By Amy Richards.
So many books of the present day have decorative book covers
especially designed to fit each book that many people who buy the
books are beginning to ask what suggests these designs and how they
are executed.
Having made book-cover designs for a number of years, I have been
asked to write a practical account of how these book covers are made,
which will give an answer to some of these questions. This account
will have no bearing on the designs used on hand-bound books with
their beautiful "tooled" covers. These are a different branch of the
art altogether from the so-called "commercial bindings" which I am
about to describe. The designs for these tooled covers are as a rule
made by the same hands that bind the books.
Every year hundreds of books are published that need "commercial" book
covers. In many cases these covers are used to help sell the book;
that is, they must be attractive enough to draw attention to the book
as it lies on the counter in the bookshops and other places where the
book is on sale.
Some publishers have artists, regularly employed, to make their own
designs exclusively; but as a rule each publisher keeps in touch with
a number of designers, sending for one or the other as the needs of a
particular book require. When a design is needed, the particular sort
of cover required is discussed with the publisher, the number of
colors that can be used is mentioned, also the exact dimensions of the
book and the material to be used in binding the book. Almost every
designer prefers to read the manuscript of the book, if possible, or
to have a synopsis of it, for, naturally, he can make a much more
suitable and successful cover if he has a complete idea of the subject
of the book.
Having read the book, or having been told what it is about, the
designer makes one or more rough sketches in color, giving a general
idea of the book cover, both as to design, color scheme, and material
to be used in binding. If one of these sketches is selected, the
designer then makes an accurate "working" drawing, either in color, or
black and white. If a black-and-white drawing is made, a rough color
sketch is sent with it to indicate how the die is to be cut.
A finished book-cover design can be made on water-color paper,
bristol-board, or a piece of book-cover linen. This last method is
popular with publishers, as it shows them how the cover will look when
finished. A designer keeps sample books of all the most popular
bookbinding materials, which the manufacturers are glad to supply. A
practical designer always chooses for the ground color of a design a
cloth that is to be found at one of the regular book-cloth
manufacturers.
When a book-cover design is finished, it is neatly mounted on
cardboard and a careful note is written on the margin, telling how the
design is to be executed by the binder, the kind of cloth to be used,
and its number in a particular sample book. Unless the design is
executed on a piece of book cloth, a sample of the cloth desired is
pasted under the directions. The design is then cut in brass by a die
cutter, as described in the next chapter, and the covers are stamped
in gold or inks from this die by the binder. The design must be the
exact size of the future book or drawn larger in exact proportion for
reduction to the proper size.
Gold is of course the most expensive way of reproducing a cover
design, and a publisher generally tries to get as good an effect as
possible without the use of gold, or he limits its use to the title
lines or to a small part of the design. Four inks is usually the
extreme number used, and more often only two or three are used, or
gold and one ink.
Several styles of decoration are used in designing book covers; but
they may be put roughly into two classes,--those that are purely
ornamental and those that are pictorial. Personally I am in favor of
the purely ornamental cover, as being more dignified; but there are
books that seem to require a pictorial cover that is treated somewhat
in the fashion of a decorative poster.
A book-cover designer to be successful should be very versatile and
able to make use of figures as well as thoroughly versed in the use of
ornament.
One of the most important parts of a book cover is the title, to which
the amateur and inexperienced designer does not always give sufficient
attention. The title must be clearly drawn and everything else in the
cover made subservient to it, so that the first thing the eye falls on
is the title. For this reason a thorough study of lettering is
necessary for the successful cover designer, and much practice in
order to become proficient. A very successful cover may be due simply
to a well-selected cloth with lettering properly drawn and placed so
that the eye is perfectly satisfied and the whole has an air of
distinction. Each designer grows insensibly into his or her own
particular style, which those who are interested in book covers grow
to know; but the more varied his style the more in demand will be the
designer.
The designing of book covers is a minor art, but since there is a
constant demand for ornamented covers, the more taste and skill that
can be devoted to the making of them, the better. When one looks back
to the covers of fifteen years ago, one realizes what an advance has
been made, and that the standard has been raised higher and higher,
until at the present time many a famous illustrator or decorative
painter occasionally turns his or her hand to the designing of book
covers.