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Transcript of Book Cover Design History
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