creative-i: Book Covers

Showing posts with label Book Covers. Show all posts

October 1, 2009

LITERARY ORIENTALISM

The origin of Literary Orientalism is in the various military, religious, diplomatic, political and socio-cultural encounters between and Christian West and the Islamic East. Major works of Western literature and art contain references to Oriental cultures often emphasizing cultural differences in a hostile manner. Literary Orientalism: A Companion is a systematic compilation of the instances of Literary Orientalism in English literary and critical texts.

The cover I designed also has the influence of Islam in it. I used different colourful Islamic floral patterns for background and divide them with thick white straight lines. As am using different colour patterns in background I use a solid black box for all the text details to complete the cover design. The best thing is that the cover come out very well in printing and author also appreciated the design. A job well done. Let me have your comments on design.

September 9, 2009

PURPOSE OF A BOOK COVER

The purpose of a book cover (and I think it works for lots of Products)

I believe that the saying ‘Don't judge a book by its cover’ is no longer valid. In today's world of tough competition the First Impression is always the lasting one.

Just like any marketing tool, the book cover design is very Important. The design of the book cover plays a role, often a critical one in the sales of the book. It is the 1st thing what a buyer would see and catch their eye. I feel that a highly creative book cover design is more likely to be viewed by every customer rather than one without a book cover. You have less than 3 second to grab someone’s attention with a book cover in a sea of other books. That is the job of the book cover design, it needs to stand out, yet be relevant to the market, subject matter, and the content of the book. The main job of the cover is to get the customer to pick it up. It needs to present the title well and organize the other information so that it is clear to the customer if they decide to pick it up, and possibly inform the viewer of the content of the book.

Most of the time while people browsing in a bookstore mainly look at the book covers and titles. If the cover doesn’t interest them they almost never pick up the book and have a second glance at it. For example If you are a boy/girl of age 15, what grabs your attention would be very different from a man/woman who is 40. So, once the book is published, the only thing that will get it to sell, is its cover. This is because if you write a brilliant book for a 40 year old man/woman, but the cover is designed to attract a 15 year old boy/girl, there is a very slim chance that any man/woman of 40 will pick it up thinking that the book is for him/her and that is how a book cover helps in selling and marketing as well, as the cover must be designed to attract the target audience of the writer.

At the end of the day, I feel that a cover design is a important feature of a book. The main features a book cover should have to grab the attention are:

Catch the book reader's eye while on the shelves or displayed and attract them to pick it up.
Main bold title, graphic and color are important.
While in hand - Provide first glance insight into the content.
Sub title, fly-leaf and back cover content is important.

If you got the book reader interested at this point they will probably look at the table of contents to view the chapter headings to see if the content is interesting. If that all goes well they buy it

So you can say that the purpose of a book cover is:

Attract the reader
To accurately describe what's in the book
To sell book

I don't know about you, but I judge books by their cover every day.

Displaying here some of my designed covers. Would like to know your views on the post and my cover designs both.

May 29, 2009

Brand Failure

The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time

This book provides an insight into the biggest brand failures of all time and inevitably provokes a few chuckles. This book provides very useful and serious advice to any business worried about preserving its brand. Unlike the typical boring how to style business book this makes very refreshing reading.

I changed the cover design of this book for Indian market. though I liked the original design and idea but we changed it to give it a new look with some more colours as well as a direct and more clear message. I am sharing here both the original and changed Indian design. Let me know your view which one you like more.

Original design

Changed design

April 11, 2009

Choose the Perfect Wine

Whether you want to stock your own personal wine cellar or know how to select the perfect wine for social situations, this book teaches you everything you need to know.

Displaying here the original cover printed by Adams Media and one I changed for Indian Market. Though the original cover is good but I find it very dark so I designed a cover with more colours and more elements. Hope you like it.

Original

Changed

March 28, 2009

Inspirational ideas

My Big Idea: 30 successful entrepreneurs reveal how they found inspiration
In this fascinating new book, 30 successful entrepreneurs explain how they turned their dreams into reality. They tell how they decided what to do, how they got started, how they found the money they needed and how they went about it. But they also reveal how they had doubts, made mistakes and encountered frustrations along the way. Importantly, they also explain how they overcame these difficulties and turned a dream into a commercially viable reality. Gutsy, inspiring and life affirming...if you have ever dream of starting up a business of your own, this book is for you.

Displaying here the original cover printed by Kogan Page UK and one I changed for Indian market printed by Kogan Page India. Hope you like it.

Original cover

Cover I designed for Indian Market

For holding cloud effect I clicked my hand photograph holding my mobile phone and then I Photoshop it and removed my mobile and background from it and adjust it with the cloud. Let me know what you think about the idea.

March 6, 2009

Health and Happiness

Detoxification is one of our body's basic and automatic functions. but today our food, water and air have more toxins than the body systems can eliminate. It is time to rethink our lifestyle and start a though cleaning of the body and mind.

The book discuss different toxins in body and their detoxification, food that cleans the body, toxins in your home, stress management, Ayurveda and Asian system of life, taming emotions and anger and many other useful details of controlling toxins.

While designing the cover for the book I had a clear idea that cover should look happy, healthy and toxin free and that is why I use elements, font and colours that reflect the idea of toxin free healthy life style.

March 3, 2009

The book for every English-speaking Indian

Don't take your English for granted

Does English come to us naturally? Or are we infected with English? Indlish calls for urgent medication! Of the 80 million Indians who use English today, most speak and write not English, but Indlish. In India the English we use is a hotchpotch of the many languages of our land.

The book is an Indian bestseller and I had a great time designing the cover for the book. I also designed sleek brochre and a poster for the book which I will post later.

February 22, 2009

The Apple of Dispute and the War

The "apple of discord" is a euphemism for the core, kernel, or crux of an argument, or for a small matter that could lead to a bigger dispute.

An apple of discord is a reference to the Golden Apple of Discord which, according to Greek mythology, the goddess Eris said that she would give "the fairest" at the wedding of Peleus and Thetis, sparking a vanity-fueled dispute between Hera, Athena and Aphrodite that eventually led to the Trojan War.

The book is about ten tortured marriages. Some are fiction and some are real. I have tried to give it a classic touch and that is why I have used Greek floral pattern, sepia torn paper effect and rich and deep colour schemes.

Option 1

Option 2

Option 3

Option 4

Option 5

Final Design

February 16, 2009

Popular Culture and its Study: Cultural Studies

Cultural Studies has fascinated many people around the globe. Before designing the cover I read the complete book to understand the subject. I liked the way this book is written. Both the theory and practice of cultural studies are introduced in this book. For me the good thing is that the author liked the final design and also appreciate my job in the acknowledgments of the book. Showing here different options and final cover design.

Option 1