I am an avid reader and have been one since I was a wee girl. Yes, I do often judge a book by its cover, I'm ashamed to admit, especially when I'm choosing something new to read.
I decided to re-design a book cover for fun. My husband studied film at Concordia years ago and we are both avid film buffs, so we have more than a few film theory books on our shelves. I chose this one because it was a good opportunity to channel some mid-century design.
The book I chose was Hitchcock: The Murderous Gaze, published by Harvard University Press. Unusually, this book had a cover that wasn't only type on a solid background, which is typical of university presses at that time. I don't mean this exercise to be a critique of the original cover. I actually could not find the name of the cover designer, sadly. Thus is the invisible, behind-the-scenes life of most graphic designers. :-)
Some of Hitchcock's films had amazing title designs by the inimitable Saul Bass (do yourself a favour and look him up…he was truly a trailblazing film title designer). I used his work as a jumping off point for my inspiration and kept a retro look with the typeface: Balboa Plus.
Maybe I'll get around to doing more of these. The original cover is pictured and copyrighted by Harvard University Press.