Design principles for book covers

In fact, you have everything you need to design a professional looking book cover. Its a tool, a guide and a template system all in one. So, i resolved to write something meaningful not just for our team, but for others as well. The elements and principles of design are long established, and apply to all visual media, not just book covers. A set of book covers designed based on the principles of layout design, showcasing five of the principles as book covers. However it is a very good book for people starting from cero, with detaied explanations of basic concepts. As your cover designer will most likely not read your book, answering these questions will help him or her create the best possible cover for you.

How to get the best book cover design there are a few ways to get a great design for your book cover. Robin williams four basic design principles for nondesigners. Ligatures if you choose a typeface thats appropriate for typesetting a book, ligaturescombinations of two or more characters combined into oneare usually substituted automatically. Our covers are all unique, professionally designed, and only ever sold once. The minimal style is timeless, from an old book cover you may run into, to modern book back cover ideas, its everywhere. As an engineer interested in learning about interior design i did not really found what i was looking for, as most of its content was already known. Learn everything about creating a bestselling book cover design including book.

Theres an ageold saying that we should never judge a book by its cover. Seeing your book s cover is often the first and only chance your audience has of finding and reading your book. Lets look and learn from 50 fascinating book cover designs. Principles of layout design a set of book covers designed based on and for some of the principles of layout design. Oct 12, 2015 enough time and patience for your book promotion why publishing is a lot like growing bamboo book cover design tips for independent authors book news. The book ux design principles consists of seven chapters. Applying professional design principles to book cover. All rules are made to be brokenyoull discover notable exceptionsbut just as heaven above is a weak but far too common rhyme for love in songwriting, centered text is an alltooobvious typographical solution for book. For those of you seeking a more comprehensive understanding or additional layout options. How to make your own free book cover in ms word the.

Always think about what happens before and after your service. Top 5 book cover design tips independent authors must know. Create a book jacket cover design for one of you favorite books. In the absence of a shared understanding and common principles, everyone takes the liberty of changing the world, the way they wish to see it. Shannon took on researching covers to demonstrate why some covers excel while others fall flat. It would be good to keep the cover a simple design. Thats how he creates book covers with a sense of meaning. Canvas free book cover maker is ridiculously easy to use even for the novice or notsotechsavvy writer. Instead, ive done all the work for you making it easy to apply basic book design principles for your book so you can reach more readers in an easy and effective way. Book cover design tehachapi unified school district. If youre keen on hiring a freelance cover designer, take a look at the following questions. Book cover design tips for independent authors bookbaby. There are very specific rules and guidelines to follow if you want to create a welldesigned anything, from a tshirt to a website to ayou guessed itbook cover. A designer who specializes in book jackets understands how readers respond to layout and typography.

Caring about fantastic book cover design is one of those nonnegotiables for all authors. The principles of great book cover design silverwood books. Theres always been a healthy market for design books written by experts and this isnt likely to change anytime soon. On this blog we give you some tips that will ease you to navigate the process, and better equip you to demand a design a superior cover. Here are eight basic design principles to keep in mind when working with visuals and creating graphics. Mar 17, 2016 the elements and principles of design are long established, and apply to all visual media, not just book covers. But the truth is, book cover design can make or break a book. Further, this book contains 80 illustrations to demonstrate before and after results. This book covers all fundamental principles of layout designing. Notice how the title at the top and the credit at the bottom of the image create an imaginary. Dec 28, 2016 on hiring a freelancer to design your book cover. Neygrimm discusses the principles of good book cover design. These 50 awesome book covers will inspire you learn. No matter how many times your grandma tells you otherwise, people do judge books by their covers.

Id say, right now in terms of book jacket design, the body of work that ive been able to make for haruki murakami, and thats been for over 23 years. Key elements of a professional book cover design it takes just a few vital seconds for an editor or reader to decide whether your selfpublished book is worth reading or not, so the design of the book cover is incredibly important. Each cover is very simple in its layout and execution, which makes it very easy to transfer the design onto a number of other covers. See more ideas about book cover design, cover design and best book covers. But fear not, because you dont have to be a technological whiz to create a striking cover design with canvas free online book cover maker. Even though authors wont need to know exactly how the book jacket sausage is made, its best to understand the cover design process. The 10 best freelance book cover designers for hire in 2020.

