Among other recommended reading I checked out of the library, one book was Front Cover- Great Cover and Book Jacket Design by A. Powers. I spent a few hours reading it and taking notes to help me with my own book jacket design.

Book jackets first started appearing in the late nineteenth century. Before this, books tended to be bound plainly (with the logic that the content did not need to be “packaged” in order to be sold). One example of the earliest book jackets is The Yellow Book, an Illustrated Quarterly. It’s yellow and sweet, with affiliations to Oscar Wilde that damaged its reputation at the time (because he went to prison!)

After the First World War, there was a considerable growth in publishers and competition to sell books. The jacket was a natural evolution in marketing to appeal to potential consumers, whereas before the extra marketing wasn’t necessary. Publishers could commission artists to paint or create covers for them. “The cover sells the book” became the new ideology.

This is just a side – because I remember reading it and thought it was cool. While many artists created paintings for covers, it was difficult to convert these into block prints for mass book-jacket production. It was artists that had a better idea of the process of mass production that could manipulate it for the best effect.

See also Angus Hyland, a designer I kept running into throughout the book and need to save. His style was simplistic, and was monotone photography coupled with simple yet effective typography. He designed for both Canon publisher (“repackaging the bible” for 20th century readers) and Rebel Inc. publishers.

Penguin Books

Allen Lane released Penguin books in 1935. This was almost as revolutionary in the book selling industry as was the invention of the printing press. Penguin books released books in huge quantities and very cheaply, within a strict brand identity and tight cost restraint. It forced other publishers to keep up.

“The structure of the Penguin list still reflects series divisions which were established in the immediate post-war period, such as Penguin Classics and Penguin Modern Classics.”

Penguin’s brand identity has kept their brand afloat since 1935. An example of this is the formula of using modern or old master paintings in colour, combined with a simple title, first introduced by Germano Facetti in the 1970s. It provides a valuable piece of authentic visual context to accompany the text, as well as broadening the visual education of readers.

Practical Jacket-designing information

“The design of book covers helps to make a book something more than mere “information”, something that, even though it may have many thousands of identical siblings, still demands a relationship, something that when given, defines the values of the giver and recipient. The best book covers possess a form of hidden eroticism, connecting with some undefended part of the personality in order to say “take me, I am yours”.”

This quote really got me thinking. How are we, conscious individuals, supposed to guess at what will tap into the subconscious and what it wants? I know I’ve found myself becoming incredibly attached to certain book jackets, or pieces of art in general, but replicating that on purpose sounds impossible. I think that’s why Powers also states that designing book jackets is famously flaky and fluke-y, regardless of how professional or experienced designers are.

“Book designers, however, now have a new challenge: jacket legibility in a thumbnail icon on a website is almost as much a requirement as legibility across a crowded shop.”

This certainly wasn’t on our brief, but let’s think about it. Non-Places is an academic essay at a very advanced level. I wouldn’t be surprised, reading its summary, if its main audience were students at MA level or academics. They may well be searching for this book online with other academic texts. I think there’s something really sexy about the term “non-places”; I know I want to make these words the most important copy on the front cover (and probably even spine). The rest of the title is confounding and potentially drowns out the poignancy of Non-Places. I want people to register “non-places” subconsciously, as a vague and intriguing concept, before seeing any other information.

Relevant examples of successful book jacket designing

What have I actually learned, in summary?

I’ve given myself a pretty quick history of the book-jacket: when and how it started, why it caught on, and some of the physical processes of printing when it first emerged as an art.

I’ve read into the histories and origins of a few different publishers, e.g. Faber and Faber, Penguin books (detail included here because my assigned book is a Penguin book), Canon publisher, Rebel Inc., etc.

I’ve learned the importance of a house style in establishing a brand, and how understated simplicity can be.

I’ve analysed a few different examples of Photographic Collage book jackets in the hopes that the knowledge will help me in completing my own brief.