Our Cover Designs

The University of Adelaide Press gives a high priority to cover designs. Our belief is that the front cover of a book must:

be visually striking to catch the eye
embody the core theme of the book
inspire people browsing to open the book and investigate further.

Most scholarly book covers, especially those published by the biggest name publishers, are given little attention. The worst ones seem to add an illustration to one block of the cover and the text to another. Our philosophy is form the text and the illustrations together into a sleek and integral design.

The cover artist works closely with the director to produce sometimes dozens of alternatives in the quest to find the final front and inside covers for a book.

This gallery of our cover designs shows how many different options are considered - both for the front cover and for the left and right inside covers. As new titles are published we will add to the galleries.

All these cover designs are by Emma Spoehr.