Before I go into cover-lovin’ mode, I need to give a huge shout-out and thank you to two lovely people, Risa who designed my logo/header/background for the new digs, as well as my friend Patch for coming up with a snazzy new tagline. In regards to the logo, I love that little book-face so much I want to make buttons out of it and mail every last one of you about a hundred of them. It’s quite genius, really.
Now, on to the cover-lovin’!
I may be cheating a little bit here, because I’m not sure if the below cover is actually YA. All I saw was “coming of age” and a good chunk of YA shelving on Goodreads and, well, I liked the cover a lot, so in the vein of Warm Bodies, I’m lovin’ it anyway.
For such an extremely simple cover, the artwork for Durrow’s The Girl Who Fell from the Sky has a lot going on, in a good way. First of all, that girl. There’s something that strikes every curious bone in my body that makes me want to learn more about her. (Side note: I really hope you didn’t do a double take, thinking she had six extremities protruding from her rather than four.) The stacked title and small caps aren’t competing with Durrow’s name, which is always a plus. The color choice is certainly an interesting one, but its colors complement each other nicely without making the cover look too subdued. I should also mention that I’m a sucker for a soft gradient.
Some elements of a cover have you guessing where you should be looking, but this one reads in a simple swoop of the eyes, top to bottom. It’s a sharp design tactic, and it’s a smart play on words that come from its title.
If you take a look at Girl Who Fell from its side, it’s got a spine that can set itself apart from the pack, too. How many spines have you seen lately that read from top to bottom? (No neck cramps! Genius!) Designer Connie Gabbert, formerly of faceout studio, has put together an intriguing jacket design that makes me want to read this book yesterday. And after you’re done visiting Connie’s site, I don’t recommend visiting faceout’s site unless you fancy falling into an hour-long time-suck. If I ever visit Oregon, I will be stalking politely asking to tour their studio first.
