The Bricks that Built the Houses by Kate Tempest
Sometimes I like to write about some of my favourite recent book cover designs. Recently the cover for this new book by Kate Tempest, The Bricks that Built the Houses, caught my eye. The cover is the work of cover design veteran Greg Heinimann. Heinimann is currently the Assistant Art Director at Bloomsbury Publishing, having moved from Random House in 2010. He has an enviable track record, winning the Pulitzer Prize for Jennifer Egan's A Visit From The Goon Squad, and shortlisted for the Booker Prize for Will Self's Umbrella.
The blurb talks about the book ‘taking us into the homes and hearts of ordinary people… [exposing] moments of beauty, disappointment, ambition and failure.”
The cover takes the bricks from the title as a theme, but adds colour blocks in a background layer. The bricks in the centre of the design are absent, allowing the reader to catch a glimpse of the book title. The cover design does a great job of building anticipation – hinting at colourful secrets hidden behind the traditional brick walls of the houses mentioned in the title, while putting the reader firmly in the role of voyeur, peaking through the damaged wall to get a hint of the truths lying within.
Kate Tempest’s name is laid out on either side of the wall cavity, making great use of perspective to drawing the reader in and making the design especially engaging.
The Bricks that Built Houses is published by Bloomsbury and is being released on April 7th 2016.
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