5 key elements to design a good book cover
Walking in the bookstore and looking at a book on the new literary shelf, what kind of title will attract us to pick up a book? What kind of cover design will arouse our attention, reach out and pick up the book, and turn to the first page of the book? Book cover designer is an extremely important position that is rarely mentioned. For a book to have a good sales volume, in addition to having a theme and content that can resonate with readers, a good cover design is also an indispensable part of it. The book cover design represents the image of the entire book, helping readers understand the content of the book in an artistic form, and increasing readers’ interest in reading. Many books are published every day all over the world, and the performance of the cover is very important for books. Here we will introduce the 5 key elements about designing a good book cover.
1. The layout of pictures and text
In addition to conveying the content of the book, the book cover design also has the effect of catching the seller’s attention for the first time. An excellent cover work plays a decisive role in the sales of the book.
In the design, the theme of the book is clearly conveyed, and the elements are rationally arranged in primary and secondary, and the strong and weak are arranged according to the primary and secondary relationship. Book is a kind of cultural consumption. It focuses on the inheritance and extension of book culture. The arrangement and application of each element in design also require design thinking. The design of book covers can be divided into two categories from the elements: text-based designs and image-based designs.
In the text-based design, the importance of each visual element is in the order of text→color→graphics/images. The role of text is the theme of expression, the graphic image is the auxiliary element of the screen composition, and the color design is mainly for balance Words and images play a role in coordinating and coordinating each other.
Here is some text-based design book cover example:
Design Guide Book Cover
Graphics/image-based design, the visual focus is in order, graphics/image→color→text. In the design, you must first choose graphics/images that are related to the book theme, and use this to establish the basic color tone of the cover. Use appropriate colors to balance the relationship between graphics/images and text.
Here is some graphics/image-based design book cover example:
Sci-fi Maniac Robot Book Cover
In addition to the design of the book content, the book cover must also have the author’s name and publisher’s name, and its text format and layout position to facilitate identification as a principle.
2. Leave blanks appropriately
The blank space in the book cover design can give people room for thinking. Text is an indispensable part of book cover design. However, although the layout design full of text and titles of different sizes can clearly convey the content of the book, it also loses the interest and meaning of the design itself and is even more sluggish. Leave blanks to give people a sense of visual beauty and leave room for thinking and buffering for readers.
Just like this template on Visual Paradigm Online.
Conquered Memory Book Cover
3. Effectively arrange illustrations
Cover illustrations play an important role. Good illustrations can add a lot of highlights to the book cover design and make the cover more lively. It is as important as the text in the promotion of goods, and even more important than the text. It is to deepen the reader’s understanding of the book’s content. A supporter of understanding. Through a picture, an image, the designer must be able to accurately reflect the information the author wants to express, which may be a feeling, a concept, a thrilling story, how to figure out the author’s ideas and connect the heart between the author and the reader Communication is an important role played by cover designers.
Some references of effectively illustrations book cover design from VP Online:
Space Cat Book Cover
4. Creative design of text
The cover of a book is inseparable from the text. From the combination of the font design of the book title or the layout of the text content introduction on the cover and back cover, full consideration must be given to the integrity of the text layout. The text can represent a language, and it can also be It has become a kind of graphic art. Different types of books are suitable for using different fonts. Simply stacking some fonts on the cover only serves to convey information, and there is no artistic feeling at all.
When choosing a font, it is important to consider whether it is suitable for the content and style of the book. For the selection of fonts, most design fonts are deformed and reconstructed on the basis of which they are extended. In the processing of text, changes in thickness, arrangement, etc. can bring a sense of decoration, forming a sense of rhythm and contrast, and subtle changes in details are also conducive to breaking the monotony of the layout.
5. Color selection
Find the most suitable color according to the content and positioning of the book, and at the same time color is also a manifestation of feelings. The choice of cover color is very important because when readers enter a bookstore to browse books, the first thing they see is color. The color of the cover design is determined by the content of the book and the age and cultural level of the reader. Children’s books use bright colors, and red and green colors are the most suitable for expressing youthful vitality; calm and harmonious colors are suitable for middle-aged and elderly reading materials; colors between bright colors and gray are suitable for young people Reading. Readers, due to differences in cultural literacy, ethnicity, and occupation, also have different preferences for colors.
For example, this is a children book’s cover design:
Classic Bedtime Musical Story Book Cover
And this is a young people book’s cover design:
Parkour Book Cover
The cover design of the book plays an important role in the overall design of the book. Whether a new book can win the favor of readers in the shortest possible time, the content of the book is one aspect, but it is definitely not the content of the book, but the cover of the book that really acts to attract readers and give readers the first impression.
