Bookshops can often feel like galleries – step inside, and you’re greeting with a veritable what’s what of past and current graphic design trends. But while literary design styles come and go, a few covers are timeless – such as this ingenious take on Orwell’s dystopian classic Nineteen Eighty-Four.
Once again, Penguin’s 2013 cover is setting Design Reddit alight, with fans fawning over its clever reference to the book’s theme of authoritarian state censorship and the revision of history. Not that a book as iconic as Nineteen Eighty-Four needs judging by its cover, this is some of the most engaging book cover art we’ve seen.
The name of the book itself has been redacted and is only visible in certain lighting conditions, and yet the book’s fame alone may be enough for many readers to guess which title it is (take some inspiration from the best free fonts if you’re working on your own non-redacted book covers).
Currently receiving much discussion on Reddit, graphic designer David Pearson’s design for Penguin’s 2013 edition of 1984 references the look of redacted documents. It uses the traditional Penguin white and orange design and logo, which already made individual books rather anonymous. But it also uses matt black foil to hide the lettering. The strips over the title and the author’s name were designed to fade over time, suggesting a hint of optimism that the truth will out.
The cover becomes less ‘censored’ over time (Image credit: Penguin Random House / u/L-boyontheting on Reddit)
For another classic book cover that’s getting a lot of love on Reddit, see the Great Gatsby cover which makes very clever use of negative space. See the best current prices on Adobe‘s Creative Cloud apps below if you need to upgrade your own design tools.
