Er…not much needs to be said here.
Just look at this image of the spine on a shelf.
It is extraordinary how little it takes to stand out.
Simply by using bold blocks of colour and disrupting the conventional, linear approach to spine design, this book screams at you from across the store.
It ain’t rocket science.
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Oh dear. The central premise behind this book is that the more choice we are offered, generally the less happy we are with the selections we make. It is a great concept and the book has become a modern classic. What a shame the publishers didn’t bother to read it before setting to work on the cover design. Even a cursory glance at the content would have steered the designers away from the mess that they eventually ended up with.
For a start, there are three versions of the title: (1) The Paradox of Choice (2) Why More is Less (3) How the Culture of Abundance robs us of Satisfaction. Already I am suffering from what the author describes as ‘choice overload’
Then there are the typefaces — At least five are on display here
And to make sense of them, five different colours of type
There are also two different ‘stickers’ on the cover: One for The PS section and the other for the Top Ten Book of the Year Award.
Then of course there is a quote fighting for my attention too. It talks about how too much choice renders the consumer helpless.
Funny that…
Quite simply, there is just too much crap on this cover. Another title might get away with it (because let’s face it, the bar isn’t that high when it comes to the covers of business books) but this one on particular should be pilloried for not living up to its content.
In advertising circles they say that a good poster should use a maximum of six words. Any more than that and it becomes too long and fails the ‘consumer blink test’.
For many people, a book cover needs to act just like an advertising poster – using a combination of a strong single visual and a few words to capture the consumer’s interest and draw them into a product.
Well, this cover has 46 words on it. (Yes, 46)
Incredibly it manages to get away with it from a layout point of view but I can’t help feeling that there is very little about this cover that at first glance would make you want to stop and read 6 words, let alone 46.
There is nothing remarkable about the typography or layout of this cover. Yes, the use of one-word quotes is refreshing but not particularly special. What makes it intriguing is the photograph.
At first glance it looks like a classic city scene but the more you look at it, the more it looks like a model. I still don’t whether it is real or not. Or even if the effect was intentional. But it works surprisingly well.
Not enough to make this a great cover. But enough to make you want to take a second look.
