3/8/14

Beautiful Cover Addiction



   I love beautiful book covers. Who doesn’t? I love the covers that catch your eye and make you feel like the book you are about to read will make you feel something. Art has a way of inciting emotions, and art on book covers is the same way. I have seen many book covers that are too over done and too busy, but there are some that just take my breath away. 


   These are some of the more artistic book covers that I am absolutely obsessed with. The covers catch my eye and make me want to read the story, but they also make me feel something. I cannot explain it but these covers make me feel more attached to the book somehow.  A book cover should not just be thrown together and these covers show that time was taken to perfect them. 

    Whenever I see a beautiful cover such as the ones above, I instantly check to see who the creator is. I also wanted to see if they had a photo shoot to capture the images on the covers. Interestingly enough, I found that the creator of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer covers used photos from a collection of pictures called “The Abyss of the Disheartened.” I was so surprised. I had forgotten that most book covers come from photo shoots done specifically for the cover. These covers are my favorite artistic covers, but there is also another set of book covers that I admire.
Simple but creative covers always interest me. I see covers that may have one design or symbol on it with the title and think, how can something so simple be that eye catching? 

   These covers are an example of simple, yet eye catching covers. These covers are not filled with art or letters, and yet they are still interesting. I love how much they stand out among the clustered book covers. Simplicity in a book, if it is done right, is never the wrong way to go.  

   I believe that these two types of book covers are a good example to cover creators as to what us readers like to see. I do not want to have a book with actual people on it, with the exception of their face being covered like the Fallen book cover. We readers are not looking for covers with big letters, twenty different colors, and people’s faces on it.  I cannot speak for us all, but a book cover like that just sounds too clustered. When people are placed on the cover of books I tend to feel like the book cover is not professional, you know.  A book cover that has too much on it makes the publishers seem like they just had a field day using clip art. 

   A cover should also reflect the story, and all of the covers above do just that. If the book is about a fantasy world full of assassins in it then the book cover should not look cheery and bright. One book cover creator, Erin Fitzsimmons, who created the cover for Cruel Beauty is one of my favorite cover creators because of her style. After I found out that she had created the cover for Cruel Beauty, I quickly search for some way to look at her previous and upcoming work, and found her website www.efitzdesign.com. I absolutely love her style. It is simple yet eye catching and you can tell she loves her work by the result she produces. 

   As you can tell, I am a cover junky. I love being able to locate the source of these covers and find out how they came to be. Do you obsess over covers as much as I do? What covers attract your attention? 

Until next time XOXO
Ivey

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