Some Things Covered: Outliers (so wrong it's right)
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Maria Elias’s Book Design Heroines. We feel it is still very relevant to today’s design industry.
Sometimes books can feel like a cozy place we come back to for the predictable comfort they provide. There are books people read because they can predict what’s going to happen. Like B movies, they’re just a fun break from reality, where nothing really unexpected happens. And sometimes we need that noir novel, or easy thriller, to get us through the day.
But if you are an avid reader with insight, you quickly learn to predict where the plot of the latest popular book is going. And once that happens, the book will be left half-read somewhere in your home, never to be thought of again.
This is totally true for fiction of course. But I think it’s probably more disappointing in non-fiction. Because, well, non-fiction writers are great researchers (an admirable trait that is beyond most of us). So if we’ve heard their conclusions before, the book may read like a book report, rather than a new contribution to their chosen field.
Cover design does not always reinvent the wheel either. And sometimes that’s appropriate. Some books are meant to tap into what we already know is true. A good example is glamorous covers about grand subjects (aka success, the human-spirit, beautiful places, fashion, love, etc.) These books by their nature feel like the kind of books that should illustrate the known, rather than add a new dimension to the subject.
But this post is not about those book covers. This post is about the books that are unexpected. Funny, witty, and (my personal favorite) thumb their nose at a genre. Sometimes these covers take off, sell an obscene amount of copies, sometimes they don’t. But as visual outliers, they are in some ways above or off the curve. They can only be measured by their cleverness and compared with other clever covers.
If they sell or win awards, they raise the bar. They’re that high tide that raises all boats, bless ’em. If they are unsuccessful, they serve to educate a generation of designers about what’s possible, and what’s on the horizon. Bless ’em, again. The value of outliers is hard to measure. But they nevertheless remind readers to pay attention, because new things do happen, even in bookstores.
Here are some of my favorite outlier covers in seemingly classic categories.
Jaya Miceli is kind of a master of snarky funny nose-thumbing covers. It was hard to narrow it down to one. And this time it’s:
Illustration: Jaya Miceli
Really mold breaking and just a really exciting non-fiction jacket. It’s typographically masterful.
Design: Matt Dorfman
Art direction: Helen Yentus
This cover has a intensity that’s not normally found in YA fiction. This jacket is awesome in person. The de-embossing of the filled answer bubbles, really sells the idea.
Design: Elizabeth H. Clark
Another intense design. Dark humor that thumbs it's nose at everyone's favorite, the holiday sweater. This is a personal favorite (insert evil laughter).
Design: Michelle Taormina
Maria Elias lives and works in New York City. Before falling in love with book design she worked in news and magazine. Her work has been recognized by AIGA 50 Books/50Covers, the Type Directors Club, and the New York Book Show. You can read more by Maria Elias on her blog Book Design Heroines.