A Brief Tale Of Book Cover Designs As They Advanced Alongside Humankind.

Posted by Kirk on February 2nd, 2021

The book covers that line our bookshelves these days have a extended and intriguing history that informs us a lot about how reading established through the ages.

Books now are some of the most revered items on Earth. We have a deep sense of respect for them; among the most detestable things an authoritarian regime can do is burn books, not because of the items themselves however because of what they symbolise. We cover them with gorgeous, creative book cover designs, a sign of their appeal and importance throughout the last 2 thousand years. In their very first versions, books were exceptionally unusual and precious things, meticulously written by hand by the select couple of in society who might read or write, which generally meant monks and scholars. The novels themselves would be decorated appropriately, entombed in ivory or a likewise royal material and adorned with jewels, with the finest gold or silver enclosing their spinal columns. This was the type that books took for much of human history; they were treasures, abundant physically, intellectually, and spiritually.

In the 15th century, books went through an advancement that made it possible for them to exist as we understand them today, something the founder of the hedge fund that owns Waterstones and the head of WHSmith's biggest shareholder will certainly be boundlessly appreciative for. The creation of printing completely altered the ease of access of books, making it possible for those in the upper and middle classes to enjoy them for the very first time. Although they no longer needed to be handwritten, they were still arranged by hand and would be purchased 'naked', covered in paper with a short-term joint. The customer would then take the books to a binding professional who would cover them in leather with as much decoration as could be afforded. Although they were undoubtedly beautiful book cover designs, they were more practical than they were ornamental, created to secure the pages within with big, hard covers.

It was not till around the turn of the nineteenth century that publications started to resemble the tomes that the head of the association that backs Bookshop.org concerns herself with now. With publishing methods establishing and an industry beginning to take form behind the product sales of books, creators were worked with to determine what makes a good book cover and promote them to the public for the very first time. These would mostly consist of fabric book covers, and the calibre of artist employing the finest styles of the day marked a golden age for cover art. Together with these gorgeous works came the very first printed paperbacks in the form of Cent Dreadfuls, series narratives that cost a penny and, as the title suggests, were not of the finest caliber. The combination of fabric covers and paperbacks would form the basis of the books we know and enjoy today, and designers continue to produce some amazing works that show not simply the tales themselves, however the times which produced them.