Employing a similar design to his previous book, The Sense of An Ending, the front cover of Levels of Life by Julian Barnes uses the lettering as a template of a cutout to a largely-unseen photo behind the text. The text is evenly spaced to fill the front cover, creating a sense of an honest and open atmosphere. The colour red is picked out on the hot air balloon, which rises upwards behind the text but in front of the background as if one would rise through the levels of life. By using a similar design as The Sense of An Ending, Barnes encourages familiarity with his current readers whilst also making his text accessible to new readers.