Covering Up Books

This came to me through my Google Reader, which I find myself relying on more and more each day. Graphics designer and illustrator Icoeye has come up with some brightly colored book jacket and matching bookmark designs as a way to “expand a book’s space.”

His concepts/illustrations are clean and straightforward, and cute in a clever way. Simply put, they’re literal and fun. I love them, especially the Sherlock Holme’s and pipe bookmark set.

On the subject of book jackets, it breaks into two directions for me. I like book jackets, but only passingly because the truth is, they don’t actually register for me. Other than a few notable ones (whoever does the covers for Andrew Clements books, and Roald Dahl’s), they’re not something I dwell on, or remember, unless they’re hideously ugly. By “ugly” I mean, the cover makes me depressed/uncomfortable/induces eye rolling.

(Incidentally, I do not like the Twilight series covers, and it is very unfortunate that many YA novels since have followed the trend of some ambiguous object drifting aimlessly/languishing on a black background.)

(Actually, there is one book illustrator I know of. John Howe did the covers for Farseer Trilogy by Robin Hobb, which I am only aware of because a good friend insisted on that I buy the series with the Howe covers.)

On the other hand, I like the idea of having some uniformity with books; it appeals to the part of me that regularly feels compelled to launch week-long cleaning blitzes. Plus, it would be a way of getting rid of the unattractive book covers.

See: the rest of the collection!
See Also: Faceout Books

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