Designer: Nina D'Amario

title: Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century

author: Mark Leonard

publisher: PublicAffairs

available at Amazon.com

Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century

haha. A bit heavy-handed maybe?
Still good/funny.

What’s with political books and all white covers?

— , 2007-02-22 04:05:00 -0500

Like it. Could have stopped after the first EU perhaps?

— , 2007-02-22 05:01:00 -0500

Yeah… are there three Europes?

The blue rectangle with the Times New Roman-esque author name looks like a cruel design joke… like somebody was designing the cover in Microsoft Word and discovered the autoshapes tool.

This is one of my least favorite minimalist text-heavy political book covers I’ve seen lately.

— C-Dog , 2007-02-22 05:20:00 -0500

Don’t mind the author’s text box. Reminds me of Parisian, and I suppose to a greater extent, European, street signs.

— , 2007-02-22 05:27:00 -0500

Yeah… are there three Europes?

The EUs are a reference to the European Union.

— Ben Pieratt , 2007-02-22 05:32:00 -0500

Hate the hyphen.

— Martin , 2007-02-22 05:43:00 -0500

What Dave said…

— C-Dog , 2007-02-22 05:44:00 -0500

what about the small blue box with the author’s name? It doesn’t seem to match or compliment the rest of the cover at all.

— , 2007-02-22 07:26:00 -0500

The splitting of the last word to stretch what at best is a cheap, tricksy conceit is quite shameful. The author box has obviously been positioned quite intentionally to fill the gap that ‘21st’ should have occupied and thus enable the final crude ‘EU’ pairing.

— , 2007-02-22 08:02:00 -0500

First off—that gothic sans is great! I know I’ve seen it before. What is it?

EU EU EW. Beat us over the head, why dont ya. Are the colors significant to the EU or Europe in-general?

Agree the three EUs seem heavy handed, especially the last one. I’m still deciding whether that ruins it (for general audiences, not designers) or not, though.

— , 2007-02-22 08:25:00 -0500

Also, Ben, the Designer link shows results for two covers (one by Nina D Amario and one by Nina Laricchia—are they the same designer or not?). Either way, your critique for both begins with the words Haha!

[If it is the same designer, the Sellevision cover is far classier than this one here.]

— , 2007-02-22 09:00:00 -0500

The typeface is Knockout by H&FJ: http://www.typography.com/catalog/knockout/index.html

— Isaac Tobin , 2007-02-22 09:06:00 -0500

The sanserif, that is. The serif looks like Bulmer.

— Isaac , 2007-02-22 09:08:00 -0500

Also, Ben, the Designer link shows results for two covers (one by Nina D Amario and one by Nina Laricchia—are they the same designer or not?).

Our search engine could use a bit of work. It’s just picking up on the “nina” and ignoring the rest.

Either way, your critique for both begins with the words Haha!

I need a new schtick =/

— ben Pieratt , 2007-02-22 09:16:00 -0500

don’t like it. The whole big sans type on a white cover with colored letters seems to have been done enough and while I get the “EU” highlight treatment it does nothing to communicate anything. It’s kind of like I get why they hyphenated “century” but it does not help the readability of the book.

It’s like my design guru used to say—”either do it all the way or don’t do it at all”. Don’t break up one word or colorize random letters unless you don’t care that people will read it—which is sometimes the case—especially when an image says it allllllllllllllllllllllllll.

— , 2007-02-22 10:26:00 -0500

not good or funny at all in my book. just slapdash.

— , 2007-02-23 01:16:00 -0500

I still maintain that it’s not a bad cover. It’s just been overworked a bit. I have to admit that I probably would have gone here too at one point.

— , 2007-02-23 02:19:00 -0500

Just because you would have gone there does not make this a better cover. I would have tried this too, but I would have fought my ass off to not see it printed…

— , 2007-02-23 08:28:00 -0500

” like somebody was designing the cover in Microsoft Word and discovered the autoshapes tool.” wow. another insightful critique from c-dog.

— mike , 2007-02-23 08:57:00 -0500

There is a recent cover that Carol Devine-Carson did which uses this technique in a much more… illusive way. It holds meaning only after one understands the book and even so would be easily missed… and yet I cannot for the life of me remember its title. Any help?

— , 2007-02-23 14:30:00 -0500

Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking??

— isaac , 2007-02-24 02:55:00 -0500

yeah, it’s Didion’s

— Ben Pieratt , 2007-02-25 04:18:00 -0500

Doesn’t Bono sing in a U2 song: “EU … EU … EU … See You!” I might be wrong?

— , 2007-02-25 08:49:00 -0500

I appreciate the white space overall, but I think the first “EU” in Europe would’ve been enough.

— , 2007-02-26 12:50:00 -0500

i agree with nathalie k. The first EU would have been better

— pp , 2007-02-26 13:43:00 -0500

EUUUUUUU.
how clever.
dreadful hypen.
the label thing?
unresolved.

— , 2007-03-04 11:42:00 -0500

eeeeuuu creeepy.

looks too eurocentric to be good reading. Don’t mean to judge a book by it’s cover.

that’s my snap judgement

— , 2007-03-20 05:48:00 -0400

did I miss the joke? I forgot the website I was visiting…

— , 2007-03-20 06:04:00 -0400

lol @ europe running anything

— andrew , 2007-03-28 03:14:00 -0400

Once had a design instruction who beat the idea in our heads that a design should only have “one hook” to succeed.

On that note, there are two “EU”s more than are necessary.

And that hyphen. . . yeah, that’s terrible, and unneccessary as well.

— Christian in NYC , 2007-05-25 07:08:00 -0400