Pro Photo Tip: Consistency

I recently had the chance to browse the Blurb bookstore, which if you haven’t explored, is quite a study in book diversity. People ask me what kinds of books is it that Blurb prints, and my answer is always the same: “everything.” You want a book on the remote Himalaya? It’s there. How about a book dedicated to fish tacos? Yep, it’s there too. And the range of art and photography books is equally diverse, as is the subject matter they cover.

There are a lot of truly talented, but potentially unknown, creatives out there who find a home for their work on the pages of the Blurb Bookstore. What always hooks me first on a book is the cover art, but I’ve noticed something very peculiar.

Often, I’ll see cover images that stop me in my tracks, but when I open the book using the preview option, I sometimes find the internal contents don’t match the power or even the design of the cover. The cover is your “first impression,” so finding such a drastic change from the cover to the internal design and content of the book often leaves me slightly confused.

Consistency is a key element in high-end bookmaking—not only with the book itself, but with the project idea, the principle artwork, the editing, sequencing, and certainly the design. Great books take the viewer on a rollercoaster ride of art and emotion with highs battling lows and complexity and simplicity dueling across the gutter, but at the heart of great books is a consistent message, look and feel.

The next time you find yourself designing a book, experiment with creating the cover first then creating the rest of your document.

The next time you find yourself designing a book, experiment with creating the cover first then creating the rest of your document. When you are finished with the internal pages, return to the cover and determine if your cover design is the right introduction for what follows, and if not, no problem. Make the necessary changes so that your cover art becomes the perfect introduction to the rest of your story.