title: The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporat

The Essays of Warren Buffett: Lessons for Corporat

I post this one not because the cover is necessarily great (this is the second edition – the first edition was exactly the same, except blue instead of green) but because it would have been so easy to make it look like another financial whiz-bang book on Warren Buffet. Typically these are white covers with a one-off, semi-clever graphic, large serif type, and some marketing junk. Instead the publisher decided to stick with what happened last time; sombre and smart, printed with gold. It may be accidental, but this cover of course jumped out exactly because it wasn’t designed – master stroke or oblivious luck?

— , 2008-10-27 06:00:00 -0400

I’d say oblivious luck. They new this baby was gonna sell and they went with something simple and elegant and to the point… maybe even memorable for the reasons mentioned. It feels like an official document. A book to keep forever.

— ian shimkoviak , 2008-10-27 07:27:00 -0400

Neither worthy of posting nor discussion IMO … next

— Auguste , 2008-10-27 07:29:00 -0400

Auguste… who made you head of fwis?

— ? , 2008-10-27 08:39:00 -0400

? I think it’s a snoozer and I argue that it was designed.

The JPG is breaking up but just consider the title “The Essays of Warren Buffett:...” along with the subline “Essays by Warren E. Buffet” ... I mean this is the audience we’re talking about here.

— Auguste , 2008-10-27 08:54:00 -0400

i really like the treatment for the reasons above, but the text layout just seems weird. odd spaces. and the “Includes Copyrighted….” in the corner? i love a traditional title-page like layout, but this just not particularly good. the border seems tight too.

the concept though, is great. Definitely speaks to the personality of Buffet. Definitely would sell w any cover, so why play to the mass market conventions? Birkshire Hathaway’s annual reports are collectors items because of Buffett’s advise for christsake.

— , 2008-10-27 09:06:00 -0400

deadly boring

— Luke Tonge , 2008-10-27 10:49:00 -0400

It would have been a master stroke of genius if they had taken that elegant cue and ran with it—as in designing it to appear that way. Instead this appears to be designed. Maybe.

— , 2008-10-27 10:58:00 -0400

I agree that it’s boring, stupid (repeating the title) and completely unprofessional (copyright notice on the cover). It’s (slightly) better than the blue one, though.
(Also it’s a fitting gift for one’s semi-intellectual friends who like books that look really serious.)

— , 2008-10-27 11:43:00 -0400

I just want to note that this cover was featured for 12 hours and 51 minutes, barely half a day, which begs the question: was this worthy of posting in the first place?

— Auguste , 2008-10-28 02:03:00 -0400

I think it’s awesome that the cover simply typeset itself into existence.

— , 2008-10-28 03:03:00 -0400

There are so many great covers worthy of discussion, from which we can all learn a lot. I’ve come to count on this web site, among others, for my continuing design education. Please, FWIS, don’t waste our time with things like this.
Thanks.

— , 2008-10-28 03:12:00 -0400

All covers, good and bad, are worth posting if they create a discussion about the design . Its patently ignorant of the process of book cover design to think otherwise; there was a clear marketing decision here and my question is relevant; if you’re looking to see really amazing design in every post, there are plenty of sites that do that, like notcot or design observer.

There is a grand machine behind each book cover that we are attempting to discover with this blog and we need to remain open-minded about all things, including the curatorial aspects of the blog. Design Happens™, even if its unintentional, and we should be able to perceive that without whining about our own personal aesthetic standards.

(Aside: I will delete off-topic posts and IP-ban trolls.)

— , 2008-10-28 08:25:00 -0400

I think this cover could have been beautiful had the designer paid more careful attention to the type (and I might add that I detest forest green, but that is my own bias!)

— Courtney , 2008-10-28 09:40:00 -0400

I prefer the Microsoft Word template cover pages… you can see all the words.

— C-Dog , 2008-10-28 17:17:00 -0400

this must be a joke, right? someone let me in on the joke.

— , 2008-11-10 10:06:00 -0500

I’d also like to point out that Warren Buffet is notoriously frugal – lives in the same house he bought when he was 27, drives himself to work, etc. so it makes sense he’d keep his cover free pf frivolity and decoration.

— antarctica , 2008-11-12 21:14:00 -0500

Wow. This seems like a completely crazy non-cover for such a high-profile book. I’d love to see a transcript of the design discussion that went into choosing it (and I’d also love to see the rejected designs, if any). Pretty fascinating.

As an aside to the folks complaining about its posting: The only waste of time I see is having to wade through comments chiding Chris that the cover wasn’t worth commenting on. This site creates a space where you can share your opinion on design and have that opinion read by others. Is it too much to ask that you play along and engage with whatever they put out there?

— , 2008-11-25 17:14:00 -0500

The typography is not remotely elegant or subtle or intelligent enough to sustain this minimalism. Which makes it amateurish. If I were the art director I would just stare at the designer who brought this to me until they left my presence, went back and actually designed something.

Or, more specifically:

If it’s intended to be a joke, it’s not funny enough.

If it’s intended to convey frugality, it’s not obviously frugal enough. [But nice try on that lame rationalization, antarctica (above)]

This MS Word doc cover conveys the message that Warren Buffet is boring and stodgy and totally uninteresting and barely worth your attention. That’s the “message” this cover sends.

Or, possibly, it sends the message that a book by Warren Buffet doesn’t even need a cover, crappily non-designed or no.

— Christian in NYC , 2008-11-28 10:14:00 -0500

HA! I love it. Great comment Christian. When are you gonna update your blog? I was beginning to enjoy it there for a second…

— ian b. shimkoviak , 2008-11-28 10:53:00 -0500

here, here Christian.

— , 2009-01-14 17:52:08 -0500

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— red pepper , 2010-01-28 06:10:37 -0500