perfect day

Whoever it is who gives out the annual awards for best book design and best cover art did just that a little while ago. Sometimes the official picks amaze me. Sometimes a cover amazes me.

This is a non-fiction book about the crazy costs of throwing a wedding, the money spent, and why. This is not a topic that I would jump on, unless I had a character who was a wedding planner. Which I most definitely do not.

But the cover caught my eye, because it is clever. Very, very clever. The image of an old fashioned receipt stapled to the front of the book is clear enough to make you do a double take, at which point you’ll see that it’s not an accounting of numbers but the title and other basic information.

The cover underneath the faux-receipt? Boring. Boring script, boring color, boring layout. In the normal course of things,if this were a plainer, more straight forward cover, I would never notice the book. Color is a big deal, and this cover art has none.

The receipt is what makes this work. Or at least it works for me. I don’t see this kind of innovative thinking very much when it comes to book covers, but maybe you pay more attention. Any covers to compare this one to out there?