How to design a contemporary book cover

To read or not to read?

Erkas stumbled into cover design after a “frustrating job as a junior designer working in corporate branding”. Does she always read the book before designing the cover? “Ideally I would read the whole book, if the deadline lets me,” she says. “What I sometimes like to do is read the book only halfway, or three quarters of the way through, before I start sketching some ideas, and then I'll finish reading it before I complete my first round of roughs.”

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Adrian Shaughnessy
Graphic designer

Adrian Shaughnessy is a graphic designer, writer, publisher, and senior tutor at RCA. Adrian is co-founder of the publishing imprint Unit Editions. The company publishes a wide range of graphic design books. Shaughnessy is the author of monographs on Herb Lubalin, Ken Garland, FHK Henrion and Lance Wyman. He has also edited, or co-edited: GraphicsRCA: Fifty Years and Beyond. (RCA); Manuals 2. Design and Identity Guidelines (Unit Editions); and Total Design 1963–73. Expanded edition (Unit Editions).