There’s never just one correct cover direction for any book. Blogs that focus on book-cover designs, like The Book Design Review, Fwis, and the Book Cover Archive, often compare different foreign editions for the same book, as well as cover redesigns over time and covers for different books that are surprisingly alike, despite having very different subject matters.

A while back, we pondered the merits of book covers in general and showed some different options we had considered for several books. This process of selecting the best cover option is an art that draws on understanding the voice of the book, its character, and its audience. We take into account color, image options (the photography or illustration sketches), typography, visual metaphors, and references from popular culture.

Here are several cover options we considered for a few books. We put the actual final product on the right.

For Guac Off!, we needed the cover to be fun, accessible, and of course, delicious—to reflect content that’s all that and funny, like an ode to the avocado.

For Position of the Day: Sex Fortunes, we needed to consider the entire Position of the Day line, and to reflect the astrological nature of this book, mixing sex and star signs. This is a hard-cover, thick little book that feels good in your hands, and makes a great gift.

We wrote about The Doorbells of Florence awhile ago, and we interviewed the designer. Basically this is a beautiful, small book with photographs and short stories inspired by Florence, Italy. The book has hand-lettering by Joel Holland, so the cover features silk-screened photography with his hand-lettered title.

For the Golf Scorecard Keeper, we wanted a simple, classic design, something that could appeal to the modern golfer as well as the traditionalist.

For the Fantasy Sex Deck (50 erotic role-plays), we wanted to spark the imagination and a feeling of mutual enjoyment. The cover needed to convey a sense of fun and sex, and inspire couples to try it.

The challenge for the cover of Jack Kennedy, The Illustrated Life of a President, was largely how to keep it distinctive from all the JFK publishing already in existence. As the name “Jack” Kennedy suggests, this is not an official, formal publication. Instead, it’s a visual account of the president and the man who continues to inspire so many. The book features letters, photos, and ephemera from Kennedy’s life. The cover needed to be relaxed and dignified, straying neither too far toward private or office life. We chose this photo because it seemed unique, and the name “Jack” seemed engaging, comfortable, and happy.

When I asked a class of design students to guess the cover chosen from the selections above, the students seldom unanimously agreed. The design process (and thinking) is rarely plainly evident in the final product. But overall and over time, if a book cover is true to the content, to the voice of its pages, and it inspires and speaks to its audience, then I believe it succeeds.

Suzanne LaGasa
Designer

P.S. For a more-detailed look at a cover design process, check out our post on the Art of the Modern Movie Poster. Sometimes it takes awhile to find the “best” cover option…

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