Graphic Journey Blog

Let there be type: Book covers now

It’s clear that most books covers, both hardback and paperback, are typographical these days, mostly over an abstract or decorative background. The type tends to be large so that you can read the title at matchbox size on Amazon. In addition, there are often two of three quotes added into the mix. So, it's a pretty restricting menu for the poor cover designer.

 

I've kept a lookout for what has been going on over the past year or so to see how designers are coping with publisher's ever-tightening straightjacket.

 

Here is my selection of typographical hardback covers, (there may be a couple of paperbacks in there). Anyway, none are an insult the reader.

Amazingly this group is minus any quotes (hooray!)

Designed by Jamie Keenan

 

Designed by John Gall

Designed by Jack Smyth

Designed by Jamie Keenan

Designed by Jamie Keenan

Designed by Tyler Comrie

Designed by David Pearson

Designed by Janet Hansen

Designed by Jamie Keenan

 

Designed by Luke Bird

 

 And the designers of this little group escaped over the wall, to freedom (Hooray! Hooray!)

 

Designed by Designed by Peter Mendelsund

Designed by Pablo Delcan

Designed by Oliver Munday

Designed by John Grey

Designed by Thomas Colligan

 

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A real-life thriller about a CIA contractor who vanished in Iran and the international search to find him: this perfect sophisticated, sensitive cover by US designer Alex Merto knocks spots off the usual bombastic creations for this genre. Published by Farrar Straus & Giroux in 2016.

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Peter Mendelsund’s cover design for the minimalist American poet Robert Lax gives minimum information for maximum impact. What more do you need? Published by W. W. Norton & Company 2019.

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A novel that takes aim at contemporary mating practices, middle-class values, and marriage for love as the glue of society, but not in the digital world, but using the traditional mode of placing a personal ad in a newspaper. The piercing arrow is an excellent metaphor. Published by Esplanade Book in 2010. Designer (?)

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How to graphically express a book on the history of masculinity in Canada? If you are the talented designer David Drummond, you do it with wit and symbolism, as here for UBC Press in 2007.

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'The Life and Death of Sophie Stark' is about the troubled indie filmmaker told from the perspective of those who knew her. Using a cinematic close-up is a perfect metaphor to express this story. Spencer Kimble designed the cover for Blue Rider Press in 2015.

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A stacked, seemingly endless manuscript pile perfectly represents David Foster Wallace's unfinished novel. It's not only spot on but reflects the humour of the book. The cover was designed by Jon Grey in 2011 for Hamish Hamilton.

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A book based on an ethnography of immortalist communities—those who believe humans can extend their existence indefinitely through technological means—and an examination of other institutions involved at the end of life. In other words, don't switch the light off. Cover designed by Salamander Hill Design 2020 for the University of Minnesota Press

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When is a typographical cover, not just a typographical cover? When it becomes a concept, as here, displayed on open pages of three books. Designed by Chin Yee-Lai in 2012 and published by W. W. Norton & Company.

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Landan's epic novel is a tale of love and war for its lead protagonist Lev Perlmutter, a German Jew whose duty and self-discovery begins in 1914 when he fought in the 1st World War and expands on to the second war. These two images, butted together, is an elegant and cinematic way to reflect memory. Janet Hansen designed the cover for Pantheon Books in 2015.

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This beautiful key with the author and title debossed into the surface perfectly portrays 'The Mechanical Bird'. By Quebec-based designer David Drummond for Signal Editions in 2008.