Which is why I am amazed at some of the awful cover art that makes it onto books sometimes. I understand art is subjective, but sometimes I wonder how an editor could approve such awful, or sometimes lazy, covers.
I've wondered about that, too. In particular, the cover to
Losing the Peace is very poorly executed. First, the bodies which have been attached to Picard's and Worf's shoulders are standing at angles incompatible with those shoulders. This is especially noticable in Picard's case; Worf's mismatch is harder to notice at first, but gives a clear sense of unease. (Examine the figures closely; Picard's left shoulder doesn't reach the edge of the body's shoulder, and his right shoulder is offset from the body's at a significant angle.) The bodies are also missing insignia, both communicators and sleeve bands.
Second, and less importantly (given that the figure rendering above makes the cover appear unprofessional), the size at which Picard and Worf have been rendered hinders the at-a-glance appeal of the novel. Rendered larger, perhaps even as large busts, like the faces on the
Avatar covers, they'd have been much more effective at communicating the presence of Picard and Worf in the book at a distance.
Third, the general design concentrates the bulk of visual material in the very center of the cover. Aside from the nicely executed nacelle-and-moon design element, no design elements facilitate eye movement across the cover. Instead, attention is drawn to only a very small area in the center, and a great deal of unused negative space remains around the edges. (This is when viewed at a distance.)
A very rough suggestion of how the cover might have been improved:
More information is now visible at a glance, and the eye is likely to linger over the image longer from a distance than it was before. In the process, the design elements of the cover: the moon, the planet, the huddled masses, Picard, Worf, and the broken nacelle, have been maintained, if imperfectly at this speed.
The original cover image:
