3.13.08 JUDGING A BOOK BY ITS COVER

You know the old saying: You can’t judge a book by its cover.

PHOOEY. You sure can.

In this ongoing series of posts, we’re showing you six directions for a book cover design, including the one the client selected for publishing. We’ll include a short blurb on the project to help you contextualize and understand the problem and our solutions, and we’re asking you to pick out the one the client chose. If that’s not the one you also think is most effective, tell us which one you’d choose. In a few weeks, we’ll let you know the answer, as well as put out another exciting judging opportunity.

Want to think like a designer? Then yes, your visceral reaction counts… which cover do you simply like best? But while the winning solution must certainly look good (whatever that means), it must also be most effective in communicating content and (duh) selling books.

Here’s the info for the image pictured above:

Title: Contemporary Cases in U.S. Foreign Policy

Subtitle: From Terrorism to Trade

Publisher: CQ Press An independent publisher advancing democracy by informing citizens.

Synopsis: This book is a contributed volume for the American foreign policy course, an upper level undergrad course at most universities. It’s very popular due to its current, real world cases and consistent structure and pedagogy across chapters. The book is divided into four sections: intervention policy, national security and defense policy, trade policy, and multilateral policy.

Posted in Farmer's Market by Jodi