Book Cover art :'Rant' by Chuck Palahniuk

Whilst looking more in-depth at the cover art of Pompeii (see previous post), it made me realise how restricted book jacket design in this often is. It comes across as a less glamorous industry sector, which many designers wouldn’t choose to work in. You occasionally see something really innovative in bookshops within the design section, however I have seen very few examples of this extending to novels.

I am going to make this one of the areas I look into in more detail, as I think if I can highlight the scope of designs within this one category, it may help me to understand ways to be more creative and push the boundaries within design as a whole.

The above example is the cover for ‘RANT: An oral biography of Buster Casey’ written by Chuck Palahniuk. The most striking thing about this design, is that neither this title nor the Author’s name features anywhere on the cover. In fact when you initially look at it the only indicating a title is the ‘R’ which is cut through window to the title which is placed on the layer beneath.

The graphics are undeniably abstract, however as you look closer it could represent any number of things. My initial thoughts were this was designed to indicate a curious yet confused scene which is constantly changing. However looking it again it could also be symbolic of a human heart, which has mutated into an abnormal form and is aggressively taking over the page.

The book follows the fictional life of someone who ‘may or may not be the most efficient serial killer of our time’. Having read this book’s synopsis I can see exactly why the artist has created such a curious image,

I really admire Rodrigo Corral and Jacob Magraw who have designed this cover. Although you are not certain what it may indicate about the plotline, the omission of the title and Author’s name would probably make people curious enough to read the book’s abstract. Having done this you somehow look at the cover in a different light.
Overall I actually like this cover, I don’t think it is in any way flawless and having done some research I have discovered that many books have used the not title technique in the past. But regardless of this I think that the design is eye-catching enough to get people to want to know more about the contents. Therefore in this way it would be a successful design.

Innocent Smoothie's Eco-Bottle

(image from innocentdrinks.co.uk)

I came across this on the Internet the other day. I had been aware of the whole environmentally friendly, compostable materials push by consumers; but had not actually heard of many but the major supermarkets using this as a feasible alternative.

The first thing that struck me was that it's the sort of thing that would have worked well with many of the Bottled water vs. Tap water projects last year. It is obviously a very practical alternative to the standard material PET and would be reusable in the same way as standard water bottles. Yet it has the added bonus of being compostable when its no longer required therefore reducing it's environmental impact.

As far as I am aware this eco-friendly drive has been going on for a while with regards to packaging and this is just one of a number of solutions companies have come up with.

The second thing I liked was Innocent Drinks overall statement on recycling:

'We have managed to get our plastic smoothie bottles to 50% recycled plastic (we're working on the rest)

As has been discussed many times in the past, this is a brand that is very clear about what it stands for and the image it wants to portray. It does this very well and is probably the company I admire the most for it’s overall feel and advertising.

Cover art of Pompeii by Richard Harris

As with most covers on novels I see this as being very predictable which is a shame, as people tend to use their innovative skills purely for when working with design titles. You can tell that in places the designer has made an effort to keep the feel in keeping with the book but sadly this has been done by the usual black background, faded image which is normally not the main focus of the book but looks quite distinctive and then the large scale coloured text.

I did a bit of work on book jackets in my A-level to mixed success. I found that although I personally didn’t like the covers, a lot people I asked who were less interested in design often said that they did.

The main thing that I don’t like about the design is that the cover is so non-distinct. The book could have been set in any time period from imaginary to an actual event and fails to highlight the books biggest asset, the enormous amount of research inside. The book is largely based on historical fact and therefore this should have been one of the first things the viewer is aware of, in doing this it would probably be more likely to reach the type of reader that will best appreciate it.

Thank you for reminding me about the cover art, I would be interested to hear other peoples opinion on this design and cover graphics in general.

Pompeii by Robert Harris

Pompeii follows Mount Vesuvius’ eruption in 79 AD and the events immediately surrounding it. Robert Harris’ main character is aqueduct engineer Marcus Attilius who has been recently posted to the Bay of Naples following his predecessor’s mysterious disappearance.

The book begins just days before the eruption and we see our main character struggling gain the respect of his colleagues and managing the challenges of his new job. The plotline cleverly uses this engineer’s knowledge and experience to guide the reader through the warning signs of the eruption and the impact that it had on the Bay. Throughout the book we come across several characters both historical and fictional, this helps to create a very plausible book and helps to understand why the volcanic eruption had such a huge impact at the time.

One thing that was apparent from the start was that the author had done a large amount of research before writing. I visited Pompeii last year and through reading the novel I almost felt as if I were back walking through the streets once again.

The story worked hard to contain detailed accounts of both the explosion and the culture of the people living in the Bay of Naples at that time. Although this research is essential for this to be plausible, it is in my opinion one of its biggest downfalls. I love reading, yet I found the book quite hard going at times. It felt that you were wading through paragraphs of information and facts before you reached the storyline.

I almost think that this book was trying to do too much at once, it was balancing a love story, with the missing person plotline, whilst providing an account of the events from both a 21st centaury and a 1st centaury perspective. The result of this is that the characters are never fully developed and at times it is like reading a textbook account instead of a novel.

Overall I would say that this is a very well planned and thought out piece of writing. It would probably suit someone who is particularly interested in finding out more about this era. However, as I have said, the sheer volume of factual information contained often makes it feel that the tale of the characters is an afterthought.

There were some elements that I really enjoyed about this book, however I was surprised at how successful it had been. From what I can tell it has received good reviews from both readers and critics, it was readable but unlike many other novels, I wouldn’t choose to pick it up again.