I love the symmetry of these three book cover redesigns, as well as the strong use of negative colour. A subtle foil has also been added to make the books appear more textured and to catch the eye when they are sitting on a shelf. I think this works so well in the case of these three books, because it lends a darker colour to the images, giving them more depth, and, without this added element, the images could have appeared too flat.
However, further research in this area revelled to me that a lot of people are growing tired of the glossy, shiny book covers, especially when it is done wrong.
Naomi Rappaport says on her blog that many books that contain a glossy, shiny cover give the cheap appearance of being self-published. Rappaport writes, “A shiny, gloss laminated book cover can sometimes be the biggest tell that the book was self-published (author and publishing consultant Carla King says glossy book covers resemble “cheap, shiny suits”).
However, this to me to read as though the design is simply too much; not a subtle use of foil as seen in Crush Creative's redesigns for Phillip Pullman.
Krissi Dallas, a YA author, was also very upfront about her opinion of matte vs. gloss in her blog. She happened to prefer the matte version of her book cover to the glossy one, though wasn't sure which her market audience would prefer. Therefore, she took both copies to a book signing and asked 20 adults and 104 teenagers of their opinions. Her end results were 25 votes for the glossy book cover and 99 votes for the matte. She gathered some comments from those who voted and the following can be seen on her blog post:
The negative comments about GLOSSY…-It shows fingerprints and fingerprints drive me NUTS!The positive comments about GLOSSY…
-It looks cheesy.
-I don’t like the glare when I’m trying to read the title or the back of the book.
-If it gets bent, the glossy sometimes peels off.
-It sticks to my leg when I read.
-The colors are more vivid
-Shiny things draw my attention on a shelf.
The negative comments about MATTE…The positive comments about MATTE…
-The colors aren’t as bright.
-It feels better in my hands.
-It’s fun to scratch my fingers across.
-The muted colors make the book seem more mysterious, and it IS called PHANTOM Island.
-The matte looks more professional.
-It seems more durable.
-It won’t show my pencil marks and fingerprints.
-It looks more like other YA books we read.
-One girl wisely reminded me… “Most of our books are matte, Mrs. D, and since you’re kind of like a debut author again, you might want to stick with what’s popular.” SO SMART!!
It sounds like this author has the misfortune of having a glossy book that hasn't been the most expertly designed. For example, one of the negative comments about gloss is “If it gets bent, the glossy sometimes peels off” and yet I have never had a similar experience of this. This blog post was published in 2011 and I certainly think that technology and materials have advanced since then, so this is something I have kept in mind.
And, in my experience, I think it is all about the design as a whole. Some books look good with foil or gloss on their front covers, and others don't. I think that designers are more likely to go for a shiny cover now “just because”; just because it is the thing to do now and it is a successful, non-complicated way of making your book more textured. However, sometimes a little bit of shine can be exactly what the book cover needs, which I think is the case with the redesign of His Dark Materials series seen above. Without the foil, I fear that the cover would appear too flat. The shine, in this case, is used to add added depth and texture... not just to make it sparkly!
References:
http://wrightspeak.com/2013/04/when-it-comes-to-book-printing-should-you-skip-the-gloss/
http://crushed.co.uk/
http://crushed.co.uk/bookcovers/scholastic-his-dark-materials/
http://krissidallas.com/the-great-matte-vs-glossy-cover-debate/
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