Great book cover designs are visual extensions of a book. Designers wield visual cues instead of words to call out to us as we peruse the library shelves or the aisles of a Barnes & Noble. The cover sparks your initial curiosity, and you stick around for the story.
Our favorite cover this year is Jessica Svendsen’s design for Jacques Rancière’s The Intervals of Cinema. Svendsen molds two images together with rectangular bars as visual intervals, and aligns the type in these breaks. The black contrasting with the flesh tones creates a cinematic tone. The images are strategically arranged to censor the eyes, and it’s like looking through the slats of blinds into another scene. Another compelling jacket design is for Mark D. Jordan’s Convulsing Bodies: Religion & Resistance in Foucault. Designer Anne Jordan overlays the book title on an image of intertwined fingers. The breaks of the type create a dynamic trip for the eye down the page.
Here’s our collection of the best book covers of 2014.