The Yellow Glasses Project is an eye-catching reading promotion at the St. Louis County Library.
Yellow book covers are extremely popular and attract attention. Sure enough, the display caught my eye when I walked into the library.
Displayed on an eight-sided console were oodles of books with yellow covers, plus a yellow sunglass’s sticker.
The promotion on the top shelf read, “Get a free pair of sunglasses when you check out a book from this display at the Circulation Desk. One pair per library card while supplies last. The sunglasses have been purchased from Dollar General, and all the proceeds will go to local literacy projects.”
What a great idea!
Yellow book covers are popular
In 2016, Print Magazine ran an article, “The Resurgence of Yellow Book Covers.”
Search Google images for yellow book covers 2021, and you’ll see that yellow is still trending today.
Although I’ve never read Swing Time by Zadie Smith, that cover is one of my favorites. It has a solid yellow background with stunning red-and-black typography.
The popular Dummies book series is well known for its black-and-yellow covers.
GoodReads has a shelf of Yellow-Color Books.
An article in Stylist said, “yellow is a perfect color for a book cover.”
A few examples
As a book designer, I think a yellow cover is bright and captures your attention, especially when you add a contrasting color like black or red. Yellow pops at a small thumbnail size online. Here are a few examples of covers I designed.
Judge a book by its color
The library’s promotion of yellow book covers was too good to pass up. The display was bright and enticing. I checked out “Life of David Hockney.” It’s a novel about the artist. I love his paintings. Plus, I got a pair of yellow sunglasses, too!
Thanks for reading.