The NEW Trend in Book Covers: The Artsy Intellectual
- Melissa Gouty
- Sep 30
- 3 min read
Updated: Oct 18
Classic Art with Bold Fonts
One of the joys of lingering for hours in bookstores is looking at the cover art. Such fun! All those books flashing designs filled with color, words, illustrations, and graphics, lined up like masterpieces in a miniature art gallery, each one shouting for me to notice it.
While I often know the books I want to buy when I walk in, I don't always choose the ones on my pre-planned purchase list because I'm distracted by those pretty books with catchier covers.
I can't lie. Even though it's what's in between the covers that counts, the art on the front still matters to me, so when someone points out a trend, I pay attention!
What's New with Cover Art
A new trend is emerging, as pointed out in an article by Elisabeth Egan in the New York Times.
New releases are flaunting vintage paintings emboldened with clean-edged, modern fonts. Often, but not always, the paintings are more than a century old. (Imagine an image of The Mona Lisa with the superimposed title, "Kiss Me, Fool" in flaming orange text, and you'll be on the path to envisioning the trend...keeping in mind, of course, that the Mona Lisa example is purely fictional!)
"The power of juxtaposition" makes the covers work, says Thomas Haggerty, who licenses paintings for commercial projects. Pairing serious works of art with bright, playful type combine aesthetic elements of the intellectual and the playful.
Book Cover for My Year of Rest and Relaxation, Photo Courtesy of Penguin Press
I get the appeal. Books and art are two of my interests, so this trend is definitely up my alley. Egan's article on the showcases multiple examples of the tactic, another of them being the cover art for Capital of Dreams by author Heather O'Neill that modifies an 1878 work called "Mother and Son in the Garden" by artist Hugo Burkner.
Bright, bold colors in the text stand out against the subtler colors of the original art. Parts of the picture have been blacked out, and a large fuschia splotch has been added at the top, dripping down.
After reading about this emerging trend, I was reminded of a lovely book I read earlier this year with a cover that stuck with me. The book was The Secret Life of Sunflowers about Van Gogh's sister-in-law who made sure his art was not forgotten. I liked the art which juxtaposed a serious painting against a torn page of sunflowers and bold, white lettering:
Literary Luck Strikes Again"
Two mornings later, I had one of those wonderful confluences of knowledge and coincidence, what I call literary luck. Pulling the page in my MOMA 365 Days of Masterpieces desk calendar, I found this.
"Portrait of a Woman," circa 1494, attributed to Maestro Delle Storie Del Pane.
Doesn't she look like she needs to be on a trendy book cover?
What would the title of the book be if she graced the cover? "A Background of Black"? "The Pain of Hindsight? "A Woman Soldiers On"? I would LOVE to hear your ideas!
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The Trouble with Book Cover Trends
A few years ago, I wrote a piece about the book cover trend at the time, noting that the trouble with trends is that all books begin to look the same.
If you're trendy, you may not stand out.
It remains to be seen how many books start mixing the old masterpieces with fun and funky fonts in a new style that of cover art that quickly loses its "uniqueness" since everyone follows suit!
