Designing the Look on the Cover of Books

Go ahead and judge a book by its cover — artists work hard at designing book covers to make them eye catching, representative of the story, and something that will grab the consumers’ attention.

“A poor cover can make or break whether … a book gets featured in an article or even placed in a prime selling spot in the stores,” says Christy Moeller-Masel, a designer and 1991 graduate of the Visual Communications program at The Art Institute of Colorado.

The cover also can be key, she adds, to a “buyer actually picking it up to read it in the first place.”

As with so many things, first impressions are extremely important with books. Packaging makes a difference to consumers, so book cover artists take different approaches to creating the best possible design.

“I work incredibly close with authors, editors, and publishers,” says designer Dave Carleson. “In my personal experience, the more you try to work as a team the better the end product will be.”

Carleson is a 1994 graduate of The Art Institute of Seattle in the Visual Communications program. He illustrated the Bill the Warthog Mystery Series for Legacy Press. He says a good working relationship with others involved in the publications, as well as freedom use his own imagination, make for the best projects.

“I know a project is going to be fun and turn out well when an editor has a solid idea of the general layout but leaves most of the rest up to me,” he adds.

Moeller-Masel agrees.

“Often times, what an author thinks is the best representation of a book is not as marketable as other imagery,” she explains. “If I am working directly with an author, I usually show them both a version of their vision and a few of my own.”

Moeller-Masel takes a similar approach to publisher suggestions, saying she tries to present a range of cover possibilities. A key goal with the design and typography, she adds, is to give the book a fresh look.

“If the design is outdated, the customer will assume the book is outdated as well,” says Moeller-Masel, who runs her own independent publishing company called Creepy Little Productions.

Breaking into the book cover business isn’t always easy, designers say.

“It was difficult to begin with, but the key is to find your niche,” says Moeller-Masel. “Mine happens to be independent publishers. I started by attending local publisher meetings and getting to know the publishers in my area.”

Dan Henderson, Illustration Department Chair at The Art Institute of Atlanta, says that aspiring illustrators should try to get more exposure by sending their work into annual competitions like the Communication Arts Illustration Annual, the Print Regional Annual, and Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art.

“The most important thing is to be seen,” advises Henderson. “Sending direct mail promotional pieces to the design departments of publishers is a good follow-up. There’s lots of competition, so you have to persist and stand out from the crowd.”

While designers say there are no hard and fast rules for which designs stand out from the crowd, they agree that some bad designs wind up on store shelves.

“I think the worst ones I have seen are just ones that use the straight type without any thought to how it could be different,” Moeller-Masel says. “A book’s title is like a logo and should be designed rather than just typed out. It needs to have a recognizable feel that can be used separate from the rest of the book cover for other promo material.”

There are some rules of thumb when it comes to book covers. In general, certain types of books, like cookbooks, will have photographic covers while science fiction and other types tend to have illustrated covers. But such rules should not hamper an illustrator’s creativity, designers say.

“I think some of the best covers are the ones that go against the normal ‘guideline.’ Design should never have rules,” says Moeller-Masel. “The rule breakers are usually the ones to become trend setters.”

There is one rule of the book business, though, that can trump all the successes or failings of a particular cover design.

“Some books sell due to the reputation of the author, in which case the cover design may be ultimately less important,” Henderson points out.

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