Excellent Book Covers and Paperbacks
Book covers are hard to design and nice to look at. An effective book cover manages to catch human’s eye and convey the idea behind the book on one single page. However, it’s getting even harder: to make a book really hard to forget, designers need to design the cover in a unique, creative and striking way. That’s not that different from Web where it’s important to build a sound information architecture upon a rather restricted design layout.
The main idea of this post is to provide you with some creative, expressive and appealing book covers. You won’t like all of them, but you’ll definitely find some designs which are worth pondering upon.
You may be interested in the following posts we’ve published earlier:
- Breathtaking Typographic Posters with over 50 breathtaking typographic posters designed by artists across the globe. We feature Oriental, Iranian, Hebrew, Japanese, Chinese and Russian typographic posters as well as a number of further references.
- Award-Winning Newspaper Designs with examples of outstanding newspaper designs collected from dozens of countries.
- Data Visualization and Infographics showcases spectacular data visualizations and infographics which manage to combine a strong visual appeal with the effective presentation of information.
- Data Visualization: Modern Approaches presents interesting modern approaches to data visualization as well as related articles, resources and tools.
Please keep in mind: there are thousands of excellent book covers; we’ve selected only few ones which are excellent in our humble opinion. Although this selection is definitely subjective, we’ve tried to do our best to find interesting designs which make the book cover hard to forget. If you have further suggestions please comment on this post. All covers posted are the copyright of their respective holders.
Book Covers
A Clockwork Orange
Meet Alex. Simple, but so memorable. Designed by David Pelham.
Brave New World
Designed by Gregg Kulick.
Christopher Moore, “The Dirty Job”, 10/07
Disorders of Memory and Learning
Effective and creative. 1968. Cover Design by Martin Bassett.
Jordan Crane’s Book Covers
Crane’s illustrations are beautiful and memorable. That’s what makes a good book cover.
Paul Rand’s Book Covers
Paul Rand: one of the most influential modern graphic designers. Simple and effective.
The End Of Inequality
Cover design by Peter Stone.
Incomplete Manifesto
Just a sketch. This book doesn’t exist.
Soviet Science Fiction book cover
A Penguin Special – A Suitable Case for Treatment
1964 Sex and Society – Alex Comfort
1970 War Gaming – Andrew Wilson
5ПЯТИЛЕТКА
A Soviet book cover from 1930.
John Gall’s Book Covers
Gall’s covers always take a look at the book content from a quite unusual perspective. Masterpieces.
Magical Thinking
The book cover is attractive and conveys the idea of the book.
1982 Know Your Own Personality.
“The Art of a Book”
Interesting conceptual solution.
Understanding Media
Interesting use of symbols.
Exile and the Kingdom
Eye-catching. Designed by Helen Yentus.
House of Meetings
Designer: Peter Mendelsund.
Manuel Bandeira, “Poems chosen by the author”
The Brazilian designer Elaine Ramos is known for simple yet unusual book cover designs. “The wonderful thing about this cover is that the paper has thin horizontal lines in relief that complement the horizontal design. Again, tactile. White dots you can see are numbers from one to fifty – the title is “fifty poems selected by the author”. The sky and stars reference one of the author’s most famous poems, translated “Morning Star”.”
Dutch paperback book cover design
Hans Kleefeld book cover design
Grabink Book Covers Decoration
Book bindings by gner-artists Chris Enock and David Enock.
Minimalism
A Clockwork Orange
You remember, right? Alex liked milk spiked with various stimulants (“milk plus”) or hallucinogens (“synthemesc”).
Typography
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance
The Disappearing Liberal Intellectual
House of Leaves Book Cover
Designed by Joe Paul.
Change the Way You See Everything: Through Asset-Based Thinking
Kidney For Sale By Owner
Designed by David Drummond.
About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography
All the Sad Young Literary Men
Gerd Wippich
April 14th, 2008 2:19 amGreat stuff. Thanx for collecting.
amar
November 8th, 2010 2:11 amohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.. i am coping same to same designs
davester
April 14th, 2008 2:47 amawesome inspiration source! thanks
Mostafa Mourad
April 14th, 2008 2:48 amisn’t “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” book, number 47, the SAME as HP campaign, the computer is personal again??
