Books spotted 12/30/09 at Borders Books at Alamo Quarry
Conrad A. Williams
DECAY INEVITABLE
Solaris
Cover art by Dave McKean
Yay, abstraction! Good to see some abstraction in a genre cover illustration these days. It’s a Dave McKean and does the job well — grabs the eye and says “hey, check this out.”
Solaris is a UK-based publisher and even if you don’t know that, the typography choice says they are. It’s understated and lets the art do the talking. Seems to me that British publishers as a whole seem more willing to offer that subtlety in their type choices and point sizes (as well as capital and lower-case mixtures), while US type design choices tend toward outdoing neighboring books with bombast, and big capital letters, especially on mass market paperbacks. I wonder if US publishers feel like mass market books need to have giant type to have a chance to be seen? (Not speaking of all fiction, but genre fiction covers at any rate.) Wasn’t always that way with US genre covers, but it seems moreso these days.
Charles De Lint
MUSE AND REVERIE
Tor Books
Cover art by John Jude Palencar
Here’s an example of a US cover design that has really elegant and complementary type design. It’s not a mass-market book like the one above. It’s a trade paperback so it’s got a little more size to work with, but like the example above, it’s not trying to out-scream the competition. It lets the art do the talking. And it gets your attention. Strong illustration by John Jude Palencar.
Charles De Lint
MEMORY & DREAM
Orb Books
Cover art by John Howe
Cover design by Jamie Stafford-Hill
More understated typography on a US genre cover. Love the way the author’s name “rolls” around at the top. Great illustration by John Howe. I’m not sure what prompted the castellation effect across the top and bottom of the illustration frame, but it sure works to pull your eye in and out of the illo. Really smart.
A.M. Dellamonica
INDIGO SPRINGS
Tor Books
Cover art by Julie Bell
Lou Anders, editorial and art director of Pyr, brought this one to my attention. Made us both wonder if there’s a story behind the making of this cover. The cover illustration is by the great Julie Bell, which totally would have fooled me because of the cropping and design treatment of the illo. Normally her work is very narrative and presented in a straight-forward way. Instead, this one has unusual cropping, in addition to a pinstriping effect across the entire illo. Lou’s guess is that the design choices as well as the font choices are intended to neuter the genre aspect of the work and attempt to make it appear to be a trade fiction title. Good guess. Hard to say. Nevertheless, it’s an unusual, but elegant design solution.
