Book jacket research

IMAGES OF BOOKS FROM LIBRARY: 

in this section here I have taken photographs of book covers that I found in the college library that I thought were interesting. Here I am going to explain why I thought this and how they can help me with my book cover design. 

(non-fiction)

This book cover is from a non-fiction book so there for I think the information needed has to be bold, bright and easily understandable. With this design it meets those needs. The title has been placed in the centre, has a bold font and is very dark compared to the rest of the front cover, so it is automatically the first part of the cover that someone would look at. The blurb on this cover just has a number of quotes, this I think could work well when designing my non-fiction book cover. The placing of price, barcode and the make of the publisher is important, on a book there is places where you expect to see these and it is essential I think to follow on with this when designing.

This is another non-fiction book but has a lot of differences from the previous book jacket. This is minimal, clean and easy. The colour pallet that the design has used is what makes this work so well. In this book jacket design I really like the simplicity, the placing and font of the main title is eye catching and sophisticated. The spine follows on well with the front cover, keeping to the simple theme, not using all of the authors name and only the publishers logo is keeping the cover text to a minimum. The blurb is completely different to the previous non-fiction book as this here is about the book rather than just quotes. The blurb here is quite long but placed in a way that still makes you see the publishers.

(fiction)

I thought this book jacket the most interesting out of all that I found in the library. The back and front covers are exactly the same with the colour in reverse. The hand rendered type is what makes this special also, it makes this look very close and personal as all the text on this cover looks as though it's done by hand. The design is really clever as it doesn't have a blurb at all on any part of the cover and I don't think that it needs one after looking at this, like me, I think when you first look at this, your confused, then amazed as they are the same.. which way does it open?! But after looking at this, in those first few instances the last thing you think of is the blurb and where is it? When designing my cover, I probably won't be considering not having a blurb, but the way that the covers are the same is something I could experiment quickly with. 

This book jacket caught my eye for the clean and simple spine I first saw when it was on the shelf. After sliding it out the cover also got my attention, as a personal choice I prefer hand drawn illustrations that have been mixed with computer graphics. I think it works well and makes things slightly more personal. The text has been placed in expected parts of the page, in line and in a clean easy readable serif. The quote underneath the title I think is a good touch. It brings the front and back together more as on the back there is no quotes, just the average blurb along side a photograph of the author. Also on the back, the barcode and price put together, along side the illustrators name. All in all I think that this is a very good book jacket design, the text is set nicely  and I believe that it would catch anyones eye.

This book cover reminded me of the double page spread task that I previously did. The photograph along the bottom of the front cover has the same kind of idea as what I had, with there being only a small amount of imagery here. The text on this cover is effective with simplicity. Although this is a fictional book, I think with this layout and fonts it could pass as a non-fiction. I think that this whole layout and style of this cover portrays class and wealth, less is more. 

This book cover, like the Milan Kundera book has some illustration. I saw this book's spine first in the library and the hand rendered illustration within the text is what made me pick it up. Its girly, pretty and bright. The colour pallet in this design is exciting, making you look all over the cover. I like the way the flowers on the edge of the page go over on to the spine, connecting the three segments together. The font used for the normal text is a nice tall font, easily readable in lower or upper case. 

The photograph on this book jacket is striking and powerful. Although this is a fictional book, it looks like one of those real life books of people telling their childhood horror stories from the sad look on the childs face, along with the effect on the photo. The placement of text on the front cover works well, as it has been put in the darkest place, the divider in the middle of the title and authors name looke effective and smart, keeping the theme of simplicity again in this cover. The back cover on this design, carrying over the child image linking the two together. The blurb is set in a easy readable way, using quotes from people who have read the book. At the bottom in smaller text there is the copyright for the image along with the barcode, price, and website of the publisher. With the box around this, making it obvious this is a focal point. 

INTERNET RESEARCH OF BOOK COVERS:

(fiction)

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/the_world_without_us

What caught my attention to this cover online was the text and image connection. I was really drawn to the silhouette of the cityscape and the forest. I think these illustrations connect perfectly to the title. The placement of the text is effective, as if to say this is what the world would still be like without the human existence. The quote at the top of the cover is something I think I will experiment with. Depending on my initial design and if I have an open space like this, I think that it fills the space in an interesting way, making the whole cover look more symmetrical. 

