The No. 1 Ladies Detective Angency by Alexander McCall Smith
Old bookjackets are a great resource for page layout inspiration.
The artwork is royalty free and examples are easily found in the public domain.
I ran across this one a while back and loved the simple landscape shapes of the tree near a cabin near which stands a cock crowing at the sunrise.
Peaceful and well-placed country elements gather comfortably around day break on this wilderness home, reminding the viewer to remember a simpler time of days gone by.
The framing adds subtle interest to the layout, with ribbon-like textures and transparent borders over a rich torn parchment base.
The typography seems out of place, perhaps hand drawn but ill-placed, as if the work was done by another artist with less skill or understanding of symmetry that the background achieves effortlessly.
The teapot, steaming coffee cups and other seemingly randomly placed clip-art give an impression of afterthought and distracts much from the simple beauty of the page layout background.
Front cover base layout of vintage book jacket after Photoshop cleanup.
With all the clutter removed, the charm of the layout jumps out to please the eye:
Great inspiration for web page template design, perhaps a Family History or Genealogy layout…
