01. Understand the story first A book cover should encapsulate the essence of the story. Before diving into the design, read the book or discuss its themes with the author.

Another was a stark white cover with white text, adorned only with, yes, a tasteful splatter of blood. When it came down to it, though, Mendelsund says there was only one parameter guiding the design.

And during a subsequent interview with design portal Print, Bacon had credited the lack of imagery on the cover in question to his inability to portray the book’s most prominent imagery of ...

These days, I design book covers for Giramondo Publishing. A cover designer’s role is to interpret a book visually, reflecting what the author and publisher have achieved in the text.

Chancing upon a new cover for a much-read book in a bookshop or a library will stop me in my tracks to at least browse for a few minutes, making fresh acquaintance with a familiar text.

And once the book is published, many of those people would remember that they had a say in the cover choice, and maybe there’s a higher chance of purchase because of that. Everybody wins.

Now that other venerable British publisher, Faber & Faber, has stepped up to the plate. Eighty Years of Book Cover Design seems very much a retort to Penguin, as if to say, 'Hey, we were putting ...

The cover "functions as an emotional visual touchstone," Goldberg says. "It's still something that we will always visualize in our heads as what that book looked like.