It's time to judge some books by their covers! Here are a few well designed and clever book covers.
Illustrator: Ben Wiseman
This is a great cover for Nicholas Carr's The Shallows. The book questions whether the internet is making people stupid, and whether our love for the internet has made us as a society to stop reading and thinking deeply. To illustrate this concept the cover designer showed the water "filling" the space within the letters to a shallow level. Its simple and cleverly designed cover.
Although The Great Gatsby (by F. Scott Fitzgerald) undoubtedly has had many cover designs over years since it was published (in 1925) I like this one for its simplicity and its cleverness. The simple illustration style is nicely used, although the couch isn't illustrated you can imagine him sitting on his plush couch sipping his martini, with the glass cleverly formed from the "Y" in Gatsby. The martini glass itself is a great nod towards the lifestyle of the Roaring Twenties, which is the setting for the book.
This cover for "The Brief History of the Dead" by Kevin Brockmeier, is creepy and very well done! At first glance I really just saw a coat on a hanger. It was only when I finished reading the full title and reached the word 'dead' that I noticed the hands. The creepy factor was instantaneous and for a book about the dead I would say it is fitting!
This book cover designed by Jason J. Heuer has so many great details that paint the picture of the "American Nerd" (Author Benjamin Nugent). The most obvious details are the pocket protector, inhaler and thick glasses that are stereotypes of a nerd. They are also framed in some obsessive compulsive need for neatness, and the subtle lines around the title that are a nod towards periodical tables.
The cover art for Matthew Kneale's Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance is simple and clever. Fitting the title, the cover illustrates the small crime of a stolen "L" which is missing from the world small. Clever and humorous!
Another simple cover, using typography to paint a picture. In the age of social media, Facebook and text message there's an emoticon for every emotion you feel. The yellow smiley face has become an icon for something that makes you smile or brings you happiness. For Eric G. Wilson's book 'Against Happiness' the designer Jennifer Carrow set the title in a simple reference for a frowning unhappy emoticon. Its simple and clever, its the power of typography!
