Uncovering the Cover: is book design becoming irrelevant in the digital publishing world or becoming stronger?

Georgia Eliades

With the introduction of digital media such as the iPad and the Kindle, the book publishing world is radically changing. Cover art and illustration commissions are rapidly declining in demand as electronic devices do not necessarily need book cover designs anymore. This could bring forth the question is this a way of people not being judged by the cover of the book they’re reading or is it turning the publishing world into a haven of choice without judgment? Historically speaking it was initially the book spine that was the differentiating point of reference between books, this evolved, with the invention of better printing techniques onto the book cover and now we are at the cross roads of publishing whereby print and digital mediums are forced to rethink their visual representations of books to attract the potential readership.