I work in packaging design and I had always thought of book cover “copy cats” as a bit of an Aldi design, we call it a “me-too” (This may not translate if you are not in europe but... basically aldi is a cheap supermarket, copy all the big brands: less quality goods...) so in effect oh it looks like “taylor jenkins reid” but not as good. But actually the more I read your piece I thought these are what we in packaging call category norms. You have to abide by a certain design code to show people what the product is and sometimes these can veer very close to big brands if they are an “original” product eg. Cornflakes where it’s very hard to show what the product is without looking like kelloggs. So basically these codes are helping people understand the kind of writing through a feeling of another author which hopefully will spread the love for them as well as long as they are equally good quality. Really interesting read.
Aldi design!!! I love that. Thanks for sharing that - interesting to hear about design from a totally different field, but yes - think the same kind of codes would apply.
This is super-interesting, thank you Katie. Like you, I use covers to cue whether I'm going to be interested in a book and although I'm sure this means I disregard books that I might otherwise have enjoyed, I'm also time-poor, as are lots of people! My book buying habits have changed over the years and I mostly buy things I've seen reviews of, by people I trust, on social media BUT when I do get to visit a book shop, covers definitely get their chance to work their magic on me! I think its a really effective visual communication tool and not to be sniffed at when trying to reach readers - surely we should use every tool available!
Such a good point on people being time poor. If someone is having a luxurious bookshop browse, it's still only going to be maximum of how much? An hour? Covers need to both fit in and stand out to readers - such a tough job for designers!
I work in packaging design and I had always thought of book cover “copy cats” as a bit of an Aldi design, we call it a “me-too” (This may not translate if you are not in europe but... basically aldi is a cheap supermarket, copy all the big brands: less quality goods...) so in effect oh it looks like “taylor jenkins reid” but not as good. But actually the more I read your piece I thought these are what we in packaging call category norms. You have to abide by a certain design code to show people what the product is and sometimes these can veer very close to big brands if they are an “original” product eg. Cornflakes where it’s very hard to show what the product is without looking like kelloggs. So basically these codes are helping people understand the kind of writing through a feeling of another author which hopefully will spread the love for them as well as long as they are equally good quality. Really interesting read.
Aldi design!!! I love that. Thanks for sharing that - interesting to hear about design from a totally different field, but yes - think the same kind of codes would apply.
This is super-interesting, thank you Katie. Like you, I use covers to cue whether I'm going to be interested in a book and although I'm sure this means I disregard books that I might otherwise have enjoyed, I'm also time-poor, as are lots of people! My book buying habits have changed over the years and I mostly buy things I've seen reviews of, by people I trust, on social media BUT when I do get to visit a book shop, covers definitely get their chance to work their magic on me! I think its a really effective visual communication tool and not to be sniffed at when trying to reach readers - surely we should use every tool available!
Such a good point on people being time poor. If someone is having a luxurious bookshop browse, it's still only going to be maximum of how much? An hour? Covers need to both fit in and stand out to readers - such a tough job for designers!
Thx Katie! Really interesting and useful post... again from you!
Thanks Erin!