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When you think about silhouettes in art and design, what’s the first image that pops into your head? Is it an 18th century portrait? A movie poster? (And is it the Scarface poster — that’s what comes to my mind at least) Are silhouettes too dull and uninteresting? Are they copouts to creating a multidimensional person or object?

Or does a silhouette make you want to shed more light on the person it belongs to?

After half an hour of prowling the entire internet (I wish I was kidding about that), I’ve finally discovered the artist responsible for the silhouetted Marcelo and Jasmine pictured above on the cover art for Marcelo in the Real World — the talented Dan McCarthy.

I’ll be honest — the cover art for Marcelo is what prompted me to journey to my local library last year and pick it up so I could see it in the wild. (I had initially seen it on Maggie Stiefvater’s Goodreads account where she sang its praises) I think what drew me in at first were the glimmering stars.

Then I zeroed in on those centered silhouettes. If you look at Dan’s website, you’ll see a lot of the same type of artwork — lots of silhouettes, trees, dark colors and serious tones. A feeling of wonder, curiosity, and a little bit of loneliness washes over me as I look at all of his pieces. But in regards to Marcelo’s design, the silhouettes create a story. The dark and light work so beautifully together – light words in the title font and bright twinkling stars are in harmony with the dark tree, tree house, landscape and telephone poles. Cover designer Christopher Stengel (of The Wolves of Mercy Falls cover art fame) uses the empty space below the earth and places the type in a way that makes this feel like an indie movie poster.

But what I love the most about this cover art is how genuine it is in illustrating Marcelo’s story. It perfectly captures the way you feel as you read this book from his point of view.

What about you? Is there a cover that you’ve loved even more after you read the novel because its face was an absolutely perfect representation of its story?

Back in 2010 I posted an entry titled, “when movie posters remind me of book covers.” Today’s post is the reverse effect!

Take the cover art for Lauren Morrill’s Meant to Be, with its lovely London landscape.

No other cover here on TCG has made me immediately think such words as “bursting with vibrant romance” as this one. (See, again, this is why I’m not a writer.) In fact, this is probably going to be the only cover that makes me feel this way. A few months ago, someone tweeted about this little number, and I remember staring at this cover with a wide grin on my face. We’re talking a silly, goofy, most-likely-stupid-looking grin of ridiculous proportions here. For those of you who don’t know, I am very much a romantic. I love spark, sweetness and mushy feelings despite my snarky exterior. This cover pulls at all of those little strings, then ties them into a neat little bow. The comp pieces together layers that work in tandem – from color to texture to mood to title. It’s not an easy feat, considering that the grass shadows don’t match the subjects, nor are they in correct proportion. And the abstract explosion of pastels? All of these players are like the A-Team of cover art elements.

Enough of the swooning. So, which movie poster did this cover remind me of?

The bursts of color! The expressions on their faces! This poster makes me want to go and hug someone and twirl them around. Nuanced with romance that seeps from the details in this poster, it lights me up, just like Meant to Be. But perhaps I’m biased here, because I thought it was such a lovely little film. If you’ve seen the film, would you agree or disagree? If you’ve read Meant to Be, is it just as romantic as its cover implies?