In previous articles we talk about the affection that people feel for books, but why do people feel so strongly about such inanimate objects?

Many of us have books in our past that have influenced us strongly. Those that were not the most well written or that were popular; but those that came along at a time in our life when what they had to say was of vital importance. The knowledge they imparted changed our lives and threw us in a new direction. There are few of these books that affect us so dramatically though, and those that we feel intimately about can number in the hundreds or thousands.

The reality is that there are many reasons why people become so intimately involved with certain books and disregard others entirely. One of the deciding factors though is that of the first impression that the book makes on you. This is intimately involved with the mood your in, where you come across the book but the most important factor (or one of the few that publishers can influence) is that of the cover. Certain covers are forever ingrained in the collective consciousness, the distinctive black and white of the Penguins classic series, or their modern silver counterparts such as the version of the Clockwork Orange with the glass of milk on the front. It’s easy to turn to Penguin because they’ve done book design so well, so much so that their three banded design has been successfully reproduced across a huge number of mediums.

A sharp snappy cover can really set a book out, and one of the best book jacket designers out there at the moment is Jim Tierney. You’ve probably come across his work without realising it, as he was the design behind the covers for the Jules Verne series. Not only are the designs beautiful to look at but they’re also interactive, evoking that sense of wonder and potential that Jules Verne gave (and still gives) to generations. You can see more information about Jim Tiernay at his website and his blog, which gives examples of not only the covers that were chosen by the publisher but also those that didn’t the cut. It’s a fascinating glimpse behind a door that normally remains closed and gives a sense of the amount of consideration that each book receives.

Alternate cover designs for Predators I Have Known by Alan Dean Foster designed by Jim Tierney

If you have something you’d like designed then why not submit a brief on the Creative Services Exchange.

Tags: Book, classic, cover, design, illustration, jim, penguin, tiernay
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