Strange Bedfellows
This one evolved a bit. The client felt the two books in one jacket wasn't obvious enough and that it needed to be punchier.
approval pending
This was the photograph supplied. It is definitely interesting and has cover potential but sometimes you just run out of new ways of using archival black and white photography. I wanted to use the image in a more graphic, modern way.
This was the photograph supplied. It is definitely interesting and has cover potential but sometimes you just run out of new ways of using archival black and white photography. I wanted to use the image in a more graphic, modern way.
This book is about how neoliberalism created the economic meltdown and its impact on ordinary people. References the Odessa steps sequence from Battleship Potemkin.
approval pending
I liked the idea of a countdown of stamps denoting the "strange death" of britishness in Canada. These stamps come from the period covered in the book - expo 67. Expo was billed as Canada's coming out party on the world stage but our ties to britain were still very much evident as these commemorative stamps suggest. Still working on the type - not quite there yet.
I liked the idea of a countdown of stamps denoting the "strange death" of britishness in Canada. These stamps come from the period covered in the book - expo 67. Expo was billed as Canada's coming out party on the world stage but our ties to britain were still very much evident as these commemorative stamps suggest. Still working on the type - not quite there yet.
This was the first sketch I presented and it kind of received a lukewarm reception. I decided to go back to one of my original ideas. I liked the idea of a bullet slicing through a rope used for ringing a church bell. Church bells are melted down into bullets in wartime so I liked the visual metaphor but I was having trouble getting the right feel for it. The version below looks like a chessy stock image.
In the end I went for an illustrative approach. I often get asked about my work process and I am always at a loss for words. I just thought of the perfect way to describe it. I just keep slogging away at it until it stops looking cheesy.
cover in progress
I found this image online about how to tie a noose and I thought it could work for this cover.
I found this image online about how to tie a noose and I thought it could work for this cover.
Boxing the Compass
Richard Greene
Off to the printer
I did the sketch quite a while back.
The photo comes from a travel site I found on the web by Gemeah Howarth-Hockey
Boxing the compass refers to the ability to memorize all 32 points on a compass. It also refers to the action of a rudderless boat which will eventually rotate in a full circle hitting all the points on a compass. The title poem deals with a father on his death bed. The boat on the cover has a coffin shape which I thought was perfect.
So I wait with you in a crowded dark
where ageing men must revive or perish,
and wonder, my father, what under morphine
your dreams are? The old man on his ship’s deck
and you a boy among the ropes and canvas –
that hour’s sunlight over all the days you’ve seen
Off to the printer
I did the sketch quite a while back.
The photo comes from a travel site I found on the web by Gemeah Howarth-Hockey
Boxing the compass refers to the ability to memorize all 32 points on a compass. It also refers to the action of a rudderless boat which will eventually rotate in a full circle hitting all the points on a compass. The title poem deals with a father on his death bed. The boat on the cover has a coffin shape which I thought was perfect.
So I wait with you in a crowded dark
where ageing men must revive or perish,
and wonder, my father, what under morphine
your dreams are? The old man on his ship’s deck
and you a boy among the ropes and canvas –
that hour’s sunlight over all the days you’ve seen
This is a book about Buddhism in Canada. The authors wanted geese on the cover. My goal was to find an unusual way of presenting them.
I think it would almost be impossible to produce an interesting cover using Canada geese from the typical vantage point below. Like all of our national symbols they have been over utilized.
I think it would almost be impossible to produce an interesting cover using Canada geese from the typical vantage point below. Like all of our national symbols they have been over utilized.
Spring Catalogue cover
One of the issues with doing press catalogue covers is that you are actually designing the spring cover in the fall. We had a severe frost last night so there aren't many flowers left. This was the last one still hanging on.
The author insists on using this image and it sounds like it is non-negotiable. This one is going to be a challenge - but I'm up for it.
approval pending
I presented a couple of options on this one. The book is an evolutionary history of religion beginning with the social lives of our primate ancestors. The author argues that religion is a psychological adaptation and a product of evolution based in the same phenomenon as our childhood need for imaginary friends.
I presented a couple of options on this one. The book is an evolutionary history of religion beginning with the social lives of our primate ancestors. The author argues that religion is a psychological adaptation and a product of evolution based in the same phenomenon as our childhood need for imaginary friends.
Work in progress
Book is about how New Englanders created new myths about the extinction of indian tribes to serve their own colonial interests. No indians, no prior claims to the land.
