Book Covers

A new project – for every book I read, I’m going to spend no more than 30 minutes designing a new cover for it. I will stick to classics and avoid newer stuff.

This will likely amount to a pathetic pile of crap as I am often boozy upon a book’s completion, but I don’t want to leave this world without making a fool of myself. The idea here is to flex my creative muscles a little bit and attempt to improve.

To make up for the awful service, I invite you to also spend 30 minutes (or less?) designing your own version. If you email it to me, I will post it alongside my own.

This weekend I’m on a maritime bender – a classic sea-voyage adventure with lots of psychological observation and a supernatural undercurrent.

— Chris Papasadero, 2008-09-28 14:10:00

Superb cover, Chris. I love the blend of 18th/19th century letter press and 1960’s colorfield abstraction. And the slight foxing is an elegant touch. Hey, you should be a book designer. (har har har)

Interesting activity proposal as well… now, do you want us to design a cover for The Shadow Line, or for the book we happen to be reading?

Is this intentionally connected to Chip Kidd’s cover for The Old Moderns? It’d be an interesting tie-in, what with Conrad being one of the authors leading into Modernism. And if not, then it’s just a weird coincidence, given I only bought my copy of that a couple hours ago.

And I was thinking it’d be cooler if everyone riffed on the same book, but if you want to submit something to me for something you’ve been doing on your own, and its worth a crit, I’ll probably post if for you, if you like.

While I disagree, there’s an interesting discussion to be had about this… if you’re only designing for classics, maybe its okay to go a little bit farther out there with the concept because you can assume some people already know what you’re alluding to? Or is this just design-for-designers?

i like the pattern and the shade of white is beautiful. however, the title is too close to the top for my tastes. still, quite good in half an hour.

My biggest beef with this site is that often the featured covers look like they took 30 mins to design; frankly, they’re neither that interesting nor worthy of posting. (In my opinion)

Although in theory, this sounds like a nice idea, do you really want this forum to become 30-minute book cover design? I think FWIS should show exceptional cover design period.

P.S. I’d like to see a clock on the cover above … I have my doubts that it took < 30 minutes.

I guess I’m more from the school of “looks cool. but doesn’t tell me anything about the book.”

I think a book cover like this will be thought provoking for a fellow designer, but not the general reading public. If it was cover out on a shelf, it would grab my attention—but it would not entice me and give me an idea of what it is about. Poetry? Technical manual? What is it?

love it. everything about it. if in a bookstore, i’d pick it up to see who did it.

Here’s some submissions from Ian and C-dog, respectively. Once I get the image swapper fixed (sorry) they’ll be posted up top with mine.

Wow. This really fucks up your “recently commented” section…
Check it out.

Another submission, from Greg. Really nice literal interpretation, one of those ‘perfect photo’ ones. Does anyone else think C-dogs circle looks like an award? Its great though.

And yeah, thanks for the heads-up Ian, unfortunately Eric is busy finishing up client work today. Should be back in shape in a couple days. In the meantime I’ll be posting them in-line.

It toally looks like an award… but I freaking love circles on book covers. It’s a fetish I have… It could easily be dropped, but it makes me happy having it there.

This is a great idea and something I’ve been wanting to do for a few years. Maybe I’ll soon start.

i really don’t get Ian’s first one. but damn his blog is great. thogh i love the painting, C-Dog’s is so safe. risk nothing gain nothing.

Hmmm. Gotta say I’m still liking chris’ original take on this cover. But I do say that from a designers standpoint. Graphically it has a good bit going for it. It has the feel of the Old Moderns, but not in a copy-cat way. It’s fresh and appropriate for the style of the writing.

I think the first idea is meant to hint at many connected events happening out there at sea. Also hinting at navigation by stars/intuition. The treatment of the title is simply a modern element that sort of feels like a device that is measuring depth. Otherwise, i don’t have much to defend it. Part of the challenge for me was to create something in 30 minutes or less and still have it be interesting and possibly workable as a final idea…

First thing I noticed on the original: author name smaller than title. With a book that’s major author/minor work you definitely have to play up the author more than the title.

I like Ian’s first one except for the gradient color switch. The circles and lines are great though.

I like Ian’s second one as well except for the fading of the title. Love the photo on Greg’s but not the font.

sorry i’m a bit late on this.
30 minutes thinking about the idea? or 30 minutes total?
thanks.

Nice work. I think we should put a kibosh on posting different colour variations of the same cover though, might get a bit silly.

i think that it’s funny that after all of the bad mouthing that c-dog has to say, he produces one of the most generic book covers possible. kudos to the rest of you folks.

I honestly think Keenan’s would have been great with just the ship graphic… the water-effect there is so murky and spooky. I deleted his one because it was breaking the layout but he’s welcome to re-post it. Of course it’d be better if y’all just emailed the graphics to me as I can resize and save them in the appropriate folder for when the image switcher gets fixed.

The 30 minute thing was sort of self imposed—but it is interesting to see what happens in thirty minutes.

Keenan’s is the most moody and engaging for me as well, but the typography falls short for my taste. The darker one feels like the story to me.

Ian, I agree about the type. 30 minutes is tight, and that had to include reading up on the novel on Amazon to get an idea of what it is about. But no excuses… I am up for another round, another book…let’s do this.

Don’t worry Michael, the economy is shaping up to fulfill your desire… Something tells me you won’t be laughing.

I just spent > 30 minutes hurriedly trying to design a cover. What I produced was mediocre (at best), void of concept, and atypical of my work. I debated whether to send to Chris, but honestly do not see any point except confirming that, for me, this is indeed a pointless exercise.

