When I went to the Penn Bookstore this week, I happened upon a copy of the Fault in Our Stars. I knew it was John Green’s book before reading the title, just from seeing the blue background with the huge black and white clouds.
Looking at some other books that seemed familiar to me, I started to think about the importance of a book cover in making a lasting impression in the public’s mind. Books such as The Great Gatsby or Catcher in the Rye come to mind, as they have pretty memorable book covers. Other more recent books with iconic covers I can think of are Game of Thrones or The Hunger Games. When looking at a pin of a mockingbird that’s one of the first things you might think of.
We all say don’t judge a book by its cover but when looking for a book, that isn’t entirely true.
When you consider the impact a book cover might have on the way the book is perceived, how you design it is very important. You wouldn’t want to use pastel colors for a more serious book, or put an image of a plant on the cover when the story is about robots.
You need to choose your symbols, color scheme, imagery, and fonts very carefully. You need to ensure it catches the reader’s attention and connects to the book’s content. Creating a design that sort of puts a face onto the story the book is trying to tell is a difficult but rewarding job.
The importance of the design of the book cover reminded me to the icons created by Susan Kare, as she had to ensure the icon was understood to perform a certain function. In the same way, a book cover must relay a certain message based on content of the book.
