Travel Guide Cover Design Case Study
This is a continuation of my article series where I review and assess the cover design elements used by the traditional and indie travel guide publishers. By reviewing how these publishing companies and indie authors combine images, fonts, color, and design elements into a cohesive design, you’ll get invaluable insight into the best approach for designing your travel guide cover.
The most important thing to remember is that your reader has specific expectations when it comes to buying a book within a niche, you only have to look at the primary book niches like romance, thriller, cozy mystery etc. to see how each niche has their own set of design styles that help to communicate the book’s content to their target audience, and travel guides are no different.
When you browse the Amazon bestsellers in your genre, you should notice patterns in color schemes, fonts, layouts, and images. You’ll want your cover to stand out by looking awesome, yet ensure it naturally fits into your genre.
via Dave Chesson
Insight Destination Guides
Insight Guides: The top third of the Insight covers feature the brand logo in red and the destination name in blue, both centered on a white background. The destination image takes up the rest of the cover, and white text is used to make their call-out text stand out.
The tag line text at the bottom of the cover features a standard trio of Stunning photographs, In-depth features on history and culture, and Detailed Maps.
There is a call-out about their free app placed on a transparent back background, which isn’t as visible, so it doesn’t compete with the adjacent text for prominence.
The book on the far right is part of their Pocket Guide Series. And for this they include the text under the destination so that it’s easy for readers to see it’s a different type of guide.
Frommer’s also use a red call out banner related to the digital app for this new series.
Travel Guide Cover Design Industry Comparisons
There are distinct niche norms for destination travel guides, although each traditional publisher has developed a branded look that readers can automatically identify with. Your role, as a cover designer, is to assess the industry norms, and create a cover that is representative of your content, your writing style, and the travel niche you want to feature in.
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TravelGuide design tips using #InsightGuides as a case study for how to attract reader's attention for your #selfpublished travel guide. #indieauthor #travelblogger Click To TweetRead more articles in my How to Write a Travel Guide Series
I’m putting the finishing touches on my How to Write and Self-Publish a Travel Guide Series, which details a step by step approach for writing and producing your own travel guide. It’s part of a four-part series aimed at helping travel bloggers achieve passive income based on their passions and existing content.
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Interesting article about the design of travel guides. places emphasis on the font selection, tagline placement, and genre balance. A great resource for artists!