The Spring of the Beauties

This image is a Chinese book cover design for a book titled “The Spring of the Beauties”. It’s found in a book cover design collection named “Selections of Designing Work at the Central Academy of Arts & Design, 1956-1986” by Zhong Yang, Gong Yi Mei, Shu Xue Yuan and She Ji Pin Xuan. 

This Chinese book cover exemplifies the shifts in global design practices through its color, typography, and illustration. In comparison to the traditional Chinese book covers which mostly consist of book titles, this modern book cover has more illustration, typography and color. For instance, the font of the book title on the left has curves on the strokes, highlighting how there’s more typography experimentation. In addition, the arrangement of the black Chinese characters from left to right shows the influence of the European reading format. The advancement of printing technology also introduced color and encouraged more illustration in Chinese book covers. Hence, through colorful illustration and typography choices, this book cover asserts the shift in the Chinese book industry due to intercultural influences and advancement of printing technology.