I have some theories about why publishers insert those two words. They imply a sort of false self-deprecation, as if you should read in a “Just” – just a novel. Or they suggest that the book is not to be confused with any plebeian subcategory of novel, like mystery novel or spy novel or sci-fi novel. The publishers seem to think that adding “A Novel” to the cover just looks literary. And the more they do it, the more other publishers copy them. I noticed “A Novel” popping out like a plague all over the covers of Christian fiction recently.

Then it occurred to me that the same could be true of design. It’s so tempting for us designers to add elements to a piece just because they look artsy, or because other designers did something similar and it looked cool.

But that’s a really bad reason for adding something. In a good design, every piece should be there for a reason. Every element should contribute a useful purpose to the whole. And if the design is off-balance, adding a meaningless swirl just covers up. It doesn’t really fix the problem. Design, like literature, is supposed to communicate clearly and incisively. If you have to add redundant comments to either your book or your design, something is probably wrong with the way you are communicating.