Compared with the previous cover design of children's books, the present cover design of such books pays more attention to whether it looks good visually and whether it can attract readers to buy the design at once.
The content is becoming more and more magazine-like, and a lot of content and information are reflected on the cover. For example, when designing the cover of a set of encyclopedic children's books, the cover often shows how many pictures, how many knowledge points, what gains can be brought to children and so on. This kind of additional advertising content is very popular in the cover design of children's books now. For example, Zhejiang Shaoshe's Adventures in Little Tiger series will also reflect the book's global sales and the author's situation on the cover or back cover. The cover design of children's books has this feature because the competition in the children's book market is very fierce today, and publishers must reflect the competitiveness of books on the cover.
In addition, in recent years, children's book cover design generally pursues eye-catching expression in color, and often uses fluorescent color, which is an obvious trend. A large number of pictures are used to improve the visual effect of the cover by new computer means, and the use of new materials, color highlights, lasers and other new technologies is also common. These practices are all aimed at making books more eye-catching in the market.
Cover design is the first element of all book binding design elements, but it is not the only one. Nowadays, book binding is a concept of "big binding", which includes not only cover design. In addition to the cover design, today's children's books are also worthy of attention in the change of format, often a format is also a concept, with different meanings. Looking at the successful books in the children's book market at present, we can't be careless from the cover to the advertising language to the typesetting of the text. These factors play a great role in the brand building of a book or a publishing house.
It is undeniable that today's children's book cover design, bookish and cultural is weakening day by day, and the design is more to cater to the market. Different from other books, children's book binding is mainly composed of pictures. So at present, the cover design of children's books is mostly straightforward and superficial, and readers can see it at a glance. The market-oriented trend of publishing industry has brought great pressure to publishing houses, which makes many publishing houses have leaders and publishing houses to participate in the final review of cover design, which also changes the orientation of the whole children's book cover design.
The foreseeable trend of children's book cover design is that it has both cultural taste and market demand. This is a basic trend, and it is also the direction that we children's book designers need to strive for. The creativity of cover design should be coordinated with the content of the book, such as the age level of readers, readers, cultural taste and so on. Nowadays, the covers and contents of many books are very uncoordinated. For example, this book is a very sad story, but it is not appropriate to use warm colors on the cover to attract attention. The progress of new technology makes us make full use of this point, but we should use it appropriately instead of flooding it. As a cover designer with cultural connotation, it is natural to attach importance to this issue. There is also a trend, because the cost of different materials for cover design is different, we need to control the cost as much as possible to achieve twice the result with half the effort, including paper and printing. We should tailor the cover materials and the contents of children's books, and deeply consider the contents of books and the consumption power of readers. Ordinary children's books, entering the popular children's book market, don't pursue too fancy design and too expensive materials, it is meaningless. Children's book readers should be subdivided, such as children and primary and secondary school students, and even children can be divided into several age groups. Zhou Xiang (editor-in-chief of Oriental Doll, Jiangsu Children's Publishing House):
In my opinion, the most remarkable change of children's book cover design in the mainland book market recently is mainly the increasing use of computer technology. At the same time, the bookishness of the cover is getting weaker and weaker, and there are more and more patterned things in the design elements, while there are relatively few personalized designs. You're welcome. As long as we visit the bookstore, we will find that the cover design of many children's books is made by a publishing house, which is very conceptual and very similar. This shows that the cover design of children's books now rarely starts from the content of the book. Everyone uses computers and design software, and there are inevitably many similarities. At present, the cover design of children's books seems to be very lively and prosperous, but there are too few personalized elements, and few designs can stand in the position and angle of children readers.
A big problem brought by technological innovation is that the current design is too dependent on technology. Many designers pay too little attention to the soul in the creative design of the cover, too limited to the selling points and visual highlights of the book, and concentrate on the outer packaging, but the connotation of the cover is far less impressive than before. I prefer to believe that this is a laziness of today's cover designers. In fact, to design a book cover, you need to read the text carefully and feel the cultural charm and connotation in the text. There are many cover designs that only pay attention to the market, not to the connotation, but become designs that cannot impress readers.
Compared with overseas children's book cover design, what we lack is actually how to use technology reasonably. A designer really wants to design the cover of a book, first of all, the connotation of the guarantee can be expressed through the cover, which is better done by overseas children's books. In the market competition of children's books, don't think too much about some selling points. There are many binding designers in the mainland, but some talented designs have been stifled to some extent because of excessive intervention by circulation and market. In many publishing houses, publishing society stands behind designers and gives instructions to computers. This is ridiculous. For example, if you are a good cook and can cook Sichuan food, but a person commands you behind your back, he likes sweet things and will make you put more sugar. Finally, the dish made in this way is not Sichuan food.
I always think that the book binding design must be closely linked with the content, and the designer must hold his breath. The tacit understanding between the cover design and the book content should be regarded as a science. What needs to be added is that when designing the covers of children's books, many of our publishing houses actually ignore children's aesthetics, or take it for granted from the perspective of an adult, which has almost become a conceptual model. Children's aesthetics are formed from childhood. If we don't pay attention to this problem, how to improve children's aesthetic interest through reading and vision? Fei Jia (Art editor Children Publishing House):
Today, the cover design of children's books in Chinese mainland has made great progress in materials and technology, and the application of new technologies and materials is more and more extensive and frequent, but the connotation of cover design is far from that of foreign countries. Many domestic cover designers pay too much attention to the market, and many designs cater to parents more, but don't respect the feelings of children readers. Many designers don't have enough understanding of the taste and content of books, and just want to please parents who spend money on books. Looking at the cover design of foreign children's books, it is very mature in style, elements and connotation. Of course, many parents abroad have a higher awareness of children's books than their parents in Chinese mainland, have a better understanding of reading, and have a good aesthetic interest and emotional appeal. Guess how much I love you is published by Children's Publishing House. The cover design of this book conveys a very warm feeling, without using very bright colors or too many design skills, but the connotation of the design is meaningful. So generally speaking, most of the books we imported from abroad use the original covers, which is more or less a boost to the cover design of the original children's books in the Mainland. Facing the gap in cover design between domestic children's books and overseas children's books, I think it takes a process to shorten this gap. Just like when Hollywood blockbusters were first introduced, people flocked to them, and slowly domestic blockbusters began to perform well. The same is true of book cover design. After a long time, some original children's books or designers will grow up slowly.
I have noticed that the introduction and promotion of overseas picture books by mainland children's books have attracted more attention in the past two years. Most of these picture books are exquisite in cover design of children's books. Picture books are also high-end products in the children's book market, which are relatively expensive, and they are also conveying subtle lessons to children instead of preaching. Now when we go to the bookstore to read children's books, we will feel that our eyes are full of colorful books, and we can hardly tell which is which. The phenomenon of convergence is very serious, which is also the helplessness of American editors because of the requirements of publishing houses and markets. But picture books are different, with typical personality, so the possibility of being cloned is not so great, which gives beauty more room to play and can add personalized elements to the binding design. Miao Wei (planned by China Children's Publishing House in Art editor):
This year's children's bestsellers, such as Ma Xiaotiao series and Diary of a Laughing Cat series published by Tomorrow Press, are basically relaxed and lively, with a large number of cartoon paintings, full cover design and strong use of colors, which are more dynamic on the road to popularization. This part of reading belongs to leisure reading, and the whole design style is relatively relaxed.
What kind of cover design is helpful for bestsellers? First of all, it should be related to the theme of the book, attract readers' attention, and then convey to readers what the book says, that is, the effect of advertising. Second, embody the theme and content through design. A good designer should make good use of all his design tools, such as cover, layout, copy, especially copy, so that even a general manuscript can arouse readers' desire to buy. A good designer concentrates the factors that may sell well in a book on the cover, and is good at discovering the characteristics of the book, including the points that the responsible editor did not find, and then shows them through design.
Therefore, cover design is not only a technical job, but also depends on whether the understanding of the book is in place. Art editor should not only have a good knowledge of art, but also a good knowledge of literature, and have a good grasp of the market and readers' psychology. Binding design is more of a practical art, and practical art should study the psychology of buyers and reflect the best effect at a reasonable cost.
The design of children's book binding may develop in a relatively simple direction in a year or two, but there must be visual impact in simplicity.