Rodrigo
April 14th, 2008 3:13 amAbout the book with the stars in its cover – “Cosac Naify – Detalhes do Livro” – it’s wrong! Cosac Naify is the publisher’s name, and “detalhes do livro” means “books’s details”. The book’s real author is Manuel bandeira and it’s named “poemas escolhidos pelo autor”, or “poems chosen by the author”. He’s also a lovely writer, one of the most famous writers here in Brazil. Cheers!
L.E.
April 14th, 2008 3:16 amHow about reading the Bible a bit more?
Evan
January 10th, 2010 12:47 pmThats the worst novel EVER. Get lost.
Anthony
March 24th, 2011 1:53 pmno offence, but you’re really close minded.
you don’t have to believe every single religion, but if you want to be a well-rounded person and just a good human being in general, you need to respect the beliefs of others if you expect them to respect you for who you are.
S.V
April 14th, 2008 3:27 amReally nice collection. Its not usable for me, but still nice to look at.
naveed ahmad
April 14th, 2008 3:27 amreally nice collection of book covers i must say..
and a very nice and informative post :) thanks alot for sharing..
best of luck :)
Andrew Randazzo
April 14th, 2008 3:29 amHappy Blogger Appreciation Day! I appreciation your site and all the good stuff you guys put out. Keep it up, and God bless!
TIMMAY
April 14th, 2008 3:47 amAMAZING COVERS! I got all the inspiration I need for my next book. As you can see, my current book over is not the greatest – LINK
Thanks again!
Jbcarey
April 14th, 2008 4:05 amnot really my line of work, but some amazing work there.
canute
April 14th, 2008 4:08 amreally good
Brian
April 14th, 2008 4:22 amI’ve always been a huge fan of the typographic work on Penguin Classic’s design for Thomas à Kempis’s The Inner Life.
Daniel
April 14th, 2008 4:35 amMore Paul Rand here: http://www.paul-rand.com/books.shtml#coversonly
Ed
April 14th, 2008 5:12 amThat’s where HP got the idea from. the book was first…
Rizwan
April 14th, 2008 5:51 amI love creative and eye catching book covers. They inspire me to pick up the book and read through it. Unfortunately many times they are great book covers but not great books. The examples above are very good and creative.
They inspire me to write a book so I can design the cover. I’ve got the design part down, now I just need to find a good story too.
Great collection!
madriaza
April 14th, 2008 7:43 amnumber 47 is exactly the same graphic idea of the HP campaign. HP- BUSTED!!
Steve Ranford
April 14th, 2008 8:02 amNever judge a book by its cover… except in this instance.
Great collection.
Jared
April 14th, 2008 8:03 amYou should consider adding Stefan Stagmeister’s newest book Things I Have Learned in My Life So Far. It’s an amazing example of a very inventive book design.
Griff
April 14th, 2008 8:08 amExcellent collection. I have always been struck by the cover of . It may be due to its minimalism or the fact that I had a bunny that looked like that.
Ben
April 14th, 2008 9:11 amWonderfull book covers.
Now in the same spirit you could have a post on Record Cover Artwork, which is one of my favorite thing to design. There’s a few good book about it… starting of course with the Blue Notes covers of Reid Miles.
Danny
April 14th, 2008 9:48 amHey guys, I visit smashing quite a bit, and it really nice to see beautiful print work on here!
especially such a brutal post of it, thanks a million
I’m all for 37. Hans Kleefield and the mayor’s tounge at 59.
All-X
April 14th, 2008 12:00 pmGood call, book covers are a strong point for illustration.
But the # 18. hummm, I prefer my rug… bergh!
Chirag
April 14th, 2008 12:31 pmexcellent!
elmow
April 14th, 2008 1:28 pmMust add S. Neil Fujita – The Godfather and In Cold Blood book covers are classics.
shasta
April 14th, 2008 1:29 pmthere are some excellent designs here, but to be honest, all that bauhaus-like stuff (for example 15-20 and later, thank god almost only on older books) is gross. makes me feel like i’m back at art school with that 60 year old design teacher still stuck in the way of designing in that age showing us his 2 hour slideshows of oldschool bauhaus posters. these early graphic designers definitely provided some important influences to today’s design, but considering them as “excellent book covers” today sounds to me like saying “the neanderthals were very smart” – at the time it might have been true, but it’s just nothing compared to what’s being done today.
