Hier diskutieren wir über die grafische Gestaltung unserer Lieblingsbücher und vor allem über die Buchumschläge, die zum Lesen anregen./ Here we discuss the artwork of our favourite books and book covers which encourage  us to read.

Dagmar Wiegand - 07.02.2019 @ 17:27

That's my article about outstanding book covers. I hope you'll enjoy it and share your thoughts in the comments.

Martyna Kołek - 16.03.2019 @ 15:32

What makes a book cover stand out?
by Martyna Kołek, VIII LO Kraków/Poland

We all know the saying “don’t judge a book by its cover”. But when it comes to a situation when you just wander around a bookstore and pick out random books, the book cover (along with the genre and the title) plays the most important role in you taking the book in your hands and reading the blurb. The way the book cover looks like also implies the topics that it’s dealing with. What exactly makes the book stand out?

Nowadays billboards and other advertisements are often made the way that there are lots of elements on them. The fact that there is so much going on makes it difficult to draw the customers’ attention. The book cover is the way to show the clients what they can expect from the book, so it’s actually its advert. One of the trends of recent years in designing the covers is minimalism in its form. Not only does it look different than most of the books, which makes it catch the passer-by’s eye, but it also intrigues people to learn what it is about (as the cover doesn’t define that). This method of designing is frequently (but not only) used in making literature classics covers. As people generally know what they may expect from the classics, the publisher doesn’t have to suggest that on the cover. From completely minimalist covers we can move on to the ones that have a bit more on their front, but they still stay pretty simple. I think that one of the most beautiful examples of that is the Penguin Clothbound Classics series. The design, except the obvious- the author and the title, includes the element characteristic of that book, duplicated many times over the cover.

Another aspect of the book cover design is creative spacing of the text. All of us constantly see the “regular” layout of the author’s name and the title- there is nothing that draws attention. That’s where the designers have a place to shine and make the book more appealing to the readers. To give an illustration of what I mean, let’s look at the covers of “Neverwhere” by Neil Gaiman and “The history of the bees” by Maja Lunde. In the first case, we have no picture- just the author’s name and the title. Where the writer is introduced in a quite conventional way, the book’s name is spread in a few different lines and parts of the letters are used to point to some of the sites of London. I would also like to point out the way that the blurb had been formatted. Some of the letters were enlarged and placed over the actual text. All of that makes the potential reader intrigued with what kind of story they may find inside, as that is not what most of the covers look like. The other example (“The history of bees”) is also amazing work done in terms of the cover design. This cover also represents the creative text spacing but in a little bit different way. The designer played with the different sizes of the letters but also used more of the different fonts. The blurb is made in a similar way as the previously mentioned one, with the exception that there are no bigger letters in front of the text, but the different sizes are just part of it.

Photos- “Alice in the wonderland” by the user sk from the website www.flickr.com (https://www.flickr.com/photos/irisphotos/4589958604/in/photostream/)
 “The history of bees” and “Neverwhere” by Martyna Kołek 

The use of different materials and textures also makes the cover more interesting. In the previous picture, we can see that the body of the bee was made out of slippery and shiny material. Using shimmery foil or making the particular parts of the cover stick out are also interesting and they definitely encourage readers to take the book in their hands, which often results in looking in it and by that creating interest around its story.         

It’s also worth mentioning that book cover is not the only element of the book that makes you interested in it. Recently I’ve seen a couple of books that had coloured sides of its pages, which also contributed to the book looking in an unusual way and drawing a lot of attention from the pretty books lovers and gatherers.

What do you think makes the book cover stand out and encourage you to read it? What are your favourite book covers? Share your opinions with us in the comments!

I really enjoyed reading your text about book covers. It was really informative and you had a lot of great points.

I think that if a book has too much going on the front cover it doesn't really show what the book is about, and it sort of gets hidden in the cover. I think book covers that are simple with some colour are the ones that I am mostly likely to read what they are about. It is really interesting to see how they chose to portray a book through the cover, and what they chose to put on it. In some ways books with simple covers could be the ones that are hard to figure out what they are about. But at the same time in some ways it can be quite interesting and fun to figure it out yourself.

Some of my favourite book covers are those for the penguin English library classics. I really like their simplicity, and that they represent the books in a good way.   

Evelina Svensson - 09.05.2019 @ 11:39

Thank you for your article, I really liked and enjoyed it! It made me think of what covers I look for in a bookstore when I buy a book.

I think a cover needs to be outstanding but simple too. I always look about in bookstores and I look for a book, that’s more minimalist and neat. I agree with the idea that the use of different materials and textures can make a book cover really interesting. I also think that the title is one of the most important things on a book cover. It must say the bottom line of the story. Once I read a book, a title that had no real connection with the meaning of the story. I reckoned on something different and because of this the book was a let-down for me.

My favourite book covers are those of books written by John Green because they are simple and they say a lot about the  meaning of the story with.

Zsanna Pásztói - 03.06.2019 @ 19:22

Hello!

Your article is on point. I agree that book cover should be pretty simple and focused on the topic but I personally prefer covers with at least simple photo or picture. The great example are Stephen King's books. They bring passer-by's attention to the author and title after the topic which is usually mysterious, alluring and well, scary. On the other hand, we have my favourite author's, Regina Brett's books. Their covers are really minimalistic in form. You can see only the title in casual font and small simple picture but they are outstanding because every part of the series has different colour, ex. blue, orange, green, etc.

All in all I think it mainly depends on recipients which book (also cover) will he choose.

Sara Kotlarz - 17.06.2019 @ 09:31

A friend of mine is strict against judging books by their covers, but I think that the cover says so much about the content of the book that you almost need to look at them - you can immediately see if it's a love story, a fantasy saga, a thriller or something else. I think book covers are immensely important to attract the reader.

Marie Naschberger - 18.06.2019 @ 12:24

Leider muss ich zugeben, dass ich auf das Cover schaue. Natürlich entspricht der Inhalt meinen Interessen, aber etwas Komisches im Umschlag würde ich peinlich finden. Außerdem mag ich nicht so "mädchenhaftes". Natürlich bietet der Umschlag eine andere Funktion z.B. Buchumschläge sollten das Buch darunter schützen. Ich nehme diese Umschläge beim Lesen ab, weil es mich nervt, wenn das Buch im Umschlag hin und her rutscht. Nach dem Lesen kommt der Umschlag wieder dran .Es sieht natürlich in den meisten Fällen hübsch aus:)

Melike Aksak - 11.07.2019 @ 19:51

I think you should not judge a book by its cover. It might look cheap, cheesy or maybe you have already seen this kind of cover on other books...but we should give it a try anyway.

I have to admit I do judge the book by its cover first too. It is actually pretty sad...

Pia Boje - 20.08.2019 @ 15:37

Hi Martyna! We really loved your article and it inspired us to share our favourite book covers too.

We both think it's quite important how a book cover looks. It is after all the first impression that you get. I have a book that I remember only chose because of the cover. It's called "Everything everything" by Nicola Yoon (the cover from 2016). The cover is really simple and classy even though it's modern with the line art. I think that it makes you wonder what a book like this can be about. The different motives in the line art captures different moments in the book so when you've read the book you recognize these moments.

I completely agree with Marie on the book "Ein bisschen wie Unendlichkeit" because I really like book covers that are kind of extra. I love it when there's something that caches my eye and just looks so pretty. The covers of the red queen series (the English ones) are very beautiful too because you just see a crown on every cover but it's like you notice the change it is going through.

In conclusion we can say that book covers are important even though you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.

/Klara & Leonie  

Leonie Reiter - 04.10.2019 @ 13:40