I love a well designed book cover (sleeve, jacket). Sadly I often wander through bookstores, turned off by many horribly uniform and generic cover designs (if you read, you know which ones I mean) and leave without a new book to read. Am I superficial? I don’t think so. I often turn a promising book over and read the text on the back, maybe a few lines inside, and then put it back again. I am very picky about books, partly because I already have lots and do not part with old ones, partly because I see the covers when they lie around my house. They say “don’t judge a book by its cover” but in these cases I feel it is true.
Chip Kidd is a New York based graphic designer I recently found out about through TED Talks, plus he is fun to watch/listen to. That he mainly designs book covers and talks about it is a great inspiration, as I found it quite hard tracking down graphic designers that specialize in book covers.
Little side note:
Here are two books from my shelves. The Lost World sleeve is an adaption of the original design with the german title added. The 1Q84 novel I still have to finish. The book is huge! But the unusual design was what made me pick it up in the first place.
