My friend Debra posted on her Daily Dose blog about some of her favorite book cover designs a few months ago. It reminded me of how clever and inspiring this design niche is.

One of my favorite all-time designers is of course Chip Kidd and I love the work he’s done over his career. If you’ve read Kidd’s books you’ll geek out reading the troubles and tribulations he’s been through designing his covers.

A book cover has to stand out at a bookstore because of the competition on the shelves. I chose books based on a combination of cleverness, aesthetics and originality. Here are Debra’s 10 and 47 of my own handpicked favorites separated into Conceptual, Typographical, Illustrative and Miscellaneous categories.

DEBRA’S PICKS

She tried to cover a range of styles in her post to show the variety of great book covers that people have done.

A Million Little Pieces by James Frey

Secret Lives of Great Artist by Elizabeth Lunday

Against Happiness by Eric G. Wilson

Hotheads by Steven Pinker

The Craftsman by Richard Sennett

The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon

Oil by Matthew Yeomans

Things I’ve Learned From Women Who’ve Dumped Me edited by Ben Karlin

The Complete Persepolis by Marjane SatrapiXX

Conceptual

You’ll notice a simple metaphor is all it takes to make a great conceptual book cover. The type of book doesn’t matter much either as you’ll see novels, trade-books and non-fiction.

Lovesick by Alex Wellen

The Best of Brochure Design 9 by Jason Godfrey

A Happy Marriage by Rafael Yglesias

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

A Wolf at the Table by Augusten Burroughs

The Book of Dead Philosphers by Simon Critchley

TYPOGRAPHICAL

Is it just me or does it just seem right that a book would feature great typography on it’s cover?

Dreaming in Hindi by Katherine Rusell Rich

Gig by John Bowe, Marisa Bowe, and Sabin Streeter

1984 by George Orwell

Manhood for Amateurs by Michael Chabon

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

Everything is Cinema by Richard Brody

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

Love the One You’re With by Emily Giffin

Finger Lickin’ Fifteen by Janet Evanovich

The Book of General Ignorance by John Lloyd by John Hitchinson

Vertigo by Dan Auiler

Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things by George Lakoff

I included this because it felt like it was designed in a very minimalistic style but it intensely highlighed the name of the book. I couldn’t stop looking at it so I feel it’s worth sharing.

A Short History of Women by Kate Walbert

ILLUSTRATIVE

Book covers with illustration usually work out well because the style of the art can really translate what the book’s tone is.

Summer Blonde by Adrian Tomine

Red Colored Elegy by Seiichi Hayashi

A Drifting Life by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

The Tibetan Book of the Dead (Paperback)

Abandon The Old in Tokyo by Yoshihiro Tatsumi

Snuff by Chuck Palahniuk

Asterios Polyp by David Mazzucchelli

Comic Book Tattoo

Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast by Lewis Wolpert

Shortcomings by Adrian Tomine

Blankets by Craig Thompson

Sleepwalk by Adrian Tomine

Lullaby Chuck Palahniuk

Invisible Monsters by Chuck Palahniuk

Buddha 8 by Osamu Tezuka

The Book of Vice by Peter Sagal

Survivor by Chuck Palahniuk

Ice haven by Daniel Clowes

The Mysteries of Pittsburgh by Michael Chabon

Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer

MISCELLANEOUS

Something Missing by Matthew Dicks

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Maps and Legends by Michael Chabon

Rude Awakenings of a Jane Austen Addict

In Hanuman’s Hands by Cheeni Rao

Stiff by Mary Roach

Maya Angelou

Bonk by Mary Roach

The Political Unconscious by Fedric Jameson

Let me know what I missed! Comment!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 5th, 2009 at 10:21 pm and is filed under Best of Industry, Books, Design, Top Lists, Typography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.