50 Shades of Full Colour: Peacock feathers inspire coloured ereader screens

This week I gave the students on the Connecting Design night class at Central Saint Martins a taxing piece of homework - to design a book cover using type alone. A challenge indeed. Despite the phrase ‘Don’t judge a book by it’s cover’ the opposite is almost always the case. An arresting cover can make a book. The outstanding success of E.L James’ Fifty Shades of Grey can be attributed to the new jacket style it heralded for erotic fiction...It’s subtle, bereft of busty women and immediately recognisable. However the dawn of the ereader has made us question the relevance of the book jacket. Consumers are often driven to purchase by the tiny thumbnail that appears on Amazon. In years to come what will the book jacket look like?

The majority of ereaders deliver a black and white experience. The digital ink that allows for a comfortable reading experience can so far only be read in black and white. Covers exist in (and excuse the pun) 50 shades of grey - stripped of CMYK. They look dull, dull, dull and somewhat pointless. However nanofabication researchers at the Univeristy of Michigan have come up with an ereader screen that mimics the iridescence of a peacocks feather. By incorporating refined hairline grooves Professor Jay Guo and his team have created a prototype on silver plated glass.

The days of monochrome may soon be over for the ereader. Long live the book cover design!

You can read more here: http://www.engadget.com/2013/02/06/peacock-feathers-form-basis-for-reflective-displays-color-ereaders/