Rules & Principles for Book Cover Designs

Article from eHow.com
Rules & Principles for Book Cover Designs | eHow.com

The crafting of book covers has become a major field within graphic design. The book cover should incorporate visual imagery from the book and the book’s title and author’s name. The cover is both functional, conveying information about the book, and serves as an advertisement for passing shoppers. A competent knowledge of graphic design is necessary to craft a striking book cover.

1. Relation to the Book

   • Obviously, the book cover should relate directly to the book, probably featuring an image adapted from the book. The image should convey the tone and content of the book. Textbooks and novels should demonstrate the very different genres of the books. For example, a book cover for Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” should convey both its satirical content and its fantastical imagery, while a mathematics textbook should draw from geometry and algebra.

   2. Typography and Visual Imagery

   • Book covers must fit captivating visual imagery with clean, well-crafted typography. Though a striking photograph or painting might interest a passing shopper, the typography of the title and author’s name must also be legible, be positioned correctly, and have some style. Books published by some accomplished authors also have some background information on the author. For instance, a novel by a recent Nobel laureate might include the author’s recent prize. A book cover designer should try to avoid crowding the page though, as “busy” covers with too much information frustrate readers.

   3. Promoting "Eyeflow"

   • A book cover should encourage the reader’s “eyeflow” toward the content of the book. Eyeflow means that the images and font lead the reader’s eye to the inside pages. Images and type do this by their arrangement on the page. In the television show, “Work of Art,” budding artists were challenged to craft book covers for classic novels. The winner of the challenge promoted eyeflow by leaning the typography of the title to the right.