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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.
[Offtopic: By the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has a mobile version? Try it out if you have an iPhone, Blackberry or another capable device.]
Book Covers
1. A Clockwork Orange
Meet Alex. Simple, but so memorable. Designed by David Pelham.
2. Brave New World
Designed by Gregg Kulick.
4. Christopher Moore, “The Dirty Job”, 10/07
5. Disorders of Memory and Learning
Effective and creative. 1968. Cover Design by Martin Bassett.
6. Jordan Crane’s Book Covers
Crane’s illustrations are beautiful and memorable. That’s what makes a good book cover.
7. Paul Rand’s Book Covers
Paul Rand: one of the most influential modern graphic designers. Simple and effective.
8. The End Of Inequality
Cover design by Peter Stone.
9. 1984
10. Incomplete Manifesto
Just a sketch. This book doesn’t exist.
11. Soviet Science Fiction book cover
13. St. Cyborg’s
14. A Penguin Special – A Suitable Case for Treatment
18. 1964 Sex and Society – Alex Comfort
19. 1970 War Gaming – Andrew Wilson
20. 5ПЯТИЛЕТКА
A Soviet book cover from 1930.
21. John Gall’s Book Covers
Gall’s covers always take a look at the book content from a quite unusual perspective. Masterpieces.
22. We Can Build You
23. Magical Thinking
The book cover is attractive and conveys the idea of the book.
24. Twenty Questions
25. 1982 Know Your Own Personality.
27. Alvin Lustig’s Book Covers
29. “The Art of a Book”
Interesting conceptual solution.
31. Understanding Media
Interesting use of symbols.
32. Exile and the Kingdom
Eye-catching. Designed by Helen Yentus.
33. House of Meetings
Designer: Peter Mendelsund.
34. 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”.”
36. Dutch paperback book cover design
37. Hans Kleefeld book cover design
38. Livre perdu1 / Lost book 1
39. Toby Litt
40. Grabink Book Covers Decoration
Book bindings by gner-artists Chris Enock and David Enock.
Minimalism
43. Supercapitalism
44. A Clockwork Orange
You remember, right? Alex liked milk spiked with various stimulants (”milk plus”) or hallucinogens (”synthemesc”).
Typography
47. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
50. Small Crimes in an Age of Abundance
51. The Disappearing Liberal Intellectual
54. House of Leaves Book Cover
Designed by Joe Paul.
55. Change the Way You See Everything: Through Asset-Based Thinking
56. Kidney For Sale By Owner
Designed by David Drummond.
58. About Face: Reviving the Rules of Typography
60. All the Sad Young Literary Men
61. swissmiss: Books
Sources and Resources
Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
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Loading ...- 67 Comments
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April 14th, 2008 2:47 amawesome inspiration source! thanks
- 3April 14th, 2008 2:48 am
isn’t “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” book, number 47, the SAME as HP campaign, the computer is personal again??
- 4April 14th, 2008 3:13 am
About 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!
- 5April 14th, 2008 3:16 am
How about reading the Bible a bit more?
- 6January 10th, 2010 12:47 pm
Thats the worst novel EVER. Get lost.
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- 7April 14th, 2008 3:27 am
Really nice collection. Its not usable for me, but still nice to look at.
- 8April 14th, 2008 3:27 am
really nice collection of book covers i must say..
and a very nice and informative post :) thanks alot for sharing..
best of luck :) - 9
- 10April 14th, 2008 3:47 am
AMAZING 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!
- 11April 14th, 2008 4:05 am
not really my line of work, but some amazing work there.
- 12April 14th, 2008 4:08 am
really good
- 13April 14th, 2008 4:22 am
I’ve always been a huge fan of the typographic work on Penguin Classic’s design for Thomas à Kempis’s The Inner Life.
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- 15April 14th, 2008 5:12 am
That’s where HP got the idea from. the book was first…
- 16April 14th, 2008 5:51 am
I 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!
- 17April 14th, 2008 7:43 am
number 47 is exactly the same graphic idea of the HP campaign. HP- BUSTED!!
- 18April 14th, 2008 8:02 am
Never judge a book by its cover… except in this instance.
Great collection.
