You’d think someone who had a feature called Cell Coverage would be able to take a decent, non-blurry photo with her phone. Au contraire. My poor phone’s backside has since been replaced (its glass got scratched!), but not before I had the chance to snap this quick pic at my local BAM:
Here’s the thing about jacket art. You can be nosing around on the internet looking at the most interesting-looking cover out there that’s a JPG. It’s just floating out there in 2D land. Then when you see the same cover in real life, it takes on that third dimension. There’s texture, spot gloss, effects that make you see double (oh the PUNS). When you’re done staring at the shine, it’s then that you notice the creepy hands in the background. Jenny Valentine’s cover for Double implies a lot — it tells a story with its title, and doesn’t overwhelm you with fourteen different elements of the story to make it all come together. Using Chip Kidd’s words from Monday’s post, it’s a lovely little haiku.
Here’s the JPG online, where the hands a bit more pronounced:
See what I mean?
Finally, here’s the cover art from the original publication (2010 UK), which I also liked.
What say you? Do you fancy either cover? Have you read the book? Have you ever seen a cover online that you were pretty meh about, then saw it in the wild and retracted all judgment?