I think Ian’s is just bad; I have to scroll up to remember C-Dog’s forgettable design.

Sorry, just not feeling the 30 minute concept; also considering how quickly time evaporated when I tried … I have my doubts that many of these especially Chris’s actually took “no more than 30 mins.”

i work in page design, not book covers, but i love this blog. and excellent idea, chris, with this submission thing. interpretations add so much more to a discussion than just… uh, discussion.

anyway, i only read the wikipedia description, so don’t know the story well. but i really like ian’s second one. the fade does seem a little detached, but i’d pick it up in a bookstore.

i like the circle in c-dog’s, but at first glance i thought it could be an “oprah’s book club” label.

i like yours, chris, but it doesn’t tell me anything about the story. jeremy’s may tell me a little too much.

but you’ve all got my admiration for even attempting it. and whether it did or didn’t take 30 mins, who cares. i doubt anyone’d take hours to work on a book cover to post on a blog. well, i would hope they wouldn’t.

Ian’s looks like a 50’s modern textile place over a resort image with a title treatment that I do not have the vocabulary to describe. Although it does not fit the book it is fun to look at. Cdogs could benefit from losing the circles.

C-Dog’s circles are the best thing about his design, which overall is nice. The story deals with madness, and the pulsating, resonating circles do much to suggest the heightened psychological tension.

Ian has a lot of talent as a designer, but the tone of his first submission feels more suited to a Mark Leyner or B.E. Ellis book, something “postmodern,” certainly not Joseph Conrad. I do like the design though, it’s clever. His second one has that vintage paperback feel, which is nice; the fact that it was done in 30 minutes is extraordinary (assuming he did the line-work).

The type on the green one, I must confess, feels way wrong; this was immediately evident later that evening after just one beer.

Keenan’s design, while special in it’s own way, feels too much like science fiction.

The colors might be a little more fitting? And just so know, the symbols might be a little too hidden, but the orb crossing over the boat was intended as a subtle eye shape to hint at the psychological nature of the story. Again, 30 minutes to read up and design may have led me to using some trite symbols.

30 minutes on a cover? it is possible. as ive done it a couple of times. and then the author will call, some appreciates and some wants to kill me.

if these guys can conceptualize covers like this in 30 minutes then these guys are topnotch.. saludo!

i like c-dogs’ version, although u can say its generic.. it looks mysterious and neat. wish i could post a design…

I think part of what makes a good designer is the ability to see solutions and possibilities all around. Masterpieces have been designed in seconds—perceived and visualized even quicker.

The exercise here is more of a friendly invite and fun activity between fellow designers who frequent the same blog and have a love for design and the book cover as a piece of art and functional sales tool. Design is not limited to extensive research or time limits. Sure, it can benefit from it, but it can equally suffer from it.

For us, who walk around the world gathering resources and references and have designed a good deal of books, it comes as no surprise, really, that a decent design can manifest within moments of sitting at your computer or sketchbook. In fact, in today’s day and age it is almost necessary, what with all the unreasonable deadlines and changes and last minute requests and tight budgets. And in this day and age it is possible. Welcome information age.

Reading the early stories of many Penguin designers we can also see that many designs happened overnight or with little time to read or research. Rather, fueled by passion, talent and insight, these maverick designers pulled their shit together (sometimes to prove to themselves that they can do it) and banged out a decent piece of original work. And other times they, like us, have created mediocre, passable work. But in the end what really matters is that you love your work inside and out. You know how to have fun with it, how to criticize it, laugh about it and ultimately leave it be and hope the next one is better.

So, to me this is a little fun. Fun that leads into the next job. Fun that allows me to see how others think without the oppression of formal work or competition. And fun for fun sake. So have fucking fun.

Oh, and for the record. i did not draw those wave lines, but I have always wanted to use them… And so I did, in what seemed like an appropriate context, to me.

C-Dog,
Sorry about stealing your subtitle. I mentioned it in the submissions email. Wikipedia actually listed the book as “The Shadow Line: A Confession” and I thought your addition was too good to pass up.

And for the record, I was thinking about how I’d improve the cover as I read the book, so perhaps its a little unfair. I think the point of the exercise is simply to see how quickly you can concept and deliver… and I think there’s merit in exploring that angle. Perhaps the next time around I’ll take a little more time – I’d argue the 30 minutes is just a guideline and nobody should feel obligated to follow any of my stupid rules!

At the end of the day, your cover still seems the most conceptually evolved. Probably has a bit to do with your familiarity with the book, but also because, I assume, you are being paid…

It looks like an old nautical manual of sorts. But again, I say that it works in terms of deeper conceptual undertones and not necessarily a classic repackaging. On that note, C-dog’s has more of that feel, but still falls short in terms of a bold shelf presence.

Lets hope that most folks don’t spend much more than 30 min. unless you’re sending out paychecks to everyone after this post is done;)

The level of defeat and pessimism that laces your Internet scrawling seems too much for any human to bear. I wish you luck, sir. May flights of angels sing thee to sunnier days and clearer skies. No one should be that miserable… no one.

Let us all send positive vibes Honest Abe’s way – and let us hope he can be delivered into sweet bliss.

It’s the veil of the Internet hombre! You think I’m such a big man in person ... I’m actually extremely humble and positive to a fault! So, funny, that you made that comment. (and took mine hook, line and sinker)

.....as for the cover on top – it is good. The ship is a little fiddly, and I think maybe playing a little more with it would be a good idea. But I like the rythm, the balance, and the slight off-ness. Good schtuff.