Book Design - Oscar

As much as I wish I didn't, I do judge books by their cover. It's the first point of contact between the book and my eyes, and it's the cover that catches my eye and makes me pull the book off the library shelf to check out the title and blurb. It was interesting to see the kinds of thought processes that go into creating something that is shelf-worthy, such as the intentional spine designs for the Buddha volumes or the subtle storytelling that pulling out My Name is Red can pull off.

One thing that caught my attention is when Chip Kidd referred to the creation of covers as a sort of translation/interpretation of the book's content. While I can see the logic behind that (converting the message of one language to another, that being visual art), I don't agree with it. Just like soundtracks, I believe that covers and similar pieces of art are less "translating" the content of text into another medium, and more shaping that medium to become representative of the text. On the other hand, the texts we've been reading keep talking about the importance of getting across the feeling of the text rather than the literal word meanings, and that's exactly what the cover art is doing, isn't it?

Regarding the article by Bosman: I completely disagree with the idea that people will be more enticed to by a book based on the gaudiness of the book's design, but that's just a personal conviction that I have. I have bought the physical copies I own not because I enjoy the cover art, but because I enjoyed the text itself and I want to keep it with me in a more tangible way. While a more exquisitely designed cover would definitely catch my eye, I'd faster look up the digital version than "pay a dollar or two more for a beautiful book."