The cover for the first edition of "Stop Stealing Sheep & find out how type works" was designed by MetaDesign West, the design studio founded by Erik Spiekermann. The assumption is made that Spiekermann himself designed the cover, or otherwise had a large say in it's design. There is therefore a connection between the cover and content as both are derived from the same studio/person.
The message itself is very clear as the cover is nearly all type only. Showing the title of the book, authors and a list of its chapters/contents. These are arranged in a similar format to the content inside and so therefore a visual clue is given to what the content is like. The post-modern arrangement of the type and elements also communicates the style of typography that the book teaches. This gives a clue as to whether this is the style the reader would like to learn to produce. The book also appears rather academic, like a formal book you would find in a school
The semiotics of the design are very simple. It uses the same dotted arrow (rather than the normal block arrow) in a variety of sizes and positions. For titles the arrow points down to the left of the text, whereas with the list of contents the arrows act as bullet points pointing across the the first letter of each chapter title. There is also a series of coloured blocks situated near the spine, some - but not all - of these colours coordinate with the colours of the chapter pages within the book. The orange and green blocks harmonise with each other whereas the purple colour of the cover itself contrasts with the colours of these blocks. The purpose of the blocks is unclear but perhaps this is to tie the contents in with the cover, or it is simply a post modern expression through design.
The cover clearly communicates what is inside the book as it effectively tells you what the contents are on the cover. However, in my opinion the cover should communicate this more quickly, as it would not catch ones eye in passing. It doesn't shout 'pick me up!'. You could not easily define the content of the book if you quickly glanced at it - the content shouldn't need to be on the cover to communicate this. I feel a bolder use post modern style should have been taken advantage of to make the book appealing as well as communicate it's contents. For example both typefaces used on the cover are very safe and simple, not so much expressive. However, this would need to be designed in a way which was consistent with the contents.
Erik Spiekermann is supposedly a great and well-known Graphic Designer. However I am fairly unimpressed with this cover design. Perhaps this is just the 90s style of graphic design but even so the cover is unprofessional - particularly where the some of the title is cut off the edge of the page due to printing issues. Others mentioned whether this may be deliberate, however if it was deliberate it could have been achieved in a more professional manner.
OTHER EDITIONS
The second and third editions are very similar (also designed by Eric Spiekermann) , using the same layout with different colours (and more sheep). I feel that these covers look far more professional and organised compared to the first edition. However I still feel that the design is lacking originality and sleekness. The sheep vector has a 'clip art' feel to it and feels like an obvious design choice considering the title - this is equally confusing as one does not associate type with sheep. The choice of shape as a background to the text is unusual as the grey block is not a typical shape and the reason for this is unclear. Although the type appears to have been applied to a grid, it seems this grid was not used properly as the positioning of the type seems slightly wrong, perhaps this is due to the grey shape making it appear in the wrong place. The authors names also seem to be a bit squashed into the grey shape, it does not naturally fall here.
The message is really in the title - stop copying other ideas and work it out for yourself! The semiotics used include a sheep which ties in with this message as it visually represents the title in a literal sense. There are 3 sheep which fade out on the 3rd edition, perhaps this is a sheep per edition and the fading out represents the older versions becoming less relevant. I don't feel the semiotics of the cover represent the message at all but it is a difficult message to convey. I myself had not heard of the phrase prior to reading the book, so I feel its meaning needs to be made clearer.
I have not seen the contents of the next editions so I am unable to comment as to how this relates to the newer covers.
GROUP DISCUSSION
In groups we came up with words to describe each of our book covers and analysed the reasons behind our thoughts. The group described the back cover of my book as clumpy. One group member felt it reminded him of a train timetable. The group felt that the contents on the front of the cover were irrelevant. The main purple colour was referred to as old fashioned and retro or like a Cadburys chocolate bar, overall the group disliked this choice. They also felt it was amateur, unbalanced and irritating as the type ran off the side of the page. One group member felt that there were too many typefaces which gave an untidy feel.
The cover was described as personal as Erik Spiekermann designed the cover how he wanted as he is well known and others trust his design decisions. The only compliment was that the colour of the cover complimented the colours inside of the book for the chapters.
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