It’s Halloween and I’m wearing a costume. I’m not much of a costume person, but rather than be “that guy” at the office who didn’t wear one, I made my best effort. As an avid soccer fan, it wasn’t completely out of my comfort zone to sport a uniform featuring my favorite team. But tomorrow, it’s back to my usual rotation of business-casual dress.
As a designer, Halloween costumes remind me that sometimes we play dress up in marketing. We take a concept and give it a costume. These costumes last weeks, months, even years, depending on the campaign and the message. While most marketing costumes serve their purpose and then go away, there are some that really outstay their welcome.
To me, one of these is the book jacket.
I hate book jackets. It’s like wearing a costume the day after Halloween. Hardcover book jackets exist to sell a book using perfectly-designed covers, barcodes, teaser summaries and author information. When the book is purchased, the book jacket’s job is done–why not remove the costume?
Take a look at your book collection and remove a few book jackets. I myself have yet to find a book whose cloth cover looks worse than the jacket. Most hard covers have embossed or stamped titles and amazing patterns. It’s design at its purest, hidden away behind a costume.
Marketing, like book jackets and Halloween costumes, has an appropriate time and place. Sometimes, stripping away the costume and going back to the basics gives you a clean perspective. At times, I’m amazed how something as simple as cover color and font choice can truly reflect content.
There are a lot of elements in design that I wish were a bit more scaled back. I suppose part of being a designer is knowing how and when to use a costume.