Book covers: if we don’t judge the book by its cover, why  have covers?

Books need covers like bodies need clothes. Most of the time. The cover is the introduction to the book, and the spine is critically important simply because a book on a shelf is only a sliver of a presence, and that is its spine. 

It’s designed to tease and tantalise. Book lovers know the torment of passing a book store – it’s ‘eyes front’, or we’re in trouble. Book and book cover design is one of the lesser areas of my work, but the little I’ve done has been such a pleasure, and I plan to promote this work more in the future.

Not all the designs here were destined for print – ‘The Flower Shop’  (selected pages below) by Paul Addington was designed and published as an e-book, and can be found on Amazon.