- 19
- 20April 14th, 2008 8:08 am
Excellent 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.
- 21April 14th, 2008 9:11 am
Wonderfull 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. - 22April 14th, 2008 9:48 am
Hey 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. - 23April 14th, 2008 12:00 pm
Good call, book covers are a strong point for illustration.
But the # 18. hummm, I prefer my rug… bergh! - 24April 14th, 2008 12:31 pm
excellent!
- 25April 14th, 2008 1:28 pm
Must add S. Neil Fujita – The Godfather and In Cold Blood book covers are classics.
- 26April 14th, 2008 1:29 pm
there 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.
- 27April 14th, 2008 6:57 pm
@ L.E. how about not spamming the comments with your OT messages of “faith”. (see “Icons” post before)
- 28April 14th, 2008 11:44 pm
Excellent list!!
- 29
- 30April 15th, 2008 5:19 am
It would appear that someone has a thing for anachronistic photorealistic minimalism…;p
- 31April 15th, 2008 5:52 am
really neat… superb…
- 32
- 33April 15th, 2008 10:05 am
I 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.” - 34April 15th, 2008 1:31 pm
very nice…
- 35April 15th, 2008 2:51 pm
Really 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.
- 36April 15th, 2008 3:23 pm
The “1984″ cover was designed by Shepard Fairey, of OBEY GIANT fame, he also produced a cover for “Animal Farm,” also by Orwell.
- 37April 15th, 2008 4:01 pm
I think you may be right!
- 38April 17th, 2008 2:10 am
i 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!
- 39April 17th, 2008 1:10 pm
number 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.
- 40April 29th, 2008 1:26 am
Some more smart book covers are
vishalgoyal.co.in/blog
Please comment after read this blog
- 41June 19th, 2008 9:53 am
13. 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!
- 42October 1st, 2008 3:20 am
Amazing work. I can’t believe how innovative some of the covers are!
- 43October 13th, 2008 7:39 am
Don’t forget about Chip Kidd. He’s designed over 1,500 book covers since the mid-80s.
- 44October 15th, 2008 12:18 pm
Nice 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 - 45October 19th, 2008 6:55 pm
i’ll add something.
“stainless longganisa”the book cover was composed of all the pen the author used through out his life. :D
- 46October 30th, 2008 7:36 am
this is still probably one of my favorite SM posts of all time. absolutely fantastic.
- 47December 16th, 2008 9:13 pm
Where is a ‘Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius’ by Dave Eggers??!! Great cover, great book, a masterpiece!
- 48December 17th, 2008 12:56 am
“the worst years of your life” – maybe the best cover
it just sticks in my head! - 49December 24th, 2008 1:12 am
Hi. Good news.
- 50December 29th, 2008 7:54 pm
Hi. Good site.
- 51January 8th, 2009 2:46 am
Great Collection
- 52
- 53February 10th, 2009 2:25 am
i learn a lot.of this and getting.more historical references.GREAT
- 54February 21st, 2009 7:28 am
The cover of “not as crazy as i seem’ is a good one.
- 55May 12th, 2009 3:46 am
can 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
- 56May 21st, 2009 11:32 am
Excellent collection……
- 57June 6th, 2009 12:20 pm
Cool covers.
- 58July 9th, 2009 11:04 am
Oooohoh, 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!
- 59July 12th, 2009 5:13 am
Excelente, muy didáctico, esto es un aporte a la preservación de la memoria colectiva. Muy Bién.
- 60July 21st, 2009 10:39 am
These are great covers – I am addicted to the design aspect found in good books / page layouts!
- 61July 26th, 2009 11:35 am
100 believed llc read reliable
- 62July 28th, 2009 9:09 pm
Good collection.
- 63August 19th, 2009 9:17 am
A 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
- 64September 11th, 2009 7:40 am
These are some wicked pictures
- 65October 22nd, 2009 2:42 am
It may be a common family reaction to stress however. ,
- 66November 23rd, 2009 9:05 am
You should look for spanish pioneer Daniel Gil’s covers. Absolute conceptual masterpieces.
- 67February 6th, 2010 2:08 am
Amazing…
- 00
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Great stuff. Thanx for collecting.