thebookcoverarchive.com

I know they say not to judge a book by its cover, but its really hard not to, especially at a design standpoint. It would be so much easier to pick a book by how good it looked on the outside. Think of how much time would be saved! Anyway, I love this project, purely because I love books. I have evolved enough that I actually enjoy reading the books, but as a kid, looking at the covers of books in the library, and even the feeling of holding a book in my hand was a great feeling. That is why the website, thebookcoverarchive.com is such an interesting site. I had a blast on this site, and here are some of my top choices.

Now, the assignment was to find 5 books with the two typefaces you are using. Unfortunately, one typeface I have, fette fraktur, has not graced the front of any book...at least in the limited research I have done. I can see why this would be, it is a very hard type to actually read. But it just looks so darn cool! Anyway, I found a lot of book covers in my other typeface, clarendon, so I just chose ten of those.

I like this cover, because of the simplicity of the figures, and how clarendon compliments it.

 For some reason, this font doesnt look like clarendon, but I wont doubt the website. It might just be a condensed version, which i am not a big fan of. the all left align is an interesting idea though.

 The use of limited color scheme is very nice. It draws your eye to the words the designer wants you to see, in this case, love and loved. Not necessarily the colors i would have chosen, but i get what he or she was trying to do.

 I love this cover. It is so unique, yet legible and ultimately readable. I might have to give this design a try for my project...

 Again, love this cover. It appeals to me because it is more my style. I love the muted colors and the simple, clean design, with the more busy background.

 I think this might be another version of clarendon, a condensed version without the serifs. It is a nice design, and clearly a political one at that. clear message and nice to look at, what more could you ask for?

 I am not necessarily a fan of the pink balloon floating away, but i  do like the type in this. I never really thought about using other punctuation as a way to design things, but i am going to have to experiment with it

 classic book cover, no pictures, just praise, authors name and title.

 im actually not a big fan of this one. I dont know if its the creepy guy looking at me that is making me uncomfortable, or the over use of different versions of clarendon. or maybe its the giant blue arrow...

At least we can end the clarendon on a good note. I really enjoy looking at this because the fonts go well together, but they arent overwhelming. The background it great with a little splash of color and the warn edges to show this book is from a later time period.

Part two of this assignment is just 5 covers that caught my eye. I tried getting a variation of simple covers, to complicated ones. These are my picks!

yes, this is actually a book cover. I dont like how all the type is at the very top and very bottom, but if they played around with the positioning a little, i think this could be a pretty fun design. 

All the others are pretty self explanatory :)              
 

Books on books on books

This weeks assignment was to go look at different books covers and first pages. I really enjoyed this assignment because there is nothing like having a good book, with a great design to it. As a girl who loves to read, I know that a book with a fun design to it, only makes the book more fun to read. I tried to get a variety of books, from children books to cook books, just to see what other inspirations I could find. My favorites are when the first page has a different design other than a block of text. I understand the use of this, because it is easier to read, but for the first page, I think it would be acceptable to break that mold. It would excite the reader and bring them into the book in another way, other than the words written on the page.