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.
