You might know that a spine is the outside edge of a book where the pages are gathered and bound, but did you know that the average children's picture book spine is between a quarter of an inch and a half an inch wide? That's pretty thin for arguably the most important piece of real estate on a book! The spine is the only visible piece of a book when it's on a bookshelf, so it stands to reason that a lot of work can go into designing ones that stand out against the competition in stores and libraries. Designers have developed quite a few tricks to get their book spines noticed by readers, and below are a few of my personal favorites, broken down by design technique.
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