Book is about how New Englanders created new myths about the extinction of indian tribes to serve their own colonial interests. No indians, no prior claims to the land.
Animals of My Own Kind
Off to the printer
One of my New Years resolutions was to make my back covers more interesting.
One of my New Years resolutions was to make my back covers more interesting.
Keep it Real
Lee Gutkind
Proposed cover for a book about writing creative nonfiction. In the end we went in another direction (below).
Proposed cover for a book about writing creative nonfiction. In the end we went in another direction (below).
This is new YA series I am working on. Each story is told in the first person - single voice. The logo for series has been accepted but we are still working out cover designs. These are just roughs that were used to show how logo could work. The final design is coming along.
This is a preliminary image for a novel that is about the crazy mixed up life of a man and his multiple concurrent marriages.
Just got approved. Illustration by the very talented Christoph Niemann
These are other ideas for the salon des refusés.
These are other ideas for the salon des refusés.
approval pending
From the cover brief: The central theme of the book is the role played by resentment and revenge in the history – that is, the kind of resentment that emerges out of a form of humiliation or suffering experienced by an individual or group or even a nation, and that subsequently turns into an act of violence or revenge. I think we are going in a different direction on this one but I like the way the image interacts with the type to reinforce the theme of the book.
From the cover brief: The central theme of the book is the role played by resentment and revenge in the history – that is, the kind of resentment that emerges out of a form of humiliation or suffering experienced by an individual or group or even a nation, and that subsequently turns into an act of violence or revenge. I think we are going in a different direction on this one but I like the way the image interacts with the type to reinforce the theme of the book.
Animals
Don LePan
This cover is going into final production. From the back cover: Animals is a powerful novel set in an indeterminate future in which virtually all the species that humans have for millennia used as food have become extinct; the world this change creates is at once eerily foreign and disturbingly familiar.
I started by purchasing a set of dishes for $16.92 at Canadian Tire and went to work on my back porch
Line art for Delft china elements.
This cover is going into final production. From the back cover: Animals is a powerful novel set in an indeterminate future in which virtually all the species that humans have for millennia used as food have become extinct; the world this change creates is at once eerily foreign and disturbingly familiar.
I started by purchasing a set of dishes for $16.92 at Canadian Tire and went to work on my back porch
Line art for Delft china elements.
approval pending
I just sent this one off. The author, who is of Indian descent, played hockey on a woman's hockey team at a Canadian university and is still an avid hockey fan. I think the cover works on a number of levels but mostly I really like how it challenges notions of Canadian identity.
I Sing the Body Politic
Peter Swirski
Cowboy boots as bookends for the Bush Era.
From the back cover:
The end of George W. Bush's imperial presidency means that the wreckage of the republic's political ideals is now subject to a vigorous reassessment. In essays by five senior scholars, major works of American literature and film are analyzed in the context of a larger set of arguments about American injustice at home and across the empire.
"Though a unique combination of scholarship, readability, and what might be described as moral outrage, I Sing the Body Politic makes its point in a very telling way. Beautifully written, and based on an impressive amount of research, it casts a devastating light on the Bush administration and the political order in recent years."
Cowboy boots as bookends for the Bush Era.
From the back cover:
The end of George W. Bush's imperial presidency means that the wreckage of the republic's political ideals is now subject to a vigorous reassessment. In essays by five senior scholars, major works of American literature and film are analyzed in the context of a larger set of arguments about American injustice at home and across the empire.
"Though a unique combination of scholarship, readability, and what might be described as moral outrage, I Sing the Body Politic makes its point in a very telling way. Beautifully written, and based on an impressive amount of research, it casts a devastating light on the Bush administration and the political order in recent years."
I found this in the river at the back of our farm. It is part of old tree root that had grown around a small stone.
A really interesting blog for found images:
estupepidia
A really interesting blog for found images:
estupepidia
Divided Korea
Ronald Bleiker
I was given a selection of photographs to work from for this two colour cover. I really loathe duotones and whenever possible I like to use cropping and contrast to give the cover more impact.
I was given a selection of photographs to work from for this two colour cover. I really loathe duotones and whenever possible I like to use cropping and contrast to give the cover more impact.
I am still working on this cover. We are going to go with another direction but there was something I liked about this. The book is about mean speech.
The author had taken some photographs of Los Angeles and I was given a selection to work with. This one caught my attention right away. There was something about the positioning of the Goodyear blimp above the red flower that was perfect. I had to rework the photograph quite a bit to make the red flower really pop.
