Some of my favorite covers. Designs by John Gall and Hellen Yentus. Photos via my iPhone.
When i’ve hit a creative road-block I visit the bookstore. It’s rare that I ever leave shop without some kind of book to take back home with me whether it’s new, used, or its cover is near disrepair. Doesn’t matter as long as it looks interesting. And for the most part that’s good. We’re raised under the assumption that it’s bad to judge a book by its cover and from time to time I think back on all those urban mantras, wondering if it’s still the kind of stuff they teach now.
Do students leave their classrooms brainwashed and determined to examine content before form? To me it’s always been the exact opposite. Look for the physical flaws first and save yourself a whole lot of trouble later. Does the tomato appear bruised or firm? Does Batman really need that cape to feel menacing to his enemies? (popping out of shadows dressed like a medieval savage isn’t enough?) Does anyone really look as beautiful as the people on ‘LOST’? For me at least, answering these questions first helps inform us of their value.
Books on the other hand, are a complete toss-up. Sometimes the cover can misdirect us emotionally and mask the fact that its content is either really compelling or completely useless. Books are like people in a lot of ways because they’re capable of hiding their flaws behind pretty faces and tasteful fashion trends.
There are also all kinds of unwritten rules when it comes to designing book covers that most lit-crits don’t know about. Like recruiting the use of greens, snakes, or wolves on your dust jackets. Marketing and trend research proves this cuts a book’s profit margins BUT just as people continue to wear sweat pants and flannel pajama bottoms in public, the designer will continue to use these tactics to sell their work… Maybe in spite of corporate marketing plans. Regardless, its people who teach you, earn your trust, and open your eyes to new experiences. Books are altogether capable of the doing the same things.
One good thing about books is that they lend themselves to scrutiny easier than people do. With a book, it’s simple to tell at a distance what to expect because they use their covers as platforms to pedal their messages.
Soft pallets, delicate motifs, and loose letter forms paint the picture that you’re about to pick up a novel for women roughly between the ages of 16 and 25 who appreciate a good cry while covers with bold colors, thick letters, and dramatic photography suggests a story charged with tension and intrigue. When was the last time a person conveyed those things to you in under 3 seconds? Never, because it doesn’t happen.
People wear their emotions on the inside but books wear them proudly where they can be seen. This is why I find them so physically attractive and enchanting. My only problem? Reading them… but that’s a whole other story.
Yes, getting around to reading a book is a hard thing to do, especially now with computers and the internet and the 500+ channels of cable television I have to get through first… I do have to say that the old proverb “Don’t judge a book by its cover” doesn’t apply much anymore, at least to me when it comes to looking for the next good book to read. There’s just too much of a selection out there, so I will immediately bypass any book that I feel does not have a well designed cover and move on to one that catches my attention. I believe this is partly because I am a designer myself, yet I also think that in our society we are taught through constant advertising/marketing bombardments to ignore products with bad design because it must be a poor product. Good design = good product/story, bad design = bad product/story. While I think the old proverb can still apply to people (the way they dress, etc.), I don’t think it applies to books & packaging anymore.
Comment by brian — May 21 2008 @ 2:29 pm
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