You must have heard the saying that one should not judge a book by its cover. Well, in literal sense, the saying is not true in entirety. There are certain books, with covers so innovative that it is simply impossible to resist not exploring them. Here are five creative book covers that are amazing in their own unique way.
1. The Stranger
by Albert Camus
Designed by Helen Yentus, the book cover of ‘The Stranger’ is worked out in such a manner that it overwhelmingly stands out, notwithstanding the number of books it is placed among. With a dazzling white as its background, the cover has long black shards originating from its periphery which enhance the contrast of the bright white, invoking vibes of subtle stupor no sooner than it is looked at. ‘The Stranger ’is a philosophical thriller written by Nobel Prize winner Albert Camus, and the enigmatic abstract cover perfectly suits the mystical theme of the book, in an unusual way. Buy it here
Photo courtesy: Amazon
2. The Fault in Our Stars
By John Green
Adjuring the beauty in simplicity, the cover of ‘The Fault in Our Stars’, is not any intricate mosaic, which precisely is the reason behind its eloquence. The cover has a flamboyant sky-blue background with a black and a white cloud, the latter below the other, with the title and the author’s name engraved in the two clouds respectively. The font, emblematic of chalk handwriting, along with the alternating white and black colored theme adds to the appeal quotient.
The initial design was improvised by additions of translucent blue font comments depicting achievements of the book, which besides increasing conspicuousness, brilliantly helped in marketing the book as well. The cover of John Green’s bestseller was initially designed by Rodrigo Corral, a popular designer. Corral has also designed covers for the Pulitzer Prize winning author Junot Díaz and many other popular authors like Chuck Palahniuk. Get your hands on it, here
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3. The Great Gatsby
By F. Scott Fitzgerald
The cover design of ‘The Great Gatsby’ is one of the greatest masterpieces of abstract art. The cover constitutes what seems a brightly lit city, while dusk approaches night, yet it is unclear what the scenario exactly is, and the perception of the design might vary, person to person. In the prussian sky, is a morose female face, with two eyes, a sliding teardrop, red lips and imperceptible hairlines distinguishing the gender. The cover art of ‘The Great Gatsby’ is a vagarious composition by designer Francis Cugat, and its ambiguous beauty is cherishing to the eye even after eighty three years of its natality. Check it out here
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4. Euphoria
By Lily King
The cover of ‘Euphoria’ looks like one of the professional canvas oil paint masterpieces which are exhibited in art galleries. This bestseller by Lily King, is varnished beautifully with, albeit random, robust vertical patterns of a deluge of different colors which makes it way different from the standard humdrum. Such amorphous use of colors is probably done by designer, Chin Yee Lai, to harmonize the appearance of the book with its breathtaking, kaleidoscopic plot. Besides the floridity, the title of the book is evinced onto the cover in a calligraphic white font which gives a nice finesse to it.Get your hands on it here
Photo Courtesy: Bookcritics
5. Goosebumps
By R. L. Stine
R.L Stine’s most popular series, Goosebumps, is a series of books, with a target audience of young teens, lodging on a horror based genre. Each of the book in this series, has the title ‘Goosebumps’ mildly protruding from the surface of its cover with a glittering glow. Below the title, is generally a spooky image, drawing or a picture which illustrates hints about the book’s story. One of the scariest covers is of the book ‘Stay out of basement’ which has a picture of a horrifying green hand sticking out of a door, attempting to close it, with a caption ‘Something’s waiting in the dark’. These covers are more than enough to literally give you goosebumps and send shivers down your spine, but are extremely alluring at the same time. View the entire collection here
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Book covers are always an influential factor and are without a doubt, a really important asset, when it comes to determining face values of the book. Cover art is not a monochromatic, systematic skill somebody can master, it is more about limitless abstraction and a display of imagination without demarcating boundaries. Book publishers and authors, seldom assign jobs of manufacturing book covers to individual entities. Even prominent authors like Dan Brown and John Green have held contests to choose designs for their books, in order to unbind creativity as much as possible. Book covers determine the visible beauty of books and it is highly unlikely for good books to not be sheathed beneath a good cover.
People skilled in creative activity are not special. They are just good at unconstrained analysis and plotting out their perceptions and ideas of it. Art is not a talent. Art is something which lies within everyone. The one who beseeches upon this hidden attribute through introspection, and cracks the knack to limitlessly explore it, becomes an artist.
