A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

Greg Thomas

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

Throughout time books have evolved into revolutionary ob-

jects. This has been witnessed across the span of history. They

are vital components in transpiring ideas and purpose. Books

consist of collections of folios (themselves a collection of leaves),

which contain writings and/or illustrations, and are bound and

covered, in some manner. Through this format, thoughts in

history have traveled far and wide reaching an assortment of au-

diences. In an increasingly digital age, the materiality of those

thoughts, provided by books in the past has become more popu-

larized through other mediums, such as, the iPad or Kindle. The

e-books and print-on-demand technology will change the tradi-

tional way books are received. Although this is the case, helping

to maintain the physical life of books can be credited to their cov-

ers: the face and context of the book. The ability to recognize and

identify printed texts has been accomplished through memorable

book covers. Book covers are not only a physical embodiment of

the expressions of author’s ideas, but can also present an aesthet-

ic reference to a cultural history. Book cover design has played a

critical role for books, and has evolved throughout the span of

history, by preserving thoughts, expressions, and information

through the use of graphic design.

Books have been illustrated and/or decorated from the be-

ginning to provide not only visual appeal that embodies the text,

but also to attract readers. The earliest ways of pulling people in

using book covers was typically done through painting. As ear-

ly as the thirteenth century, manuscripts were ornamented with

paint, silver, gold, and jewels. They are referred to as “illuminat-

ed manuscripts”. These manuscripts grew in popularity due to

the heavily adorned objects and spread throughout Western Eu-

rope and Asia. The increased spread of religions also aided in the

growth of production of illustrated and illustrated books. Even-

tually, around the fourteenth to fifteenth century books gained a

necessary importance in societies because they were a appealing-

ly medium for ideas to travel. The artwork done in books eclipsed

other forms of art during the time and was highly valued. Illus-

trations at the time typically reflected a cultural synthesis of the

times. Typically they showed interest amongst the dominant

groups that could afford to produce and buy these pieces of writ-

ing. Artists soon became a part of the book-making group along

side the bookbinder, printer, typographer, layout artist, and even-

tually an illustrator/photographer.

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

ernst reichl / ulysses / 1934 / random house

rockwell kent / moby dick (front board above, interior right) / 1930 / random house

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

The development of the book continued. The hand-operated

printing press was introduced by Guttenberg in the fifteenth

century and put the book into faster production. The book cover-

ings then, were thick and durable functioning solely, to protect

the prized texts, which were not so easily produced. The protec-

tive outsides of the book were often ornamented as a statement

of authority by the higher class. They were uncommon to a major

portion of society, due to their expensive creative process. Book

covers were created using printing and lithography, but were also

decorated with precious elements such as, gold, silver and other

rare or precious gems.

Beginning in the late eighteenth century, as technology

advanced, industrialization took its place, and books became in-

creasingly manufactured. The handcrafted process of the book

slowly diminished. While still a valued commodity, the illustra-

tion and typography became a manufactured process. Painting

became lithography, and calligraphy became typesetting. The

demand of books increased, and likewise the manufacturing

process of these books, transforming the way illustration and

text were created. In the nineteenth century the development of

a steam-powered printing press allowed for books to be printed

on a considerably larger scale than before. With greater expec-

tations of efficiency through mechanical production, there was

more reliance on the machinery printing processes. The mass pro-

duction had shaped the development of lackluster formal tendencies

because of the push for assembly. The individuality that books and

book covers possessed became lost during the end of the century.

A Brief Look at Book Cover Designe. mcknight /ulysses / 1949 / random house

gyorgy kepes / false coin / 1959 / little, brown, & company

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

w.a. dwiggins / the time machine / 1931 / random house

george salter / the scarf / 1947 / the dial press

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

arthur hawkins / bases overseas / 1944 / harcourt, brace & company

e. mcknight kauffer / the ill-tempered clavichord / 1952 / simon & schuster

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

While printing ended the medieval type of illustration and

decoration, it opened up new areas of exploration, such as, typog-

raphy. The early nineteenth century dates the first book jacket,

which was used primarily as a protective outer layer for the text

block. It had no intentional attractive nature, lacking illustrations

or labels. The book jackets only began to gain their importance at

the end of the century, when it was recognized that it could in-

vite potential buyers. In the beginning of the twentieth century,

book jackets began to be realized as a promotional instrument for

designers, giving book covers much more attention. Book cover

design and graphic design as a profession developed simultane-

ously, aiding one another’s success. Slowly, book designs began to

become better thought-out in early twentieth century because it

was a way for designers to reconstruct the speculative center of

design. Book cover design was an important creative expression

for early, progressive designers, for it was to be, not only a pro-

motion of the designer’s individuality, but also meeting the needs

of clients. If a book has some literary excellence, the book cover

must represent the expression of the author, so a designer had the

task of meeting this reputation on a commercial level.