Design principles for nondesigners how to sell more books, 1 kindle edition by marshall, roz. The book has a very good design, full of pictures and is easy to follow. Few people think about how the book covers come into life, most of them just thing youll call an artist and hell get it done. Sell them with your book cover design bookbaby october 23, 2015 at 11. They can be found in nature, architecture, urban planning, art, video games, movies, paintings and, as weve just learned, on album covers. Rather than put together a demonstration of things to do or not to do, i decided to focus on the principles that guide interior design, no matter what kind of book. Top book cover designers create covers that hook readers, just like strong narrative hooks pull them into stories. A guide to designing book covers starting the design process.

Centered text i have a general preference against the use of centered text. All the birds, singing by evie wyld amazing illustrated book cover, with wolf and sheep, design by joan wong plus 31 more of the most beautiful book covers sure, you should never judge a book by its cover. Inside, we explore what makes a successful and interesting book cover and how you can get the look for yourself. Your cover will usually be seen on a screen first, rather than the shelf. These 50 awesome book covers will inspire you learn canva. Here we look at book series with aesthetically unified cover designs a lasting. There are good and bad book covers, and a good designer can clearly tell you the difference between them. Youve done the hard work and created an amazing book. The designer of a new bestsellers cover has to pay attention to typography, text. Robin williams four basic design principles for non. This is because a book cover is a piece of art with a specific purpose. Sometimes people really only focus on the cover image.

I read a lot of books on graphic design principles but the elements of graphic design is the only one i. Start planning and budgeting from the beginning of your writing project. Dec 22, 2019 a books cover is what makes it stand out on the shelf or among the search results on an ereaders screen. Implied margins notice how the title at the top and the credit at the bottom of the image create an imaginary, symmetrical margin on the page. N othing screams amateur like a poorly crafted book cover. Below you will find a list of 5 principles that guide chip kidds designs, and which could be used by any book cover illustrator or designer. The distance from the edges of the text to the sides of the page is the same as. Design book covers with canvas free book cover maker. Posted on august 6, 20 by dave bricker february 26, 2014. Book covers exist to give visual form to written content. Design principles and problems zelanski, paul, fisher, mary pat on. Four book cover designers weigh in on what goes into the design behind the covers of your favorite bestsellers.

Chip kidd talked about how important the first impression is, in his book judge this and in his ted talk. Our book cover maker allows you to choose from hundreds of layouts, making it easier than ever to create a memorable. On average book cover projects start to receive designs within a few hours. But although i personally believe in paying professionals, im also aware that some people want to have a go themselves, or need to because of budget restraints. May 07, 2019 the principles of design are the rules a designer must follow to create an effective and attractive composition. Design differs from art in that it has to have a purpose. A book cover design requires the creation of an appealing graphica mini poster sotospeakthat. It covers object oriented design principles and uml. Jun 27, 2018 book cover design book covers book cover ideas designing a book cover book cover template free book cover maker how to make your own book cover diy book cover book cover designer best book covers make a book cover self publishing tips book marketing. Featured speakers have included al gore on climate change, philippe starck on design, jill bolte taylor on observing her own stroke, nicholas negroponte on one. Make sure it sells out by creating an awesome cover design. This book cover design tips article will let you know how to prepare and design your book cover with book cover design tool step by step.

The average reader makes a judgement on a book in just 8 seconds, so effective cover design is a vital ingredient in your publishing success. With freelance book cover designers across the globe competing on your project, youll receive heaps of book covers ideas you just need to choose the best. So while it is clearly very important for a book s cover to be striking, it is even more important that the title of your book is legible and the cover s design conveys to the reader the genre and tone of the. With book design basics, you dont have to study design for years or buy expensive and complicated software. Your book will be judged by its cover and thats good. We are ready to help you out if you have a question, need a quote or just want to talk, you can reach us at. Just the other day i was wishing someone would give me a simple set of rules for designing good covers. When i sat down to write this book, i had just one thought in my mind to help design organizations and design teams with a principled and structured approach to design. It also guides you about the troubleshooting checklist for isolating, analyzing and correction in your design. Jun 10, 2016 what is the philosophy behind his book covers. Eyecatching book cover design will help you seize the attention of your potential readers and get your books off the shelf easily.

Book cover design is a complex balance of images, text, and information and you need someone who understands how each of these elements interacts with the others to best sell your book. Applying professional design principles to book cover design part i article 2 of the doityourself mba for writers series our thanks to carol chiao for this second in a series of posts to provide perspective on the business of writing, leveraging a marketing professionals experience. Apr 04, 2012 featured speakers have included al gore on climate change, philippe starck on design, jill bolte taylor on observing her own stroke, nicholas negroponte on one laptop per child, jane goodall on. You can design your own cover with free templates and tutorials based on the principles that work for bestselling books from the goto book cover design guy himself, derek murphy. Book cover design is a crucial part of your marketing effort. Book cover design and brand development for a guide to writing a book. However there are many reasons why you may be tempted to give it a shot anyway. In this post we share book cover design basics for both your front book. It will be even better if you can follow minimalistic design principles, meaning that you keep. You can string together the most insightful, lyrical words ever connected in human history, but if your book cover looks like photoshop amateur hour, no one will ever pick it up. Each printed book cover design is created as a printready pdf and tailored to the exact specifications of your publisher, we have worked with all of the major publisher too so you can relax knowing that youre in safe hands with any one of our packages.

