Different elements of book cover designs through history
Different elements of book cover designs through history
Blog Article
Despite the fact that we might like to pretend that it is not the fact, books are inevitably judged by their covers.
We love checking out books since they are really stunning things. This is true, however the nature of beauty that we may be discussing is certainly separate to what we might be talking about if we were talking about, for example, the visual arts. Or is it? For as long as we have had books we have actually decorated them with beautiful book cover designs that effort to mirror the charm of what is within. This dates back for as long as the codex itself has actually been around, with medieval monks, those charged with the defense and proliferation of the rare texts that might still be found, ornamenting each hand composed text with astonishingly abundant and beautiful styles. In fact, such was the beauty held within these books that a number of these creative book cover designs were carved into ivory or solid gold, studded with gems, and inlaid with rivers of rare-earth elements. People like the co-CEO of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones can most likely appreciate the way that the beauty of these book covers was created to match the beauty within the book.
When we buy a book it ends up being something very very personal to us. It can sometimes be odd seeing a book you like with another book cover, just because it is not your book. This personalisation, and certainly ownership, of books was at an entirely different level at the dawning of the age of printing, with book covers being developed by the owners themselves, and what they believed would be the best books covers for the text. They would purchase the book itself from the printer wrapped in paper, then bring it to a binder who would add in the covers to the client's specs. This usually implied being outfitted in leather and then etched with the name of the book, and, usually, the name of the book's owner. People like the co-founder of the impact investor with a stake in World of Books can most likely value the ownership that people come to feel in regards to their books.
When you actually think about it, it is quite remarkable that a book's cover, no matter how lovely it is, manages to stand so eloquently for something that is almost the total antithesis of its art form-- writing in white and black. In fact, book covers have actually been created to reflect the emotional state of a book and interest its intended audience since the advent of big scale publishing in the Victorian Period. Artists were tasked with discovering what makes a good book cover for specific individuals, or to put it simply, marketing. People like the CEO of the asset manager that has a stake in Amazon can most likely value the role of marketing in developing book covers.