For various reasons, I've been immersed in the world of book covers as of late and, when pressed, I realized I didn't have a very adept vocabulary for describing what, exactly, makes for a good cover. Instead I fell back on that old saying about defining porn: I can't define a good book cover, but I know one when I see it. So the purpose of this post is to determine two things: A. what, exactly, makes for an excellent book cover and B. what are your all-time favorite covers and why?
Apart from worshipping at the altar of Chip Kidd, I've been head-over-heels for the recent-ish covers of Nami Mun's Miles From Nowhere, Nam Le's The Boat, Deb Olin Unferth's Vacation, and the forthcoming Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower. Looking at these covers, I think it's some magical alchemy of contrast, imagination, and really good font.
PS: for more book cover talk from Pshares, check out an older post from Elisa on the subject. Also! Check out fwis and prepare to be sucked in.
February 26, 2009
Judging A Book By Its Cover
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2 comments:
I love the cover for Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned! Also, the black and white one for Middlesex, and the train tracks for Housekeeping. Sometimes they hit the cover right in subsequent versions.
Cynthia Krupat's jacket and book designs for FSG are still my favorites: see 'Geography III', 'Who Whispered Near Me', and 'Flesh and Blood'. Harry Ford's work at Knopf also set a standard for book design that I don't see matched today, even by Kidd: look at the design, the fonts, and especially the choice of paper for Philip Levine's 'A Walk with Tom Jefferson' and 'Sweet Will'.
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