All forms of design serve to communicate meaning in some way, but every genre has to be handled differently, case by case. And so, just like how packaging and product design live in different worlds than the Web, book cover design involves a unique challenge: summing up thousands of words in a single image.
Even in the face of a declining industry, literature and books, especially their digital counterparts, will always serve a purpose. We’ve written about this before and it continues to be true today. With this in mind, we bring you this list of 19 examples of beautiful book cover design. The best way to learn is by doing, but sometimes a fistful of inspiration is all that’s needed to get the gears moving.