Ben
April 14th, 2008 6:57 pm@ L.E. how about not spamming the comments with your OT messages of “faith”. (see “Icons” post before)
suvarna
April 14th, 2008 11:44 pmExcellent list!!
Devin
April 15th, 2008 12:44 amNice stuff, I urge you to check out Kirk Duoponce and his book covers. He has designed more than 1,000 covers nationwide.
Take a look around his website at
Kealan Patrick Burke
April 15th, 2008 5:19 amIt would appear that someone has a thing for anachronistic photorealistic minimalism…;p
sunil shenoy
April 15th, 2008 5:52 amreally neat… superb…
Jan Diaz
April 15th, 2008 8:45 amCool Book Covers.
Might add this. http://www.octonauts.com/book.html
Talha
April 15th, 2008 10:05 amI agree with shasta , “excellent”, “top 10″ kind of adjectives don’t really manifest it’s meaning anymore.
I would change the headline to “A variety of old and new book covers.”
imsraaia
April 15th, 2008 1:31 pmvery nice…
Odin Chen
April 15th, 2008 2:51 pmReally creative book cover designs! As a student in media, I have to say that some book cover can worth dozens of credits from print media courses. Thanks for sharing. It would be nice to know more about the deep meanings behind those covers.
Sean
April 15th, 2008 3:23 pmThe “1984″ cover was designed by Shepard Fairey, of OBEY GIANT fame, he also produced a cover for “Animal Farm,” also by Orwell.
Jeff Golenski
April 15th, 2008 4:01 pmI think you may be right!
heather
April 17th, 2008 2:10 ami bought and read the general theory of love, and had never heard of it beforehand… (unusual for me) … i was especially struck with the cover, and i knew at the time it was partly what drew me to the book. great choice to include that!
rafael alves
April 17th, 2008 1:10 pmnumber 34: the name of the designer is elaine ramos. cosacnaify is the publishing house. elaine and raul loureiro (another famous brazilian designer) do almost all their covers/books.
Vishal Goyal
April 29th, 2008 1:26 amSome more smart book covers are
vishalgoyal.co.in/blog
Please comment after read this blog
helloMuller
June 19th, 2008 9:53 am13. St. Cyborg’s is designed by myself – http://www.hellomuller.com/blog/2007/11/18/anatomy-of-a-cover-st-cyborgs/
Thanks for including it in the list!
Računovodstvo
October 1st, 2008 3:20 amAmazing work. I can’t believe how innovative some of the covers are!
sb
October 13th, 2008 7:39 amDon’t forget about Chip Kidd. He’s designed over 1,500 book covers since the mid-80s.
jb
October 15th, 2008 12:18 pmNice list – really interesting designs and layouts. In a word – Inspirational! :)
This isn’t absolutely relevant, but here’s a link to a site that sells software which’ll convert 2D Book covers into 3D eBook covers. Just thought some might be interested. eBook Cover Software
erica
October 19th, 2008 6:55 pmi’ll add something.
“stainless longganisa”
the book cover was composed of all the pen the author used through out his life. :D
heather van de mark
October 30th, 2008 7:36 amthis is still probably one of my favorite SM posts of all time. absolutely fantastic.
Kieran
December 16th, 2008 9:13 pmWhere is a ‘Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius’ by Dave Eggers??!! Great cover, great book, a masterpiece!
Kim Al
December 17th, 2008 12:56 am“the worst years of your life” – maybe the best cover
it just sticks in my head!
Gordon
December 24th, 2008 1:12 amHi. Good news.
Alek
December 29th, 2008 7:54 pmHi. Good site.
Faiyaz
January 8th, 2009 2:46 amGreat Collection
Karen
January 9th, 2009 8:43 amFor great book covers, see also Readerville’s Most Coveted Covers series.
imtiaz.ul.haq
February 10th, 2009 2:25 ami learn a lot.of this and getting.more historical references.GREAT
Andria
February 21st, 2009 7:28 amThe cover of “not as crazy as i seem’ is a good one.
steve freidus
May 12th, 2009 3:46 amcan you recommend a club or organization in the united states whose members are interested in colllecting book covers?
also, attractive book covers with manhattan based themes?
thanks
Ashish singh
May 21st, 2009 11:32 amExcellent collection……
Jim
June 6th, 2009 12:20 pmCool covers.