Alignment is an important fundamental of design, since it helps create a sharp, ordered appearance by ensuring the elements have a pleasing connection with each other. However, good covers sell books, and bad covers gather both literal and digital dust. Questions to consider before hiring a designer readers do judge a book by its cover, and you only have a split second to make a reader want to click to read more or download a sample. Oct 26, 2018 you can show designers other book covers for inspiration, but allow them to make the creative decisions. Applying professional design principles to book cover design. These three books cover product design, design thinking and design leadership image. Making your book a bestseller is hard enough without an ugly cover sabotaging your efforts.

An effective cover design grabs attention and prepares the reader for what one might find within the book. The world is full of fantastic graphic design books, all offering words of wisdom, design inspiration, and refreshers on key principles and techniques. Design a concept around your genre first things first, you will want to define your book genre and find some inspiration for your book cover. Service design principles 1100 service design magazine. With a shutterstock image subscription, you can download a variety of photos, illustrations, textures, patterns, typographic elements, icons, and vector art to complete a oneofakind cover. What are the flaws in object creation patterns and how to fix them using different design patterns. Derek murphy of creativindie covers is a brilliant designer and has designed a number of my own book covers. The best layout books in 2019 creative design books. Uninterested in design trends and fashion, chip kidd doesnt design for a target audience. The book covers the fundamental building blocks of digital design across several levels of abstraction. Now you have a foundation for the basic principles behind good nonfiction cover design. Lets look at five excellent book cover design tips that will get your books off the shelf and into the hands of thousands of potential readers. How to use stock photos for book cover designs shutterstock. This comprehensive text is now updated and includes equitable coverage of fine and commercial art.

If you have no background in design, but want to know how to make pages look nicer, here are four design principles you must know proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast. Most indie publishing experts will warn you against making your own book cover, with good reason. The standards for book design aspired to by trade publishers are not all that high, but selfpublishers routinely fall short of them. He designs for people and anyone will get the message. Oct 20, 20 how to make your own free book cover in ms word. The art of book cover design for a series 99designs.

Media and methods span from the traditional to computer design. Designing a cover is a long process, requiring preparation, consultations and numerous drafts and adjustments. Nov 29, 2018 100 service design principles that this book covers. Contrary to what many people think, simple is better. For example, check out this collection of book covers by christina bull. If youre planning to design a book cover, even if you havent yet mastered the technical aspects of your chosen graphics software, then this is the handbook you need to guide you through the process. A book cover design worth 100,000 words find out more. The fundamental principles of design are emphasis, balance and alignment, contrast, repetition, proportion, movement and white space. You might be looking to swot up on design theory, learn some new skills or. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Mar 12, 2020 licensing stock images for book covers.

Here are 19 of the best book covers so far, anyway of broken grid used for graphic design. Authors themselves, or family members or friends may also get it done, but for a successful and effective cover, you need expertise. Our book cover design starts at a low price with options to meet any budget. The principles of attentiondriven design can be found everywhere theyre so ubiquitous that you may not even notice them. And sometimes it is best to splash your cash and receive high quality content in return. You may consider displaying the book covers in the classroom for a while, and can even use them to cover the actual books. Design principles are not the same the whole world over, leading to, for example, simpler designs on many uk covers, with more frequent use of negative space, and more detailed designs on us covers that cram in more imagery, potentially speaking to different cultural perceptions of value for money. There are only a few things in life which appear with a crystal clear intention. The hilarious art of book design chip kidd youtube.

So, lets jump right in and have a look at some of the ins and outs of designing a beautiful and functional book cover. Book covers should follow the rules of design in a way that makes sense for your genre good book cover design isnt a guessing game. If you want to learn something by asking first why then this is the book for you. Book cover design custom book cover design service. Why book covers are so important writers and authors. Minimalism in book cover design less is often more. Designing the cover for a book is a process that demands a special kind of creativity and focus. Stock images are one of the most costeffective ways to design your book cover. People will be judging your book covers for all the right reasons in no time.