Flat book cover design: Why do all the summer novels have the same look?

But lately, another cover design trend has been popping up on this summer's crop of beach reads: the flat woman. Inspired by the "flat design" that's become standard on the Web, these covers take on a minimalist style characterized by bright colors, simple layouts, and lots of white space. Several different designers and publishers have used this approach on hardcovers and paperbacks alike, especially those aiming for the upmarket-but-still-commercial-fiction-for-ladies sweet spot. (The headless woman is also still going strong.)

The patient zero of flat women might be Bernadette, the heroine and cover star of Where'd You Go, Bernadette, by Maria Semple, from 2012. On that cover, a woman's face floats over a turquoise backdrop. Her only facial features are two squiggles that represent nostrils and a two-tone mouth, plus some blunt, angular bangs. Bernadette's eyes are covered by sunglasses or binoculars, and judging by the other ocular obstructions on many of these covers, flat design tends to avoid depicting eyes.