I found the article, "Kill Your Darlings" Book Designers' Favorite Covers Don't Always See the Light of Day by Peter Terzian for Print magazine very interesting. The article explored several different book cover designs that never made it to the shelves for many different reasons such as new book titles, disapproval from the authors or the bookstores and much more. I think I found this article really interesting because I never really thought about this issue. I just assumed that once a design is finalized, the author would just accept it and make it work. It must be really hard as the designer, to have your designs rejected and have to start from square one, especially when you were extremely fond of your original design. Let's take the above image, for example, in Carol Devine Carson's first design (top left) she depicted the story in a successful way, and in my opinion this is the best cover of the three. However, the author felt it was kind of "sinister and mocking" and they went with a close-up of a canine (bottom left) instead. Personally, I believe that a cover that invokes emotion in the viewers (like the dog-baby design) will sell more than something that plays it safe (like the canine close-up.)
On the other hand, sometimes a redesign is exactly what a book cover needs. As a fan of simplicity, I am fond of John Gall's original design for Remainder by Tom McCarthy (top right), but his final design (both right) is definitely much more interesting. Gall actually killed his own design, after it was approved because he felt it needed "some color", and I think he was absolutely right. As I said before, I am fond of his original design, but when compared to the final design I would definitely rather purchase the latter.
Thanks for reading,
Brittany Rendon
www.behance.net/brittanyjade
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