Until I started designing book covers for author friends I never thought much about the
differences between art, illustration, and graphic design.
That’s probably because the extent of my formal education ended after one whole semester at Rhode Island School of Design. Had I stuck it out and focused on the actual education rather than the unsettling social dynamics and drama, I would’ve learned all this decades ago. But, no. I have to do things bass-ackwards (where’s the emoji for rolling my eyes?).
Anyway, a book cover has to do much more than any piece of art I’ve ever created. It has to convey mood, genre, and vital information like title and author. It has to fit in a strictly-proscribed space with room to spare for variations in the printing and cutting process. It has to still be perfectly legible when shrunk down to a tiny thumbnail image. AND it has to transmit all that information AND grab the viewer — while at thumbnail size — in the fraction of a second it takes for them before they scroll away.
That’s a lot of heavy lifting.
The hardest part for me so far has been communicating the genre. Readers are looking for the genre first… no point clicking on a thumbnail with an aircraft carrier if I’m looking for historical romance, right? It screams military thriller, which I’ll scroll right by. But what if it’s actually showing a couple embracing on the deck of that aircraft carrier and the story is actually indeed a romance set at Pearl Harbor? It might’ve been my cup of tea, but I scrolled right by.
What catches your eye when you’re shopping online for a book to read? What do you look for, and what stops your scrolling long enough to click on something?
