Who said never judge a book by its cover? I don’t know but it’s not a rule a follow. With all the millions of books out there to choose from I find a good starting point is whether the cover appeals to me. This at least narrows my choice.
I’ve discovered a great visual blog recently from the magazine Creative Review. The last post I read was about a new publishing venture, White’s Books, set up by David Pearson an ex-Penguin designer. The covers of the first four books released by White Books are fantastic, they can be seen on the CR blog post A Christmas List.
I particularly like the effect and colours of the design for Shakespeare’s Sonnets and Poems. While the cover for Treasure Island reminds me of a wonderful cross between Hokusai’s The Wave and the album artwork from Keane’s Under the Iron Sea.
These are books I would definitely buy for the artwork alone.
