Science non fiction book covers

What are the conventions of typical science non fiction books?

After looking at the past designs for A Short History of Nearly Everything,  I thought it would be interesting to compare them to designs in the world of non fiction; it might help me find more typical conventions to break away from to create an original design.

The first thing that stands out in this design is its weird composition; it doesn't have a strong impact in terms of visuals, and it kind of looks like Einstein is just dumped in the corner. Furthermore, the poor photoshop editing makes the design lack confidence, as it looks slightly messy; linking back to this, the decision to feature an image of Einstein is way too obvious, especially when his name is the largest text on the page. Additionally, in terms of the typeface, I suppose the design aims for a sense of formality, yet this is contradicted by a lazy composition. 

This design is slightly better in the sense that the concept itself is more allusive and intriguing, as they chose to have the image as the focal point; it follows a very basic structure of text bordering an image. The main issue with this design is the very outdated use of gradient text; it doesn't have confidence as a design, and gets lost in the image, as well as lacking a contemporary atmosphere. 

This design is very decorative and illustrative, which I suppose is more refreshing than some plain sans serif gradient text. The illustrations themselves are very detailed, yet it gives the impression of a wallpaper, rather than creating a strong focal point relating to the book. Due to this, there is a lack of hierarchy, and the cover looks very flat and wishy-washy. 

This book cover design concept is fairly obvious, and doesn't really provide any excitement to the audience; it would be a lot more interesting if the visuals had more of a story instead of directly relating to the books topic. Also, the lack of negative space creates a somewhat chaotic atmosphere, as there is no drama created for a focal point. 

Arguably, this design at least has some use of negative space which does create some drama to the book cover. However, I feel like the choice to lay over the text on top of the image takes away from this, and causes a conflict between image and text; they could have created a better relationship to build a stronger hierarchy.

Audience considerations

I think that in order to create a really strong book cover design, I need to fully understand my audience and what they expect from a non fiction book cover; however, my goal is to break from these expectations to bring something new and allusive to the non fiction genre. It is clear that traditional readers of non fiction science do not consider the book cover when purchasing, yet I want to break this stereotype by involving the audience more, and making them question the book cover, e.g. why does this relate to the book? I think it is crucial that alongside possibly more formal readers, the idea behind the book is to make science accessible to everyone, which involves younger, contemporary readers; consequently, my design needs to consider this by involving an element of curiosity and fun.