What makes a great non-fiction cover?
JA
June 09
Perusing the Face Out Books website the other week, I was struck by this fantastic cover for Adrian John’s Piracy, designed by Isaac Tobin.
I love the way it conveys so much so simply – the little pirate ship sailing on the thin blue loading bar said all it needed to say about the idea of theft, copyright and the digital quandary without being irritatingly smart or screaming at you from the shelves. And that’s not to mention the beautiful type and off-white, parchment-like background.
So that begged the obvious question, what makes a great non-fiction cover? Designer Christopher Tobias had this to say on his blog:
In my experience non-fiction is often more of a challenge to design than fiction. I guess it has something to do with the freedom that novels allow. With a novel there is a great deal more latitude with subject matter, tone, feeling, etc. But, with non-fiction, it is tight. Non-fiction deals with facts and with readers who want to know those facts. Making those kind of books look good and still retain the credibility that the book demands (how-to books, biographies, religion, etc.) is not easy. On one level you run the risk of making non-fiction look dry, academic and boring. On the other hand too much “creativity” might damage the very credibility that the book is trying to sell.
I think John Gall also hit the nail on the head in this interview with Step Online:
A really great cover is going to convey the essence of the book in a unique and surprising way that maybe pushes the design envelope a bit. It might even add to and enhance the editorial content of the book.
In terms of non-fiction, I’m a sucker for this. Great covers are the ones that convey the theme in a way that that’s smart, deceptively simple and still surprising. Here are a few from the Book Cover Archive.
The Work Of Art In The Age Of Mechanical Reproduction by Walter Benjamin, designed by David Pearson
Violence by Slavoj Zizek, designed by Henry Sene Yee
The Mind’s Eye by Oliver Sacks, designed by Chip Kidd™
Having said that, I can only imagine how difficult it must be to get the chemistry just right. In an interview with The Casual Optimist, Isaac Tobin observed that the easiest covers to design were for books that focused on a single idea, such as Obsession or Accident. ‘Both were dream opportunities from a design perspective,’ he said, ‘because they were each about a single, clear, yet abstract subject, and their short titles allowed for bold, expressive typography’. The biggest challenge, in turn, were ‘covers that are asked to communicate too much’.
Sometimes the title of a book doesn’t clearly define the genre or subject matter, so it is important for the jacket design to define it instead. Sometimes everyone can’t agree on just how a book should be positioned in terms of subject matter and genre, and we have to go through multiple cover designs before the right balance is found.
Finally, I also had to put up this cover for Philip Hoare’s Leviathan or The Whale, designed by Leo Nickolls.
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Comments
09 Jun 10 at 9:39
Great post!
I hate it when there’s a great cover for a book and then the next edition changes the cover, so that I can’t find it to show you. “The Craftsman” by Richard Sennett had a fantastic cover, similar in idea to the Benjamin cover, with pencils (I found it here: http://www.curatedmag.com/news/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/thecraftsmen-front.jpg, without cover boundaries) but now if you google the book, you get another cover, with a hand holding some wood shavings. Ironic, because it’s a frustrating book that seems to be written by someone who has never actually made something in his life.
I prefer the earlier version, as with so many cover designs… maybe that’s a post? Looking at cover changes over years and editions… some improve, some seem to deteriorate.
...09 Jun 10 at 15:29
The evolutions of covers of the years is a great question – some early covers are iconic (I still love what I think is the original for Catcher in the Rye). Designing a follow-up or overseas cover would be a challenge all in itself, especially if the first set the bar high. Perhaps a future post as you say…
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