Your Favourite Book Cover Designs

[Paul Whybrow]

This article on the best book cover designs of 2015 is in today's Guardian newspaper.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/bo.../12/the-best-book-designs-of-2015-in-pictures

They're professionally done, but I can't say that any of them grab me particularly, though the Covert Operations design is clever.

The article made me think about my favourite book covers. I've already posted one of them in another thread, for Haruki Murakami's 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.'

Familiar book cover designs are like seeing the face of an old friend. I'm a huge fan of Richard Brautigan, and fond of these two covers:

Coming up with original designs is tricky, of course, and some are really copycat in form. We're all familiar with the image of a receding figure, back to the viewer and often in silhouette. Many thrillers have this design, and I swear it's the same anonymous models in many of them - I doubt that they get repeat fees! I was once in a huge book-store in London, probably a Waterstones, and I saw a host of these covers in the crime section. Feeling mischievous, I rearranged them so that they were all next to one another - it looked like a mob of dark and depressed strangers retreating from the reader.

What are Colonists' favourite book cover designs, and do you have any pet peeves?

 

[Jason Byrne]

Yeah, I don't like any of the top covers of 2015.
If it's not broke don't fix it. I like Penguin covers generally:

 

[Jennifer Stone]

Not bad, I don't find them terribly appealing, but they seem ok for what they advertise. That is... a gateway to another world, another time and another way of thinking.

 

[Damian North]

I like simplicity - None more so than this

 

[Paul Whybrow]

I like simplicity - None more so than this View attachment 298

A very effective simple design.

 

[Jason Byrne]

Before anyone cared:

After someone cared:

I loved the old covers. I still look in thrift book stores for the original ones. I hate ostentation. Which is a shame, because its something to which I really aspire.

 

[Karen Gray]

Before anyone cared:

After someone cared:

I loved the old covers. I still look in thrift book stores for the original ones. I hate ostentation. Which is a shame, because its something to which I really aspire.

Lol @Jason Byrne you got one hell of a catch 22 there!

I like matching covers, I am absolutely OCD about my book covers, which posed me a problem when trying to make covers for books 2-5 after using the last unicorn tapestry for my first book. @David Steele 's suggestions have been a godsend, now I do feel books 2 and 3 match and I'm aiming for 4 and 5 to be the same And like Jason I prefer original covers to updated ones