Book cover research

Today i decided to start looking at existing book cover art.  I started by literally typing in 'Excellent book covers', may as well start with the best! I admit the results it threw back, weren't exactly as good as i thought they would be, but then everyones opinion is different.

The first result on the page was a surprisingly good start, and a classic- Antony Burgess's 'A Clockwork Orange'.  The designer David Pelham has gone for a very simple style of bold colours with black outline, almost cartoon-y.

But he encapsulates the main characters style very well, and almost hides the violent undercurrent of the story.
The next few i only really chose as i thought the cover design was clever.  'Girl Land' by Cailtin Flanagan-

I think this is an interesting cover, as the artist has put the title and author in amongst the image, so it looks like it was there when the picture was taken.  You can also get a good idea of what the book is about just from the picture, i automatically assume its a book about young girl growing up aspiring to be a woman, and from a quick read of a revue, that is pretty much the general gist.

This design, although completely different, has some similarities, namely the placing of the title and the author in with the main image.  I definitely prefer this cover being that its more colourful, and its a good quality illustration which looks like it has been finished off on a computer, maybe to do the colouring (the effect over the moon kind of gives it away.

That one and the next few, i'm literally only looking at them for their design quality.  The next two stuck out like a sore thumb to me, as they are by and illustrator that i admire- Shepard Fairey, who runs the clothing company OBEY, famous for their Andre The Giant face in many of their logo's and poster campaigns.  He was commissioned by Penguin to do both of these-

They both encapsulate Shepard's style perfectly, which i'm guessing is the reason they asked him!  These covers especially i find very inspiring.

The next cover is one from a previous Penguin competition, and entry for the book 'The Big Sleep'.

This was done by a guy known as 'C-Clancy' on DeviantArt.  Its an excellent piece of illustration, and more than likely was done on Photoshop/Illustrator.  Even though the main illustration would have been very complex to draw, he has still managed to keep the overall cover nice and simple by placing the book name over the top of the illustration which works very well.