Well done to Nam-Nam-Designer-Man and bossman James Stephens for knocking their heads together and coming up with this cover treatment which has been voted Fixabook's cover of the year...
It is hugely enjoyable to indulge in the beauty of great book covers and what better excuse than a review of your favourites of the year?
And if you want to immerse yourself in a world of great aesthetic beauty and design then we highly recommend the selection posted by The Casual Optimist.
However that is not what we are trying to do here.…
Our job at Fixabook is to focus more on the cover communication process and its effectiveness. While, of course, great, jaw-dropping design is fundamental to this, we feel it is important to highlight those covers that aren’t just ‘beautiful’ but which can teach us something about tight messaging, overcoming difficult hurdles and quite simply being brave.
Ed is a wonderful example of a bold title, a strong layout and an incredible photographic treatment all coming together as a piece of packaging.
Each feeds into the other and makes the whole much greater than the sum of the parts.
Our only gripe is the totally unnecessary strapline.
Here is what we said about it earlier this year:
We’ve featured some fantastic examples of the use of photography to tell a story in political non-fiction — take a look at A Journey or The Third Man.
This cover, however, takes it to a whole new level. For those who know about the Milibands’ rivalry, this image says everything and tells you immediately that this is not a straight biography of Ed but an analysis of a bitter struggle, hidden behind public displays of unity. This is the story that most people want to read and it’s cleverly communicated by this choice of photo, which would work even without the strapline.
The book’s approach and conclusions, however, are rendered ambiguous by this image. Has Ed emerged triumphant from his brother’s shadow? Or will he be haunted and hampered by David for the rest of his career? Any reader will want to pick this up to find out which angle the authors have taken.
For anyone unfamiliar with the story, this picture is both striking and intriguing. Why, on a biography of a political leader, are there two people featured on the front? There must be more to this than a straightforward political profile.
Striking, communicative and well chosen — the perfect approach to a cover image.
ED is available now in BEAUTIFUL hardback, priced £17.99