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/disguise

The cover of Disguise is a clever approach to linking the title to the imagery. The way that the designer has used the image as though it is in a frame makes it all more interesting with that title. The Text has been placed in such a way that the eyes are covered, the main part of anyones identity. The text at the bottom of the cover, in a different font works nicely, using a large font in upper case to match the title.  

http://www.davidpearsondesign.com/popularclassics.html

This cover is a cover in its simplest form. It has just the title, author, price and publisher on it. They have chosen to only use two colours on this. I think that because of how simple the cover is, the first thing you see is the title, because with this story, you know what it is straight away, there is no need for explanation in imagery. The font on this cover is straight to the point, clean and clear, it fits so well with the whole running theme of simple with this cover. 

(non-fiction books)

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/the_war_on_words

The cover of this book is bold and loud looking. To me I don't think this would  appeal to me as a cover. I think that, although it's quite simple and that is the usual type of cover that I would pick up, I think this seems quite dull. I will blame the newspaper layout, I think that the way the text has been placed like this would put a number of people off, thinking that what is inside is going to portray what is on the inside. 

http://bookcoverarchive.com/book/the_science_of_the_bottom_line

This non-fiction cover is one of the more exciting that I have found. The colour design of the imagery I found really intriguing. Again this one has a look of hand drawn illustrations for the top brain part which I think makes this looks good to me. The font in this one I think works well, apart from the small italics part on the bottom on the page. Obviously it is because this is slightly off topic, but I think this would of worked a lot better if the font was the same as the sentence that it is already in. Other than that, I think that this cover works brilliantly together as a non-fiction book jacket. 

http://christopher-brand.com/#614987/Who-Am-I

The imagery on this cover is what made me look. The head being a thumbprint is not what you would expect to see. The text stands out in this one, as the rest of to cover is quite light, the text being black really makes you look first at it. The serif font that has been used here also looks sophisticated and elegant, matching to the clothing the body is dressed in, also the border around the page, this looks pretty, sweet and quite feminine, but the image inside questions this thought. 

http://www.dhaggar.com/


The bland colour scheme in this cover may seem quite boring and plain but I think that it has its pros. The text stands out, showing the reader exactly what they need to see. The brightness of the text compared to the back ground, which could quite easily be the photograph, like gradually darkened towards the top for this title. The image at the bottom I don't think really shows the title, but is quite abstract and unsure. 


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Here are just a few more book covers I found on the internet through going through blogs and other peoples creative websites that I found interesting and caught my eye. I think that getting as many book covers to look at and go back on when it comes to designing my book jacket would be beneficial for me. 

http://barbaradewilde.com/#874685/jackets-covers

Whilst looking through lots of book jacket designers I found this cover. I really liked the simplicity of the cover and the way that the spine wasn't designed separately and that it just carried on round from the front. as a whole piece it looks slightly uneven but when put around the book it makes a lot more sense visually and if I saw this book I would pick this up to have a look. 

 

Listening to Trees
Author: A.K. Hellum (Dr. Andreas Kåre Hellum)
Designer: Natalie Olsen, Kisscut Design
Publisher: NeWest Press
Genre: Environment & Ecology
Typefaces: FF Seria (serif and sans) with hand drawn lettering
Cover Illustration: Natalie Olsen

http://www.faceoutbooks.com/#514110/Listening-to-Trees




CONCLUSION:

After looking at a number of book covers from the internet and from the library I feel that I have learnt a lot myself just from seeing the smaller details of a book cover. I have looked at both fiction and non-fiction because I feel that one genre may be more exciting and inspirational than the other. I found that the fictional books have a lot more of a story just from the front. The non-fiction books are slightly more real, so therefore show more factual and real imagery. When looking in the business section of the library I found that when I pulled a few books from the shelf, the covers were very boring and were not exciting or would make anyone want to read on. The only thing that I thought was good about these type of book jackets were that the text was well laid out and easily readable.