The Book Cover Design

[Brett Linette]

I like how the book cover design features a silhouette of the protagonist, as opposed to a fleshed out image of him; I think it puts enough of a picture to the face while leaving room for imagination.

What do you guys think? What's your favorite or least favorite thing about the book cover design?

[Goodness C N]

Designs speak volume. I for one believe that the silhouette book design employed by the writer is just perfect. So yeah, I'll always vote for that book cover.

[Amy Luman]

I think that this is along the same lines as the date format. If a picture is not given then the interpretation is left up to the reader. Mr. Kendall did this on purpose to allow everyone to make their own decisions.

[Brett Linette]

Designs speak volume. I for one believe that the silhouette book design employed by the writer is just perfect. So yeah, I'll always vote for that book cover.

Even the gesture the silhouette's making is very telling of the protagonist and his story at large.

[katerina_12]

The cover of the book is mostly in black and red. Red is bold and conveys feelings of passion, and aggression. Black is serious and signifies mystery and death. You will find both colors in horror and thrillers. The colors create a tense mood from the beginning. The black shadow on a red background. This creates the appropriate mood for the reader to read the novel. I think the cover of the book is perfectly selected.

[Brett Linette]

I think that this is along the same lines as the date format. If a picture is not given then the interpretation is left up to the reader. Mr. Kendall did this on purpose to allow everyone to make their own decisions.

We get to contribute to the story that way, as opposed to just observing it.

[Mishkah Simons DeVos]

At first glance, the cover definitely screams ACTION PACT! Understanding the contents of the book, I'd say that the cover is suitable. The large sillouette and bold font is exaggerated and the saying of "less is more" does not go unnoticed.

[Brett Linette]

At first glance, the cover definitely screams ACTION PACT! Understanding the contents of the book, I'd say that the cover is suitable. The large sillouette and bold font is exaggerated and the saying of "less is more" does not go unnoticed.

While I try not to judge a book by it's cover, if I was to, I'm just going to be completely honest and say that I would not have read this book, assuming it was heavily "action pact," as you put it, a genre I'm not that into, but upon giving this book a chance, I found that it's more of a psychological thriller than anything else, which is right up my alley.

[Gabriella H]

I think the book cover is fitting. The pose of the protagonist alone says a lot about the struggles going on in his mind.

[Brett Linette]

The cover of the book is mostly in black and red. Red is bold and conveys feelings of passion, and aggression. Black is serious and signifies mystery and death. You will find both colors in horror and thrillers. The colors create a tense mood from the beginning. The black shadow on a red background. This creates the appropriate mood for the reader to read the novel. I think the cover of the book is perfectly selected.

Thank you for bringing the color scheme to my attention! I know different colors are said to evoke different emotions, but I can never remember what color evokes what emotion. I think the color white is thought to represent purity or something of that nature. Why do you think the font is written in white?

[Ochieng Omuodo]

I always spend considerable time on book covers so that I can have a baseline to relate the story to once I am reading. This one gave the impression that the story would indeed involve a building (the tag, ‘His building…’ gives it away), but also that it would be a sanctuary for liberty. I thought ‘liberty’ because of the term ‘freedom’ and that the silhouette’s posture implies laboured thoughts. As I read, however, it became evident that the book was based on an architect rather than anything as lofty as I thought it might be. To be fair, there’s more to it than that, especially in terms of mystery. Anyway, on the negative side, it’s not a very imaginative cover. On the plus side, it doesn’t really give away the story, which precludes any prematurejudgement of the book: always a good thing for any author, right?

[Brett Linette]

I think the book cover is fitting. The pose of the protagonist alone says a lot about the struggles going on in his mind.

I agree that the pose says so much about the protagonist, but the hairstyle, I think it gives the impression that he's a young adult, as opposed to a middle-aged one. There was talk in the book about him having a receding hairline. I think a hairstyle that gives view to his hairline and its recession would've been more telling.

[Katarina Radovcic]

What grabbed my attention the most is that, obviously we have a silhouette of our protagonist with his emotions that we read about in the book, as well as the headache, but the title of the book is really interesting. The design of the title is supposed to represent the building. We have its name - "The Freedom Building", but just like in the book where we don't have a clear image of building, we don't see any shape of the title other than it's very dominant and it stands out.There is no shape, no nothing to indicate what the building looks like. There is no picture of the building to reffer to. Just like John, we see and know of the building, it obviously exists, but all we really have is a name.
The dominant and unrevealing title stands for the mystery of the building, the unclear vision of it. The more I look at the cover, the more this idea fascinates me.

[Brett Linette]

I always spend considerable time on book covers so that I can have a baseline to relate the story to once I am reading. This one gave the impression that the story would indeed involve a building (the tag, ‘His building…’ gives it away), but also that it would be a sanctuary for liberty. I thought ‘liberty’ because of the term ‘freedom’ and that the silhouette’s posture implies laboured thoughts. As I read, however, it became evident that the book was based on an architect rather than anything as lofty as I thought it might be. To be fair, there’s more to it than that, especially in terms of mystery. Anyway, on the negative side, it’s not a very imaginative cover. On the plus side, it doesn’t really give away the story, which precludes any prematurejudgement of the book: always a good thing for any author, right?

It's true that the cover isn't very imaginative, not at face value; it isn't until you've read the story that you can understand the gesture of the silhouette and the brick wall behind it. While I agree that more could've been done with the cover, I think you're right that the less there is to see on it, the less there is to be put off by it.

[Brett Linette]

What grabbed my attention the most is that, obviously we have a silhouette of our protagonist with his emotions that we read about in the book, as well as the headache, but the title of the book is really interesting. The design of the title is supposed to represent the building. We have its name - "The Freedom Building", but just like in the book where we don't have a clear image of building, we don't see any shape of the title other than it's very dominant and it stands out.There is no shape, no nothing to indicate what the building looks like. There is no picture of the building to reffer to. Just like John, we see and know of the building, it obviously exists, but all we really have is a name.
The dominant and unrevealing title stands for the mystery of the building, the unclear vision of it. The more I look at the cover, the more this idea fascinates me.

I noticed that the angle of the font resembled that of a building when you look up at it from the ground, but it never occurred to me that the name of the building is in place of its face because he can't put a face to it? I will never look at the cover the same way again; it's always going to give me chills from here on out.

Thank you for the revelation.