What are your favorite RPG books in terms of overall art design?

By art design I mean the complete look of the book, not individual pieces of artwork. For example, the covers of Beltstrike for Traveller and City of Brass for 3.5 D&D are among my favorite individual illustrations in RPG books, but the overall products aren't as strong as their covers.

First, as honorable mentions I have to include Burning Empires and The Nocturnals Sourcebook for 1e Mutants and Masterminds. I can't really call either of these my favorites for RPG art design, 'cause what makes them great is the artwork lifted from the Chris Moeller and Dan Brereton comics on which the books are based. Still, both of them are beautiful.

My favorite RPG book in terms of overall art design is Dune: Chronicles of the Imperium. The illustrations are outstanding throughout, but unlike too many of the full-color RPG books I've seen, this one is actually readable - the decorative borders don't interfere with the text, and the fonts are easy to read. Just a lovely book.

I'm also still a fan of the 1e AD&D PHB - another book where the artwork and layout really work together, in my humble opinion.

I never cared enough to even think of this question.

-clash

Earthdawn did it for me, especially the art by Janet Aulisio. I got sucked in by the art and ended up enjoying the game.

Planescape, Planescape, a thousand times Planescape

1) Warhammer (both Fantasy and 40k)
2) Planescape
3) Rifts

I love B/W line art.   I have always loved the bizarre, over the top insanity and mood of the Warhammer art.    Planescape was certainly the most evocative fantasy setting art I have ever seen.    I wanted to go there and have adventures.    Rifts art is so gonzo fun that I consistently flip through books and say "I wanna play one of those" and "I want my character to weild one of those" and "holy shit, I want to hurl that at the players!"

Pendragon 1st ed.
Burning Wheel
RuneQuest 2

As well as Planescape, I really like the Continuum: Roleplaying in the Yet art too, which I think DiTerlizzi also did.

I think the Changeling: The Dreaming art and design was well suited to the game.

I also have a lot of fondness for the Cyberpunk 2020 art, which is so incredibly 80s that it really works with the literature and films it wants to emulate.

Older Games Workshop stuff, especially with Russ Nicholson illustrations, would be my pick.  I like Nicholson's work in the Fighting Fantasy books as well.

There's something about B&W illustrations in a game book that appeals to me more than the full colour glossy approach.  I guess it makes me think more of other books and ties the RPG more to fantasy literature, which I like.

Cadwallon. It's god-damn beautiful.

Everway. Nobilis. Deleria. Kult. Over the Edge. Unknown Armies--the older, sleazier one, not the 2nd ed. Hol. Delta Green.
Some games are more art than game. Remember Zero?
I don't know. I don't think about it much, either, but apparently, I notice.

The Star Wars Role-Playing Game -- 2nd edition Revised & Expanded was lovely.  It featured a clean, professional, legible layout which made it pleasant to look at, yet still functional in actual use...all of which is to say nothing of the illustrations, which were a combination of stills from the movies and licensed Expanded Universe art. To me, that simple fact perfectly articulated the notion that "This is THE Star Wars universe, but it can be YOUR Star Wars universe!"

I'll also say pretty words about the second edition of Mage: The Awakening, but they'll have mostly to do with those keen page borders -- half-art deco, half-art nouveau.  Elegant and unobtrusive, it set a continual tone that could easily color the reader's perception of the game in a way that I found most pleasing.

Last, but not at all least, I draw your attention to Fading Suns.  The "look" of the universe, as presented in the art, is eclectic -- but damned if it's not evocative, with saber-and-blaster-wielding becloaked well-shorn nobles fighting tentacled horrors in alien tombs on one page, and decadently-biosculpted hedonist connivers on another.  The whole package says "all kinds of crazy stories, all in here, all ready to go."  Sold.

If pure beauty of design were the main concern, I'd say Alpha Omega has to be considered one of the tops.

RPGPundit

I think most of the purdy books are too fancy for their own good. The art displaces, overlays, or distracts from the text.

The only books I can think of right now which have really good art that "knows its place" are the 1e/2e Talislanta books. A large proportion (most? all?) of the drawings are by PD Breeding-Black and are fantastic, but the text is still easy to read in a visual sense. (The rules themselves are a bit disorganized, but that's a bit of a different issue.)

I really like the over feel and look for Heavy Gear and Jovian Chronicles.

I appreciate the design of 5e Ars Magica, the medieval calligraphic look adds to the theme and setting of the game IMO.