What Goes Into A Book’s Cover?
A Designer’s Perspective
By Dominique Jones
In the next installment of our book design series and a follow up to “What Goes Into A Book’s Design?,” designer and founder of Blk + Brwn Book Designers, Dominique Jones, shares her experience on creating captivating book covers and what's involved in the overall process along with tips, personal observations and encouragement to fellow designers.
Since I stepped foot into the publishing industry in 2018, I’ve learned there are so many ingredients that come into play when designing a cover, such as the genre, finding the right type, countless feedback and so much more.
Design by Genre
The imprints I work with generally focus on a wide range of fiction and nonfiction titles. However, a few of my favorite genres (and what we will talk about) are suspense/thriller, memoirs, and literary fiction. Many covers you see in bookstores can sometimes look very similar. Why? It’s part of the industry's preference from in-house Sales teams to follow proven and successful trends in order to keep or gain audience attention.
Here are a few common trends based on their genre:
For Suspense/Thriller (which took me a long time to master), they're generally:
Photographs with a silhouette of something or someone in action against scenery
Typographic treatment with a human element
Bold bright colors with a simple typeface
Very moody tone and colors
For Memoirs, this can go a few ways:
The author will do a photoshoot for the book based on an idea everyone agrees is a right fit in relation to the book
The designer researches an existing photo from previously hired photographers, projects the author has done and/or collects high-resolution photos from a stock agency.
An all typographic cover that displays the tone of the book with typefaces, colors, or creative type treatment
Symbolic illustration/photograph (sometimes a human element)
For Literary Fiction, which is one of my favorites, can generally look like:
Creative typographic treatment
A striking image, which can be a photograph, illustration, painting or collage with a simple typeface.
Now, this might not be the case for all titles, but generally these directions tend to stand out more and as designers, our goal is to bring a cover to life in the best way possible. So yes, we do judge a book by its cover because that’s the reason why we pick it up in the first place, am I right?
Searching for the Right Type
To be honest, sometimes I struggle with finding the right typeface to use for a project. Some books are easier to design than others and sometimes I need a few days to figure it out (and that’s okay). Finding inspiration, creating a visual moodboard and or experimenting with lettering/collage can often lead you in the right direction; you just have to try.
For example, when a cover uses a striking image (similar to my experience working on Black Girl, Call Home by Jasmine Mans), I’ve found it’s best to go with a super simple typeface to balance things out and make the photograph more prominent. And take a look at the cover of Family Lore by Elizabth Acevado designed by Vivian Lopez Rowe, aside from the beautiful single image of the chair, the designer used an edgy typeface that makes it feel energetic and connects with the artwork. Every story and tone is different, so you have to experiment and see what works well, ‘cause you never know, you might just create something completely new.
Remember, type doesn’t always have to be computerized. Sometimes you can handletter, cut out, or paint letters that can add a sense of character and emotion to the cover; just like the mass market edition of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (Signet Classic) designed by Farjanna Yasmin, where the art and typeface feels unified and turned out beautifully.
Here are a few of my favorite websites for finding typefaces during my design process:
Feedback From Around the World
Feedback comes from every direction you can possibly think of—from your Art Director (of course, because it has to be good!), the author, editor, marketing, sales, the publisher, and the buyer (even though their feedback isn't considered until after a book is published, it still plays a huge part in sales). Whether we like it or not, we all judge a book by its cover and that’s okay.
What I didn’t expect coming into this industry was how challenging it can be with so many opinions at the table, which can create delays and make things a bit stressful as a designer making all those changes just to make sure the book is perfect. Sometimes you find yourself asking for help because you no longer have any creative brain left to spark an idea (which is okay). And other times you just go back and forth on colors, adding or removing an element, or tweaking things every so slightly to see if they like it, etc.
In this field, opinions matter throughout every inch of the book, but make sure you don’t let it discourage you or make you feel less creative. Even if you have to go 6 to 7 rounds on a cover design just to end up back at square one or not have your design chosen at all. You’re a great designer, everyone just doesn’t have the same taste buds as you do *insert wink face*.
At the end of the day, we are cover designers doing what we love. So, if you made it through this blog post, please remember this before you go;
Trust your gut
You are a designer for your skills, so believe it and prove it
Remember to have fun and create without fear :)
Learn more about Dominique and check out her work on her website at www.dominiquejones.work
Feature image book cover design by Dominique Jones