Book Layout Research - Terry's World (Book Cover)

The front cover of a book can really tell you a lot of what to expect inside the book. I think that this makes the biggest impact and can really psyche someone up and get excited to look inside.

This book cover by Terry Richardson for ‘Terry’s World’ is an interesting one. The reason I say this is because it has a dust cover on it that is reversible. And really there are 3 different ways of presenting the 1 book. Below shows the different stages and ways that you can see the book visually. 

When first picking up the ‘Terry’s World’ book this is what it looks like. It appears just a normal picture of terry and isn't really that controversial. I think that this is appropriate as it is in the typical style of the photographer. Terry also has a recognizable face, as the book is named his world I think that it is appropriate to have his picture on it. This gives me the expectation that this is going to almost be a biography of images expressing his world and what he does. Like a peak into his life. 

However when you open the cover up to reveal the rest of the image, what will appear on the back of the book it’s slightly more controversial. This now gives you a true sense of what to expect throughout the book, and to be fair after looking through the book the cover to me is actually rather tame.  It is though true to the photographers style and I don’t think viewers would expect anything less. 

What I find most interesting about the cover for this book (I’m not sure if it is every one of these copy’s but mine sure does) when you take the dust cover off, there is an alternative cover. The idea being that you can look intellectual, as though you are reading about a Chinese philosopher. It’s sold as a ‘panic cover’. This is amazing, I think that this really shows that they photographer knows you might be shocked or offended by the images but secretly gain pleasure or enjoy looking at them so offers embarrass free way to view them. This humorous take on the cover really made me laugh and I think that it sums up the tongue and cheek feel of Terry’s work!!

Obviously I won’t be needing anything like this for my book cover as it won’t be anything that will need a ‘panic cover’ but the idea of having a reversible dust cover so that you could change the image to whatever you prefer is something that I really like. 

This is what the book looks like without any cover on. Plain and simple, the text is clear and you know what the books name is, doesn't really give much else away though. If you just had this you may be in for a shock!!!