Peters
July 9th, 2009 11:04 amOooohoh, lovely, smashing doll. brilliant!!
Listen People. Google “Book Cover Design Blogs”. This book blogging thing is getting way out of control. I’m all for freedom of speech but this market is more saturated than government TARP funds. The gig of promoting of one’s self through the guise of “information” is UP!
Just say NO to MORE book cover design blogs!
oscar mendoza
July 12th, 2009 5:13 amExcelente, muy didáctico, esto es un aporte a la preservación de la memoria colectiva. Muy Bién.
Dean
July 21st, 2009 10:39 amThese are great covers – I am addicted to the design aspect found in good books / page layouts!
aikinirvin
July 26th, 2009 11:35 am100 believed llc read reliable
gagsy
July 28th, 2009 9:09 pmGood collection.
Duncan Long
August 19th, 2009 9:17 amA nice collection of classic book covers. As an illustrator (I’ve done work for HarperCollins, PS Publishing, Pocket Books, Delirium Books, Ballistic Media, American Media, Fort Ross, Asimov’s Science Fiction, and other publishers), I find that posting some of my covers online is a good way to boost business while also entertaining a lot of folks.
For those who are interested, you can find my online gallery of book cover artwork and book illustrations at: http://duncanlong.com/art.html
miley cyrus
September 11th, 2009 7:40 amThese are some wicked pictures
Miss89
October 22nd, 2009 2:42 amIt may be a common family reaction to stress however. ,
Miguel
November 23rd, 2009 9:05 amYou should look for spanish pioneer Daniel Gil’s covers. Absolute conceptual masterpieces.
Mohammed S. Rahmeh
February 6th, 2010 2:08 amAmazing…
jason walton
February 19th, 2010 5:41 pmDamn nice to see that so many of the covers employed illustration. Good on ya.
Master F. Ahadi
April 14th, 2010 11:24 pmReally gr8 Collection,
amrit dave
June 2nd, 2010 6:46 ama very nice collection
amrit dave
gurashlak
September 15th, 2010 3:09 amDear friend,
Its simply the best .
I am not founding the suitable words to express the great work done by.
bilal hashmi
April 17th, 2011 9:54 pmits nice covers
but i wont to some latest plz………
iloveboeken
June 7th, 2011 6:43 amThanks for this post! For those who are interested in book design the blog iloveboeken might be interesting.
RR Ronquillo
August 22nd, 2011 8:27 pmgaling..thanks for collecting it..bravo!!! haha…
Craig
September 23rd, 2011 7:26 amNice List!! These are some great covers. Excited for the next list of great covers! When will that be? I’ve seen some great ones lately
Mike Pro
October 4th, 2011 6:17 pmI came to this site for guidance and I am left with more confusion. So how do I create a concept for a great cover? Catterpillar becoming a beautiful butterfly?
Obinna
November 1st, 2011 6:08 amplease, how can I get you people to design the cover of my novel titled ‘THE DESERT BREED’. I am in love with your posts. Keep it up.
Amanda
December 30th, 2011 9:30 pmI had a great design experience and at an amazing low price at expertsubjects.com. I do however like number 29 and 23 from the list :).
James T.
February 5th, 2012 7:27 pmThe problem is, graphic artists and the people who judge their works aren’t the ones who buy the bulk of popular literature. A book cover may win awards, but meanwhile the public is gobbling up something quite different. Try replacing the bare-chested hunk and the possessor of world-class cleavage with something cleverly geometric and see how far you get. Ditto the running man silhouetted against what appears to be a paint explosion. These kinds of covers–no matter how offensive to the educated eye, are shorthand for genre, and that’s the first thing a lot of readers are looking for.
Naga Kishore Bhupathi
June 24th, 2012 6:54 amWow great collection. Thank you.
katrina blank
April 3rd, 2013 5:09 amthe cigarette book cover gets my vote of approval. :)