The Art of Book Covers - Danielle

For most of my life I have seen a decline in physical books and an increase in e-reading. Both forms of reading have their benefits, and reading on an e-reader is usually more convenient than carrying around a physical book. Despite this, people like Chip Kidd have helped keep physical books on the shelves and make them more appealing to consumers. As Kidd demonstrated with his cover design for Haruki Murakami's 1Q84, a good deal of a book's artistic appeal is lost on an e-reader. Only physical books can have 3D effects, multi-layer covers, or other such designs which add to a physical books appeal. I agree with Kidd on the idea that a cover designer works much like a translator, as both must consider how to best appeal to both the audience and the publisher while staying true to the author's intent. Now as people have started to lean more towards e-readers and online translators it has become especially important to make physical books worth buying. 

In Julie Bosman's "Selling Books by Their Gilded Covers" I noticed that publishers seem especially hard to please. As has been discussed in class and in a few other readings, publisher's get the final say on how the book is presented regardless of the translator's -- or in this case the cover designer's -- input. It can sometimes be just as, if not more, difficult to please a publisher than it is to appeal to a foreign audience or e-reader loyalist. Based on what we have read and discussed so far, it seems like the publisher is the biggest hurdle to get over for any creative contributor, from the author to the translator to the cover artist.