2024’s hottest book cover trend is . . . pastel skies.
The reign of the color-blob book cover has slowly come to an end over the last several years, and various pretenders to the throne have taken their best shot at being the next trend—sans-serif minimalism (The “Cusk”); brightly-colored paper-cut-out illustrations, usually involving women (The “Bernadette“); and of course, the perennial text-over-full-jacket-evocative-photograph (The “Prestige White Author”).
We’re here to report that a new contestant is entering the field in 2024 (or at least Knopf is really trying to make fetch happen). Folks, allow me to introduce… the Pastel Sky.
The Limits by Nell Freudenberger (Knopf, April 2024)
The Second Coming by Garth Risk Hallberg (Knopf, May 2024)
One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon (Knopf, June 2024)
This Great Hemisphere by Mateo Askaripour (Dutton, July 2024)
Is it just me or do you feel calmer looking at these? Maybe the design team at PRH is trying to help give us a little serotonin boost next year, seeing as nearly everything else about 2024 is shaping up stressful. Either way, I can already see the new-release hardcover table at my local indie bookstore, dappled with oh so many gender-reveal-party skies. Not to mention the inevitable inclusion of grayscale gradients, for seriousness, and the genre-fiction addition of neon colors, and so on. How many of them will end up on the 2024 best cover design list? Stay tuned to find out.
