The Top 25 Book Covers to Inspire Creativity

The Top 25 Book Covers to Inspire Creativity

The Top 25 Book Covers to Inspire Creativity 1920 1280 Spacific Creative

Did you know that over 2 million new books are published globally each year? That is 2 million new opportunities for yearbook inspiration!

Novels may not be the first place you think to look for yearbook inspiration, but many design styles used for fiction titles can be borrowed for school publications.

In this article, we have collected 25 great book covers to help inspire your own designing!

Simple Book Covers

Design doesn’t need to be extravagant to command attention. Some of the best design is simple, allowing the reader to focus only on the important elements. A minimalist cover is a great idea if you want a professional book that will continue to look good for decades. Keeping it simple can also speed up the design process!

White Flights: Race, Fiction, and the American Imagination by Jess Row
Go, Went, Gone by Jenny Erpenbeck
The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories
The Stranger by Albert Camus cover design
The Stranger by Albert Camus
The Crow's Vow by Susan Briscoe book cover design
The Crow’s Vow by Susan Briscoe

3D Book Covers

If you want something creative and truly unique, a 3D book cover is a great choice. Instead of designing on the computer, use real-life elements and snap a photo! This is a good way to involve students – in both the creative process and within the photo itself. This style would also be perfect for a fun school cookbook!

The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix
The Summer of Broken Things by Margaret Peterson Haddix
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck
Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time by Jeff Speck
The Start of Something: The Selected Stories of Stuart Dybek cover
The Start of Something: The Selected Stories of Stuart Dybek
Big Bang by David Bowman book
Big Bang by David Bowman
The World on a Plate: 40 Cuisines, 100 Recipes, and the Stories Behind Them by Mina Holland cover
The World on a Plate: 40 Cuisines, 100 Recipes, and the Stories Behind Them by Mina Holland

Illustrated Book Covers

A picture can tell a story better than any words can, so why not try an illustrated cover? You could even harness the talent in your school by using student art! For a cohesive and 3D look, try blending and overlapping illustrations with text.

Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon
Speaking of Summer by Kalisha Buckhanon
Dominicana by Angie Cruz book
Dominicana by Angie Cruz
At Last by Edward St Aubyn
At Last by Edward St. Aubyn
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi book cover
Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott book cover
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott

Typographic Book Covers

Typography and colour both play a large role in setting the tone of the design. If you have perfected both, you may not need much else for the perfect cover! Type-focused covers attract the eye and exude confidence.

All the Odes: A Bilingual Edition by Pablo Neruda cover
All the Odes: A Bilingual Edition by Pablo Neruda
Impossible Modernism: T. S. Eliot, Walter Benjamin, and the Critique of Historical Reason by Robert S. Lehman
Impossible Modernism: T. S. Eliot, Walter Benjamin, and the Critique of Historical Reason by Robert S. Lehman
Hippie by Paulo Coelho book cover
Hippie by Paulo Coelho
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce book cover
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Black Swans: Stories by Eve Babitz book cover
Black Swans: Stories by Eve Babitz

Colourful Book Covers

Colourful books are always going to picked from the shelf first! If your yearbook is full of energy and excitement, a rainbow cover will help reflect this.

The Mothers by Brit Bennett cover
The Mothers by Brit Bennett
Conversations by César Aira cover
Conversations by César Aira
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez cover
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez
The Travelers by Regina Porter cover
The Travelers by Regina Porter
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami cover
From the Fatherland, with Love by Ryū Murakami

To see more great book covers, check out our Pinterest board. Or, learn how to perfect your own yearbook cover!