Book cover design became a creative forum for expres-

sion around the world and encompassed the movements, styles,

and ideologies that surrounded the time of their conception. In

Europe, the Cubism movement distorted traditional forms and

notions of representation, implementing abstraction. Futurists

and Dadaists followed suit, including inspired formal elements

from Cubism, and experimenting with typography as a new com-

municative element, no longer was it a passive part of the content.

The artists of De Stijl and Constructivism contributed to some of

the enormous leaps in modern design. They polished the concen-

tration of form into simplistically pure geometric elements, and

also projected some ideologies that would comment on society.

During the early twentieth century, social and political upheaval

would play major roles in the art movements. Many of the Eu-

ropean artists and designers fled Europe to head for America,

where much influence was made in modern design.

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

paul rand / thoughts on design / 1945 / wittenborn & company

fred troller / seeing and the eye / 1973 / doubleday anchor books

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

designer unknown / purple-biolet-squish / 1969 / zondervan publishing house

lawrence ratzkin / ashes to ashes / 1971 / simon & schuster

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

The Bauhaus in Chicago gave life to modernist principles in

the 1930’s by those who immigrated. Book cover designers dur-

ing that time began to not only design the cover, but to illustrate

the inside of the book as well. The devotion to the book made de-

signing a book a more serious and lucrative process. Around that

time, the slipcover was also introduced, providing a different out-

er shell for the book other than a book jacket. The Surrealist and

Art Deco movement had an impact on the modern designs at this

time with, collage, geometric abstraction, photomontage, and fig-

ure drawing. By the middle of the century, book cover design was

developing into an extensively marketable profession.

As design practices started taking new directions, so did

books as a whole. Designers during the mid century and 1960’s

were not only designing books, but were also authoring them.

Modernism was also proving to be successfully incorporated into

book cover design. All aspects of book cover design began work-

ing better than ever for the publisher, author, and designer. In the

1970’s cover design reached a point of limitation, most likely due

to the social and cultural unrest regarding a decade of war, racial

strain, and political controversies. Although there were still in-

fluential movements, such as the Psychedelia, and Pop/Op Art.

In the 1980’s and 1990’s, a move towards post-modern design and

the digital revolution began to form new mainstream looks with

a depersonalized expression. Many designers started to incor-

porate their own eclectic styles, varying back and forth between

looks. While innovative design was continuing to manifest itself

in a variety of ways, there was not a definitive look to the end

of the twentieth century. In the twenty-first century, book cover

design has emerged as a popular form of creative expression in a

physical piece, but what is it now?

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

carin goldberg / ulysses / 1986 / random house ernst reichl / ulysses / 2002 / random house

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

alan peckolick & tom carnase/ beards / 1976/ harcourt, brace & jovanavich

paul sahre/ killing the buddha / 2003/ free press

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

Because books house and circulate some pertinent infor-

mation and attempt to reach a certain audience, having a book

cover has been essential to texts survival. Cover design is, and al-

ways will be a niche field for graphic designers, whether it is for a

book, or an album, movie, etc. But, this niche seems to be a chal-

lenge for designers who have to compete with the ever-corporate

world of publishing. The cover to a book hosts an assortment of

engaging qualities that a designer should always be up for tack-

ling. A book cover allows graphic designers to participate in an

act of visual, constructive meaning. Book cover design should

stick around.

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

aknowledgements

http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e126

5?q=illuminated&search=quick&pos=1&_start=1#firsthit

http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/

T009964?goto=book&pos=1

By Its Cover: Modern American Book Cover Design

drew ned

The Book: Its History and Development

cyril davenport

photo credits:

By Its Cover: Modern American Book Cover Design

drew ned

typeset in:

Mercury TextG4 and Gotham

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design

A Brief Look at Book Cover Design