Designing a Book Cover

Use my book cover design as an example of designing a book cover. I used Canva for my book cover design. It has the options for book cover sizing and design templates; I specifically used the sizing template. I was able to add images I found. I decided to redesign the cover for North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell (one of my all time favorites). It was originally published as weekly episodes from September 1854 to January 1855 in Charles Dickens' Household Words magazine, so there is no original cover. 

The story is about a woman, Margaret Hale, who moves with her family from the south of England (countryside) to the north of England (factories). It covers factory worker conditions, strikes / scabs, factory owners and expectations, and somehow manages a romance between multiple deaths and poor living conditions; it is a Beauty and the Beast tale meets the Industrial Revolution.

If you Google the North and South book, here are a small selection of covers others have published:

For my cover redesign, I decided to show the contrast of the north and south with the smog filled factory (Alfred Jenks and Son's Machine Works) and the rose-grown countryside (Detroit Publishing Co.). Both images are from the Library of Congress archives from 1857 and between 1890 – 1910 respectively. The novel takes place around the 1840s so I thought it would be close enough for my purposes. 

If you look closely, in the south image there is a man and woman. The man is older which I took to represent the father, Vicar Richard Hale, who's pivotal decision to leave the south is the catalyst for the novel. The woman, whom I imagine to be Margaret Hale, holds a basket. The basket is significant in the novel as she goes around to the factory worker's homes with a basket of charity, which they all reject except for one woman who eventually becomes her one friend. The north image has no identifying people as the factory owners think of the workers as nameless servants they have to pay. 

For the typography, I chose a sans serif font for "NORTH" in all caps due to its harshness and machine feel. I chose a handwritten script for "South" in sentence case for its softness and individual personality. I placed them along a paper torn edge to create a distinct separation of areas. In the book the contrast between north and south is expressed through characters, observations, mannerisms, and scenery. I needed the visual representation of the dichotomy to really stand out. After playing around with different color choices I chose red for the font, first to make it stand out against the mostly black and white background, plus it brought out the red flowers in the southern image to highlight the contrasting differences even more, and red to signify the blood and turmoil of the working class. Red can be angry and filled with rage, but it can also represent love. For the author's name, I put it in both the north and south fonts and have them mirroring each other, the best I could with Canva, to mimic the north and south of the title. 

Here is the resulting cover design:

Classroom Use

Having students design their own book covers based on a novel they have read would be an excellent way of having students synthesize long text into visual representations. It would make them break down what is most important in the story and what they want the reader to know. This assignment could be used for Middle and / or High School when books have less images to influence student ideas. 

I would have students print their book covers out, use collages, or even just drawings depending on accessibility needs, technology skills, or time limitations. I would display their cover designs on real books, this way students would have a physical visual representation of their work. Students could either present their ideas on the cover or they could create a video explaining their process, especially if this is remote learning.

Reinforced skills would be synthesizing large amounts of text, public speaking (class presentation), and artistic expression. If students worked in pairs they would also have the reinforced skills of collaboration and negotiation.

A new skill would be taking their synthesized knowledge and converting their thinking to visual representations. Students would need to think how their visuals would be perceived by others, if the visual is the best choice, or if too much information is trying to be represented.

I envision this being taught in conjunction with an English class, either with the teacher or finding out what the class is reading, and tying it in with a library class.

Sources

Alfred Jenks and Son's Machine Works, Bridesburg. Philadelphia: F. Bourquin & Company Lithography. Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2021670432/>.

Canva. “Canva.” Canva, Canva, 2025, www.canva.com/. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.

Detroit Publishing Co., Publisher, photographer by Jackson, William Henry. Rose garden in Pasadena. [Detroit: detroit publishing co., between 1890 and 1910?] Photograph. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/2017658702/>.

Library Use

Another great use for cover redesign is to design your own book covers to spend less money on new books. 

For example, I have used the AI feature in Canva to create images which I pieced together to create new book covers for books in our library that were woefully ugly, but the book was still in really good condition. I could not see using the library budget to buy two new book ($60ish total) only to have a new cover when I could design it for free, print it out on the color printer, and then replace it in the acetate cover. I did not have to print or place a new spine label, barcode, or genre sticker as I was able to place to new page on top of the existing cover. It was an extremely economical way to update the older books in the library and hopfully give them a new lease on lending life.