1. Plain text
That is, only text elements such as Logo, title and company name are used to design the cover. This kind of cover is usually simple, which is suitable for the design of brand albums and financial statements, which are abstract or require hardcover.
The difficulty of this kind of cover design is relatively simple, mainly relying on typesetting and font selection to create a sense of design. When typesetting, attention should be paid to the contrast of text thickness, font size, font contrast, sparse contrast and text color contrast, etc. In order to enhance the sense of design, a few straight lines can be added to assist typesetting.
Tip: using special paper (such as cardboard, patterned paper, kraft paper, etc.) or adding some simple processes (such as embossing, sanding, UV-exposure, bronzing and silver-stamping, etc.) will help to strengthen the quality sense of pure text cover.
2. Text coloring block
Although the practice of pure text is simple, it will be a bit monotonous and lack of visual impact. At this time, we can consider adding color blocks to enrich it. Color blocks can not only increase the visual impact, but also increase the sense of design, and can convey emotions through large-scale color contrast.
However, the added color blocks should not be too much or too scattered, but mainly large color blocks, and the outlines of color blocks are often simple geometric shapes. The combination of color block and text is mainly that the text is located in the color block, the text is located outside the color block, and the text crosses the color block.
Tip: By properly using color contrast, virtual contrast, size contrast and front-back contrast of color blocks, the layering of the layout can be effectively increased.
3. Text plus graphics
If we want to convey a concept in the cover design, or to make the design more meaningful and detailed, we can design a graphic on the cover, and regard the graphic as the main body of the cover. By graphic, I mainly mean appropriate graphics. For example, if we want to design a product album of wooden floor brand, we can design a pattern of annual rings as the cover.
There are three ways commonly used in composition: the main body is centered, the part is exposed and the floor is paved.
Tip: the style and form of graphics should be consistent with the overall content and design style of the album.
4. Text plus single picture
It is also a common way to use photographic pictures matching the content or brand tonality in the cover. If only one picture is used, the usual treatment is to make the picture occupy a relatively large layout space, and the outline of the picture is also the most common with simple geometric figures. Of course, this refers to the situation that the picture is a non-bottomed picture.
Undercut pictures are also often used in cover design, which is more flexible and usually used together with color blocks.
There are also three ways to arrange words and pictures, that is, words are arranged on pictures, words and pictures are crossed, and words and pictures are separated.
Tip: The picture quality of this kind of cover is the key, and it should be strictly screened from the aspects of material, composition, color and clarity.
5. Text plus more pictures
Some cover themes or album contents are difficult to be summarized by one picture. At this time, we can use multiple pictures to design the cover at the same time. There are two main ways to deal with multiple pictures, namely, unity and contrast. Unity means that all pictures are uniform in size and color and arranged in a regular way.
Contrast means that the pictures should have sharp contrast in size or color, forming a primary and secondary relationship and visual hierarchy.
Tip: If the picture is obtained from the network, you must pay attention to the copyright issue.
6. Text plus picture plus color block
This form is a kind of mashup, which combines the two forms mentioned above. In fact, the combination of words and pictures plus color blocks is also widely used in advertising design and poster design. Its advantages are rich variety, strong design sense and visual impact.
The combination methods of pictures and color blocks mainly include: the picture is above the color block, the color block is above the picture, the color block is superimposed on the picture (reducing the transparency of the color block or adopting the effect of positive film overlapping), the picture is inside the color block, the color block is inside the picture, the color block crosses the picture, and the color block is separated or connected with the picture and aligned.
Tip: Processing a picture into a black-and-white mode and matching it with colorful blocks can usually get good results, because doing so can not only avoid too many colors, but also create a strong contrast effect.