This document provides guidelines for designing a fictional book cover, including dividing the cover into sections (front, spine, back, flaps), choosing standard book measurements, and including key elements in each section. It discusses using warm and cool colors intentionally based on their psychological effects on readers. It emphasizes simplicity in design per Ockham's Razor and stripping away unnecessary elements. The front cover should attract readers' attention with title, author, and short sales pitch. The spine should include title and author. The back cover for fiction books should include an excerpt and plot synopsis to convince readers to purchase, while nonfiction includes topic details. An author bio is also typically included.

1. DESIGN FUNDAMENTALS de Beaufort
ASSIGNMENT:Fictional Book Cover PART2
In this assignment you must create an actual book cover for your book idea that you
come up with to printed out and to be placed on a hardcover book with a front image,
spine, back image, and side flaps.
As seen above. You will need to create “guide” lines in photoshop that divide your
project to delineate the side flaps, back cover, and spine. Each area will demand
different attention.
We have premeasured a number of books to help you with this, so please chose one of
the following boos and use the values (in centimeters) listed to design your cover:

2. When you format the work you must chose centimeters as the unit of measurement, and
input 100 pixels per centimeter as the resolution.
First brainstorm and come up with two book ideas and record the following information in
a word doc, make sure to spell check, etc. All this information should be included on the
book.
Title:
Genre:
Author:
Publisher:
Short Summary (3-5 grammatically correct complete sentences):
Testimonials (3-5 endorsements from real or fake people):
Author Bio (3-5 sentences):
After reviewing the book ideas the class has generated, chose two book concepts (at
least one needs to be another students idea) and create a book cover for each.
You may use clip art (copyright free), or photographs- but only if they are from an image
search engine (bing, google, flickr), and are license free. Most image searches have a
filter for this.
Your Cover Should:
1. Fall within the norms for your genre but visually stand out among other books.
2. Appeal to readers and convince them to take a closer look at your book with a
strong visual presence.
3. Reflect the content of your book and expose readers to your writing style.
4. Convince a potential reader to invest in a literary journey with your story.

3. Further considerations:
The Psychology of Color and Branding
Color can impact shoppers and influence their feelings about products. When making
decisions about your cover design, consider the psychological responses certain colors
evoke. Traditionally “warm colors” in the spectrum, including red, orange and yellow tend
to be high-arousal colors that cause feelings of warmth and stimulate the senses.
 Warm colors tend to appear closer to the viewer and can attract attention from
across a room.
 “Cool colors” of the spectrum, including blue, green and purple, are low-arousal
colors and tend to cause feelings of relaxation, calmness and tranquility.
Ockham’s Razor
The idea of “simplicity” in design isn’t new. The principle of simplicity is also referred to
as Ockham’s Razor, a concept stating simplicity is preferred to complexity. The main
thesis of Ockham’s Razor is that unnecessary elements will decrease the overall
efficiency and aesthetic appeal of a design. It can be a good indicator of why one design
may succeed and another one will not. A good writer will spend hour after hour editing
and re-editing their book, cutting words, paragraphs and so forth until it is “clean.” The
cover designer's method is not much different, other than it is a visual process rather
than a written one.
Respecting Ockham’s Razor can assist you to strip away any unhelpful design elements
and achieve a cover that balances simplicity of theme and detail of design to appeal to
readers and reflect the author’s vision.
Front Cover Elements
The publishing industry relies on visual stimuli to sell books to readers, and
consequently, the cover can have a huge impact on book sales. Even in the best retail
circumstances, if a book does not visually stand out from the books around it, it is
usually overlooked.
Books from first-time authors require an especially attractive cover, relying on their good
looks rather than name recognition to attract readers browsing the aisles. Many books
contain the title and the author’s name on the front cover, as well as a short sales pitch
of a few words.
Spine Elements
Many of the best book covers are designed to wrap around the spine so when the book
is completely open, it presents one coherent design. The spine text should always
include the book title, as well as the author’s name near the base of the spine. The title

4. is usually displayed in the same font as the title on the front cover, unless the spine is
too thin or heavily stylized.
Back Cover Elements
If you’ve gained a reader’s attention with your front cover, they will most likely turn to the
back cover to gain more details and make a decision about purchasing the book.
 Nonfiction books usually feature a few paragraphs about the book’s topic and
may use bullet points or a list to cover specific subjects in the book.
 Fiction books usually feature an excerpt of the text and a brief plot synopsis. This
text is the best opportunity for an author to convince shoppers to purchase their book. It
deserves careful thought and attention.
Bio
An author’s bio is also included on the back cover, especially in nonfiction books. In
many fiction books an author’s photo and biography are reserved for the inside flap text
or an about the author page near the end of the book. The author’s bio is a great place
to list accomplishments, honors, credentials and other impressive or unique details of a
writer’s journey. If you have spent years spinning a thrilling story inside your book, spend
time and carefully consider the words you’ll be placing on the outside of the book as the
reader’s first introduction to your writing.