come to mind

Tropes: Chick Lit

The Chick Lit genre, appealing to adult females, usually features a young female (attractive and successful) dealing with relationships, careers, friends, family, and so on. The tone is usually pretty light and humorous. When looking over the common book cover tropes, I found the following trends:

Illustrated - lots of illustrated female silhouettes, shopping and purses, and dresses
Bright Colors
High Heels/legs
Girly/script font
flowers & hearts
Lots of pink, red and tiffany blue, pastels
...pretty much illustrated legs in high heels.

Tropes: Literary Fiction

Literary fiction is a pretty nebulous genre term, so I decided to focus on the design of book award finalists and winners--the Man Booker Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Awards--in recent years so as to limit the search a little.

Trope: bold type, strong color, simple graphic element

Trope: Elegant type (often white/black), photograph/layered/realistic illustration

 

 

 

 

 

 

Trope: Handwritten or imperfect type/graphics: