Chrome Yellow

Any comments for the changes? I rounded the edges on the bottom sign and added Aldous.

Self Help : The Love Edition

I'm no stranger to self help books. Hey, I could use some fixin'! But I am COMPLETELY opposed to the female targeted, "how to find love and keep it" self help books. The covers are generally attractive and of course very girly -which immediately catches my attention, but they usually lack substance and aren't very commanding or engaging. I tend to wonder if that's intentional or do book designers really feel women looking for relationship-esque self help books also lack substance and aren't engaging people. Hmmm just a thought!

Typical Zane

The covers for African American romance novels really annoy me! I guess romance novels in general are annoying. It's typically a half dressed woman on the cover with some red/orange overlay or tint to the photo -very little variety. I wish for once a book designer would play around with typography when designing the cover of a romance novel.

Breaking down genre walls

Marie, I love, love, love that book, "Tree Of Codes." I want to get my hands on it and have it be my squishy.

Crystal and Meredith- Chick Lit was one of the first genres I thought of too. There are SO many books that are pink with rings or other cute, cartooney illustrations. It's painful, but it obviously works to sell them. And why DON'T women ever have heads on book covers? Strange.

I was looking for something in the chik-lit genre that does it a bit differently, so I have two covers to submit to you all for your thoughts. One is Lovehampton, which sounds pretty terrible.But I must say- I appreciate this cover not having a bikini-clad (headless) cartoon lady lounging
on a pink beach towel. Baby steps, I suppose. Or I can totally imagine an illustrated version of the cover above, with a pink polka-dot bikini hanging from the dune fence post. Right?

The other cover is for a book of selected short stories by women, called "This is Not Chick Lit." Now alright, it's not chick lit, but the cover and title play on all the established rules of the genre, so I'm still going to count it for this post.

"Kill Your Darlings" by Peter Terzian

"Kill Your Darlings" by Peter Terzian is a good article to read about the evolution of a book cover and what happens to the covers that don't make it.

http://www.printmag.com/article/kill-your-darlings

Trends in Book Design

What other trends have you seen in a given genre in a certain time? Anything jump out to you?

I've seen an increase in typographic covers lately, not that this is a new concept, except that I've seen an increase in typographic covers that are actually done well. Typographic covers span many genres, but one in particular that seems to be emerging is re-designed classics.


Last week, I brought in two books, both of which were rather poorly executed typographic covers. Cormac McCarthy's The Road, and George Orwell's 1984, although, the copy of 1984 that I had was published in 1960, so the bad cover design is indicative of what was in style during that era.

Here are just  two of my favorite typographic book cover designers.

Jonathan Safran Foer's books. I not only enjoy reading them, but the treatment of typography
is organic, unusual, and  I really enjoy it. Check out his other covers -  Jon Gray of  http://bookcoverarchive.com/gray318


One of JSF's newest books -- Tree of Codes is in a whole new typographic category unto itself.



 

The book is actually a kind of interactive paper-sculpture: Foer and his collaborators at Die Keure in Belgium took the pages of another book, Bruno Schulz's The Street of Crocodiles, and literally carved a brand new story out of them using a die-cut technique.For more on how this book was made, visit

http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662680/inside-jonathan-safran-foers-unmakeable-interactive-book

  

I like the stacking, the textures, the colors, everything about it -- (even the distressed type).
Designed by David Pearson.  http://bookcoverarchive.com/David_Pearson

Some more David Pearson ... many re-imagined classics.
 I love the way the type on Honest Abe's face  helps to fill the contours of his face

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Chicks Without Faces Only Want Diamonds

Crystal, I love your post about chick lit. It is so guilty of using predictable design elements. Your post also reminded me of another symbol (and an entire genre of chick lit actually) books use to appeal to single women: the engagement ring. We have no faces, like all things pink, and want nothing more than a big diamond ring.

Romance Novel Covers

My earliest memory of a romance novel was one by Danielle Steel that my mom kept in her dresser drawer. I don't remember the name of that particular book, but I remember the cover with a shirtless man and seductivly dressed woman sharing a magical embrace in front of a random background. Since then, I have always considered romance novel covers as corny and typical of that genre. Now, twenty years after I saw my first romance novel, I'm curious to see if this genre's covers have changed since then. Below are a few novels I found on Amazon.com.

As you can see, they really haven't changed much.

