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News & ArtsFriday, March 27, 2009
Visual Art / Books Anatomy of a Great Book Cover
Posted by It's Paul Constant's Birthday, Everybody!!! on Fri, Mar 27, 2009 at 4:33 PM
I think the jacket cover for Dave Cullen's upcoming book Columbine (to the left) is already in the running for the best book cover of the year. It's perfect for a book of serious journalism about what happened at Columbine. It's tasteful but it also gives a sense of the horror that's about to happen; those skies look full of doom.
Well, the book designer has a great, illuminating blog post about the process of creating the cover. It went from a stock photo of an anonymous school hallway...
...to photos of Columbine's actual interiors and even using some of the security camera footage from the shootings before finally settling on the beautiful final cover. There are a bunch of alternate covers displayed in the post, and the rationale behind each one is described clearly and in layman's terms.
If you've ever wondered about how good and bad book covers are made, you need to read this post.
1
I was so close to becoming a student at Columbine, my folks moved to Littleton, this was a couple years before the shootings. Luckily I decided to move in with my grandparents in California and said have fun in that crappy little town.
3
what do you know... it *is* actually possible to do a square crop and get the cop car out of the image. just eyeballing it, i didn't think it was...
4
That is an amazing book cover.
One of the things I noticed was that it is the only photo in the entire book, too. (Except the obligatory author photo.) It's so much more haunting because of that.
For me, anyway.
One of the things I noticed was that it is the only photo in the entire book, too. (Except the obligatory author photo.) It's so much more haunting because of that.
For me, anyway.
7
I recently bought a book that had been reprinted since I had it last and I really liked the new bookcover. There is something sublime in the leaf contacting the surface of the water in the image.
http://www.energyarts.com/Books-andamp-A…
http://www.energyarts.com/Books-andamp-A…
8
@6: Either you're a shill for the publisher and someone about to say "read it and find out!", or you're illiterate. It was a terrible and very important day in American history, and people do not at all agree about what the causes were, and what, if anything, can be done to prevent this kind of thing.
Look, people still talk about the assassination of Julius Caesar, too. Just because you can't think of anything else to say doesn't mean there's nothing.
Look, people still talk about the assassination of Julius Caesar, too. Just because you can't think of anything else to say doesn't mean there's nothing.
9
@8 - Maybe #6 is as weary and worn out as I am by all the copycat shootouts that have happened since Columbine. There's already a couple of books available on the subject, too.
10
It looks like one of those "mixed use" shopping-apartment-habitrail complexes you keep touting for building in Shoreline.
Your Future Nickellsville Apart-0-Shoplex here:
http://www.habitrail.com/
Your Future Nickellsville Apart-0-Shoplex here:
http://www.habitrail.com/
11
@ 9, the Columbine shootings themselves were copycat. Not the first nor the last, just the deadliest.
Like 6 says, just because you're not interested doesn't mean it shouldn't still be a topic of a book.
Like 6 says, just because you're not interested doesn't mean it shouldn't still be a topic of a book.
13
No sir, I don't like it.
Just as Paul knew I wouldn't. :)
(Actually, I've got to admit, it's a good cover...but to toss it in the ring for best book cover of the year??? I don't think I'd go that far. But then again, I'm still tickled by the book cover for "Why We Make Mistakes" which Paul, by rule, has to hate.)
Just as Paul knew I wouldn't. :)
(Actually, I've got to admit, it's a good cover...but to toss it in the ring for best book cover of the year??? I don't think I'd go that far. But then again, I'm still tickled by the book cover for "Why We Make Mistakes" which Paul, by rule, has to hate.)
14
@8-obviously neither, though I'm amused by the fact that the only two options are that I work for the publisher, or I cannot read or write (well, minus the original post, and this...)
Again, what is there left to discuss? If your interested, great. A couple of asshole psychopaths were to chicken shit to just put a bullet in their own brains and instead decided to take as many people with them as possible. The End...assholes like that are all over the damn planet. No need to give them more press.
Again, what is there left to discuss? If your interested, great. A couple of asshole psychopaths were to chicken shit to just put a bullet in their own brains and instead decided to take as many people with them as possible. The End...assholes like that are all over the damn planet. No need to give them more press.
15
@14, Wally Lamb's "The Hour I First Believed" is a great recent novel about Columbine and its effect on some characters who were there.
By your logic, no one should be able to write about those assholes who flew planes into the WTC, either, but I also just read a great recent novel about a fictionalized hijacker visiting strippers in Florida just before 9/11, called "The Garden of Last Days" (by Andre Dubus III).
A subject is a subject. Can any subject for a novel or book be so played out that it can't be used? Should there be a moratorium on books about AIDS, the Iraq War, Global Warming, Amanda Knox, etc?
By your logic, no one should be able to write about those assholes who flew planes into the WTC, either, but I also just read a great recent novel about a fictionalized hijacker visiting strippers in Florida just before 9/11, called "The Garden of Last Days" (by Andre Dubus III).
A subject is a subject. Can any subject for a novel or book be so played out that it can't be used? Should there be a moratorium on books about AIDS, the Iraq War, Global Warming, Amanda Knox, etc?
16
@14: "Illiterate" is meant in a rough and figurative sense, and it seems increasingly true as a description of your views. What you just said essentially amounts to "the only interesting thing about Columbine is whether or not those kids were assholes, and since they obviously were, we don't need to discuss it any longer."
Reality: the Columbine shooting has been sensationalized and exploited for all kinds of purposes, and is one of those events that gets a lot of very different ideologues to go on talk shows and declare that "this proves what I've been saying all along."
The shooting has been used to make arguments about topics such as gun control, mental health care, psychiatric medications, adolescent psychology, and American suburban society. The relations of the shooting to any of these topics simply cannot be summed up as "two psychopaths who forgot to shoot themselves first."
I have not read the book, and it is entirely possible that it contributes nothing new, that it rehashes old arguments that don't need rehashing. Again, however, just because you cannot think of anything new or interesting to say on the topic does not mean that no one else can or has or will. That you think it does mean that is a symptom of anti-intellectual dullness on your part.
Reality: the Columbine shooting has been sensationalized and exploited for all kinds of purposes, and is one of those events that gets a lot of very different ideologues to go on talk shows and declare that "this proves what I've been saying all along."
The shooting has been used to make arguments about topics such as gun control, mental health care, psychiatric medications, adolescent psychology, and American suburban society. The relations of the shooting to any of these topics simply cannot be summed up as "two psychopaths who forgot to shoot themselves first."
I have not read the book, and it is entirely possible that it contributes nothing new, that it rehashes old arguments that don't need rehashing. Again, however, just because you cannot think of anything new or interesting to say on the topic does not mean that no one else can or has or will. That you think it does mean that is a symptom of anti-intellectual dullness on your part.
17
@16---Sifting through remains to find every last speck of meaning sometimes means you have to create a grandiose reason for some tragedy where there is none. Maybe these two kids were just assholes with guns, maybe not. Who knows? But I don't care, and if you do, great. I find many other topics more interesting, and a lack of interest in rehashing Columbine hardly makes me intellectually dull or lazy. Your argument is vapid and self-absorbed. Really, if you and @15 find Columbine so fascinating, by all means, soak it up. I do not.
19
If you want to find out what really happened at Columbine I suggest you read what the eyewitnesses had to say:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/columb…
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/columb…
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