Getting into Waterstone's and WHSmith's (and asking nicely) allowed me to photograph whole series and sub genres of books. I got about 300 snaps in total, which I will be boiling down into a useful document later. It was good to trace and retrace some of the trends I remember noticing as they happened. Particularly what followed 'Northern Lights' and the 'His Dark materials Trilogy'. The 1998 UK release of the first of the trilogy broke from tradition of illustrative covers and presented a single object key to the story as the cover design (the gorgeous Alethiometer) on a wintry/sidereal blue background. Following that was the Red sunset over a city behind the eponymous 'Subtle Knife' of the Second Book and then an Amber Spyglass for the final book, 'The Amber Spyglass' Cover designs by Black Sheep/David Scutt. The enormous success of the trilogy sparked a wave of imitators, and we can still find traces of this pattern- plain(ish) back ground with a single indicative or emblematic object for the main cover design.
Two years later than 'Northern Lights', 'Harry Potter' debuted. Once the series had some momentum, an adult market segment was identified and quickly catered for this developed the 'Object on a Background' approach with a sombre photographic element against a matte black field (becoming reminiscent of Bernhard's Sachplakat?), this obvious sobriety intended to answer the accusations of childishness surrounding interest in the book.
Soon other titles followed this approach, including the 'His Dark Materials' Trilogy and, later the fantasy satire/comedy series 'Discworld'. Major or hopeful fantasy titles produced Adult versions that eschewed color and adopted artworks or photography as their principal method, becoming repetitive and predictable, in their own way quite immature.
A strange halfway approach seems to have emerged in the last half decade. Illustration has returned in the form of the a single dramatic figure on a monochromatic background. This in itself is a consistent trend, expressed in some variety across many series of Fantasy books. Meanwhile Science fiction seems typified by the object/spaceship or object/planetscape, unable to shed the illustrative tradition begun by the excellent and now-archetypal work of Chris Foss nearly three decades ago.
Chris Moore's work, also, seems a staple http://www.chrismooreillustration.co.uk/galleries/index.php?idx=1 So far I have found few exceptions and few surprising covers on the shelves. As I suspected there are new traditions and new cliches in contemporary fantasy and science fiction art. There are also cliches and convention in other Genres- Crime, for example or romance. These seem like borders as rigid as the wooden shelf divisions that wall one genre from another. These conventions include a variety of (generally high) quality, the days of http://www.cracked.com/article_14790_best-worst-fantasy-science-fiction-book-covers.html are quite gone, but they also present an opportunity for innovation and originality.
To this end I have been rereading David Tufte's practically poetic books on information graphics (or 'cognitive art'). Diagrams/charts are things that get referenced, applied as texture or ornament or conjured childishly in lots of graphic design, but I don't get on with that. I have also been reading Ellen Lupton's book on indie publishing. Her usual clarity and wit has made me wonder if info-graphics, genuine and serious 'escapes from flatland' might be a solution to this project's problem. I am also seeking contemporary typography that is more than just Helvetica and deconstructions of Helvetica, or else handicraft for the sake of it. Perhaps I will have to plunder decades further back and revisit Heller 'Merz to Emigre' book.
Tomorrow I will put up the pictures I took today, in an order that will make things explicit. Also, get samples of interesting DVD sets.
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