Chick Lit is SO GUILTY

Stories geared towards women, aka "chick lit" have some of the most predictable covers ever. Pink, Swirly hand writing, a "playful" tone, and almost inevitably contain a shot of legs. Why the hell are there always legs on the covers of these books? Do we not have upper bodies? Strange phenomenon indeed. My guess is that in their attempt to appeal to all "chicks," they won't give us faces. Check it out.

Genre-Driven Book Covers

I must admit, when I read your post, the first things that came to me were the overly cheesy and trite covers of two of the most enduring book genres: crime dramas and young adult novels.

On Wednesday, we discussed in class that there are a few things that come to mind when you think of crime dramas. Bullets, guns, justice scales, gavels, flags, the nation's capital, fingerprints, etc. This is what I immediately thought of when I saw your post.

But I also immediately thought of the vampire craze right now, and how it has taken over the young adult book genre. Whenever I walk by the young adult aisle in Barnes and Noble, I'm almost always certain to find the most  ridiculous paranormal romance covers leering at me from the aisle and large promo displays. Always with the same flourishes, dark cloudy backgrounds, purplish and red color schemes, and outdated font treatment. What a treasure trove of bad design decisions for a designer to pick apart, yet I understand why and how these things appeal to teen girls...I am not rolling my eyes at the thought of it, or am I?

Books By Politicians

It is interesting how certain designs or design elements become expected of a genre. Often times, horror books use blood or red text, mysteries use silhouettes and political books use the American flag. Searching through images of political books led me to notice a sub-genre: the political autobiography. What was interesting, i.e. made me laugh, about these covers was all of the "Don't mind me, I'm just a relaxed politician" photographs on the covers.

 

 

It's definitely a popular way to portray to a political figure. Even though the cover designs are nothing to write home about, they feel appropriate for the authors and subjects. I'm not sure how else a designer could make someone look powerful and approachable at the same time.

Speaking generically....

I've been thinking more about our discussion in class about how genres follow the same format. I'm sure I mentioned this in a blog post the first week of class, but I kept thinking about it in terms of how something becomes a trend, and then becomes dated.

I took a quick look on Amazon for reglious theme books, and then further narrowing it down, stuck to releases from the last 90 days. In the first 2 pages alone, I found these...Yes, clouds. Like I said, these were just on the first 2 pages of books from the last 90 days. Clouds certainly are a look now.

What other trends have you seen in a given genre in a certain time? Anything jump out to you?

For Cod and Country -- one hell of a cookbook

The Museum is welcoming a guest speaker on March 1 -- Barton Seaver, author of "For Cod and Country."

I happened to see his book laying around the office the other day and I was blown away by not only the amazing content, but the graphic design of the book, from the textured paper, to the subtly beautiful color palettes, to the elegantly typefaces, and the clean layout with amazing photography. The paper itself is uncoated, and looks to be recycled, so the ink is really absorbed onto the paper, but given that this is a cookbook aimed at sustainability, I think that fits in very well with the motif.

I'm trying to borrow the book so I can bring it in to the class, but in the mean time, here's a few photos, and some more info on Barton Seaver, if you're interested. (I'm thinking of particularly Meredith, as a self-professed "foodie") I don't cook much myself, but I want to buy this book for my good friend, who IS a great cook, in the hopes that I can cajole her into making me dinner from one of the recipes.

http://www.bartonseaver.org/

"National Geographic Fellow and Washington, D.C. chef Barton Seaver is an influential voice in the culinary world because of his take on seafood and sustainability. In his first book, For Cod and Country, Seaver introduces an entirely new kind of casual cooking featuring seafood that hasn't been overfished or harvested using destructive methods.

Organized by season, For Cod and Country is a full-color exploration of recipes showcasing a wide variety of fish caught at specific times of year combined with fresh vegetables and vibrant spices. The book also includes “A Separate Season” for seafood available year-round, and healthful and ocean-friendly substitutes for fish species that are popular yet overharvested. In addition, Seaver takes a holistic approach to sustainability and covers wellness, portion size, fishermen, catch methods, and a fish’s role in the marine ecosystem."

The outside jacket and the actual hard cover of the book are exactly the same design and material-- linen-like that kind of reminds me of a potato sack.

Each page draws from colors in the opposite photo.

Call-outs have nice touches.

Hot.