I was grocery shopping at my local Giant Eagle when I decided to stop and look at book section there. I was delighted to see that they had the book Me Before You*. I really wanted to read this book, so I picked up the book cover on the left. But I was walking away, I spotted the book cover with the stars of the movie. I quickly placed the first book down, and took the cover with Emilia Clarke and Sam Claflin instead.

Now there wasn’t anything wrong with the original book. I really like the typography on the cover. I like how the letters move your eyes across the cover. The designer displays excellent hierarchy with letter height changes and color. I think the designer wanted to attract women who love a good romance novel with the colors. The title really pops on the page, especially the words ‘me’ and ‘you’. This cover is more typography driven and I love that, except it doesn’t really show or represent anything to me about the story.

The cover with the movie’s stars, however, interested me more. Why? Well, it gave me a preview of the movie and the ability to imagine the main characters nicely as I read. I personally prefer to buy the books with movie adaption’s stars on it so I can picture them instead of a blank face in my head. I also like the typography on this cover as well. I don’t really like serif fonts but this was an exception. The simple ligature between the letters ‘m’ and ‘b’ move your eyes to the rest of the title words. This cover still draws attention a female audience, but also to an audience who like the stars in their other roles (Game of Thrones and The Hunger Games). I happen to fall in both categories.

Both of these covers make great use of the space. They both move your eyes across the page thanks to their respective typefaces. They show text hierarchy and emphasize the important words on the page. However, one cover is type heavy, whereas, the other one greatly combines text with imagery. I like both covers, but the addition of imagery on the front cover made a great difference in my book purchase.

P.S. I may have also bought book because Khaleesi and Finnick Odair were on the cover! 😉

*Both covers were for Penguin Books, but the original cover is designed by de Vicq Design.