Pick any book off the shelf, yours or one from a bookstore. Look at the back. Chances are, there is a design faux pas.
Not the fonts, or picture or image placement. I’m talking bar code. Every physical book that’s for sale has one, every publisher knows it has to be on the cover somewhere. So why does it often seem slapped on like a half-off sticker? And I’m not picking on small publishers. It’s the big boys, selling millions of books, who seem to slap the dash on this one. I picked a book up—one everyone has heard of—elegant, black, with an embossed cover, and on the back the bar code is off center and flat white. Really drew the eye—away from the back copy and design. Another book cover, an award winner, placed the bar code over a face. A face! I don’t think that is what the artist intended.
Did you know that bar codes don’t have to be black and white? Or even horizontal? There are choices. And one of them is integrating it with the design. Find out for yourself: once you notice bar code placement, you can’t not notice it ever again. Covers are art, and books are for sale: those two truths should not be at odds with one another.