The dust jacket (sometimes book jacket, dust wrapper or dust cover) of a book is the detach- able outer cover, usually made of paper and printed with text and illustrations. This outer cover has folded flaps that hold it to the front and back book covers. Often the back panel or flaps are printed with biographical information about the author, a summary of the book from the publisher (known as a blurb) and puffs of critical praise from celebrities or authorities in the book’s subject area. In addition to its promotional role, the dust jacket protects the book covers from damage. However, since it is itself relatively fragile, and since dust jackets have practical, aesthetic, and sometimes financial value, the jacket may in turn be wrapped in another jacket, usually transparent, especially if the book is a library volume meant for lending out to patrons. Book Cover Layout

You are working on your cover design right now. The focus of the project is the conceptual develop- ment of the cover idea, but you also need to consider and create the overall layout of your jacket design. The layout of the entire piece would need to be arranged like this:

FLAP BACK COVER SPINE FRONT COVER FLAP

How will you carry the theme of your design through the other panels?

You may refer to existing jacket design for ideas on how to present the information needed on each panel, but here are some basics:

Spine: Book Title, Author’s Name, publisher name Front Cover: book title, author’s name

Some jacket designs include a synopsis on the back cover; some continue the illustration across the back and include the story summary on the inside flap covers. Some jackets have photos of the authors on the back with bio... Some include that on the inside flap covers. Research, sketch and decide which is best for your design.

Somewhere on the back cover, leave space for a barcode.

SIZE? You need to find a hard back book for your book jacket. You will need to measure the panels and make sure it fits properly when assembled for final presentation. I suggest you cut a full size dummy and experiment, making sure you have the panel measurements (allowing for the fold/ curve around the covers) correctly before setting up your jacket file.

PRESENTATIONS You will be required to present your jacket on the hard back book you measure from. Your jacket will need to fit on the book and not bunch, bind, wrinkle or fit poorly.

PRINTING Recommend using Conway Copies for output on oversized paper. If you chose to print in the lab, you will need to tile the project, assembling it with a split hidden in the spine.