Branding

On Thursday I was walking through Borders. Passing through the non-fiction section on my way to the cafe, a book setting on the end of the shelf display caught my eye. "Oh, great Eric Larson's come out with another book!". I got as far as reading the whole title American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood & the Crime of the Century and thinking it sounds like a good read before i read the authors name, Howard Blum. Ah, so not Eric's work after all.

This is a great example of how branding can work for artist recognition. Simply based on imagery I assumed the book was of Eric Larson's work. Also, an example of how others can capitalize on someone else's branding, lending to themselves the original creator's reputation. Even after realizing my mistake I still thought it sounded like a good book.

It could also be a case of a snap reaction from me and the designer/publisher had no intention of any kind of tie in but non-the-less the design got me to pick up the book.

Eric Larson's popular historical, true crime books have similar covers which build a visual recognition for readers.


Howard Blum's cover has similar qualities; book title on arch and angle, long subtitle, large monotone location shots as the imagery.