Some covers scream their design crimes with neon wings and glowing fireballs. An Alternative to Believing in Nothing takes a quieter route, whispering its mediocrity with all the energy of a Windows screensaver and a clip-art silhouette.
The central figure is where things collapse first. It’s not a person — it’s a generic cutout silhouette pasted on top of a starfield. He’s not gazing at the mysteries of the universe; he’s staring blankly into the void like he just got dropped into a motivational poster without the cat. It’s the design equivalent of “Insert Deep Thinker Here.”
The background? A starfield wallpaper. Pretty, sure — but also the most basic choice imaginable for a book about philosophy or spirituality. You can almost hear the designer typing “royalty free cosmos” into Google. There’s no atmosphere, no intrigue, just the same galaxy image you’d expect to see on a dorm room poster about believing in yourself.
And then there’s the typography. Oh, the typography.
- The title is a plain yellow-gold serif font, plopped dead center like a Word doc header with a halfhearted bevel.
- The author’s name floats limply in small white type, offering zero personality.
- And the subtitle (Deism for the 21st Century)? Banished into a black bar at the bottom, cutting off the universe in the least elegant way possible. It’s not a design choice; it’s a design hostage situation.
For a book that wants to offer big answers about existence, this cover feels like the visual embodiment of shrugging. No mystery. No boldness. Just a silhouette sticker on space wallpaper with Times New Roman energy.
The verdict? An Alternative to Believing in Nothing is cosmic in subject, but in design it’s absolutely nothing.