This one is almost put to bed. In the end a simpler approach was called for. I used four different flourishes (worms) in the frame element so I still managed to get it on the cover albeit in a less off-putting way.
We did advanced review copies for this book and when I got first saw it my reaction was less than positive - it lacked finesse. I have reworked it for the final cover.
Before We had Words
S. P. Zitner
The kind of cover you could only get away with on a poetry book. Yes I know the type is really small.
The kind of cover you could only get away with on a poetry book. Yes I know the type is really small.
Her Mothers Ashes
This one took quite a bit of back and forth to arrive at the final result. One of the reasons I kind of like the end result is that it doesn't look like one of my covers. I never would have considered using Bodoni Swashes as a cover font until I saw Barbara de Wilde's amazing Milk cover.
Weed Man
The Remarkable Journey of Jimmy Divine
John McCaslin
This printed and laminated cloth cover has a velum jacket that allows the art to show through. Jimmy's name is visible in the negative spaces between the leaves. I just picked it up at my P.O. box on the other side of the border and needless to say it raised a few eyebrows with the custom agents on the way back.
John McCaslin
This printed and laminated cloth cover has a velum jacket that allows the art to show through. Jimmy's name is visible in the negative spaces between the leaves. I just picked it up at my P.O. box on the other side of the border and needless to say it raised a few eyebrows with the custom agents on the way back.
This is an image I created for a cover Identity and the Failure of America. It wasn't accepted in the end but I still think it is interesting. It almost doesn't need a title.
Canada’s Game
This one would fall into the category of just getting out of the way of a great photograph.
Mountain Tea
Peter Van Toorn
The font I used for this cover went out of circulation for a while but is back now. Wonky font for sure but the italic is kind of sweet.
The font I used for this cover went out of circulation for a while but is back now. Wonky font for sure but the italic is kind of sweet.
Unusual approach for this poetry cover. The publisher went for the dye-cut holes which is pretty cool.
The Sheep are Back
I was hard at work staring at my computer screen when I looked to my left and remembered that the sheep are back. They migrate back and forth all day long outside my window.
Improvisation
Edward W. Sarah
I wanted the type on this cover to convey "improvisation" and thought reflecting it in the trombone would be interesting.
I wanted the type on this cover to convey "improvisation" and thought reflecting it in the trombone would be interesting.
Pure Product
Quill and Quire, which is our version of Publishers Weekly, does a regular feature on the process of developing a cover. They asked me to do this for a recent poetry cover - Pure Product by Jason Guriel.
(A)
When I am designing a poetry cover I try and find images in the poems that lend themselves to visual expression. Pure product is a line in Guriel’s poem “Thinigness.” It is not always easy for me to describe the process I go through to create an image but there was just something about these old fashioned sprinklers I found in a hardware catalogue that seemed to fit for the notion of thinginess. Unfortunately it made for an unintended connection with the word “product” in the title – as if the sprinklers were the product. If the title had been “Thinginess” it might have worked.
(B)
This is an evolution of the previous direction. I thought that maybe the placement of the type could remove the connection between product and sprinkler but it just created another issue. Water could be interpreted as the “Pure Product”.
(C)
This image comes from another poem in the book “Shopping Cart, Abandoned on Front Lawn”. The shadows cast by the cart on the lawn create “subdivisions the ants won’t obey” I don’t think I ever presented this one because it still made an unintended connection with the title – shopping, consumerism.
(D)
I thought the idea of using a bell jar might be interesting – isolating the pure product. The press liked the image but felt something was missing - no “ahh” moment.
FINAL
From the poem Thinginess
“the necessary tubing
that defines
the nothing blowing
thru ducts.”
The image is an allusion to Magritte's “Ceci n’est pas une pipe”. By opening the straw it solves the problem I encountered with (A) and (B). The straw is not the product. It just defines the nothing blowing thru it.
I worked on the shadows of the shopping cart option (C) for almost an entire day but couldn't get it to work. It reminded me of a point earlier in my career when I was working in Montreal for a design company. I was leaving the office at the end of the day and noticed another designer was hard at work on a logo - it wasn't working and the deadline was the next day. When I came back to work the next morning she was still at work and had been there all night struggling with the same version. It made me realize that you have to listen to your inner designer voice that tells you to put it aside and try something else. It doesn't matter how much effort you have put into any given solution, if it isn't working clear your desk and start again.
This raises another issue that we as designers are always asking ourselves - is it any good? If you work alone you can't bounce ideas off your fellow designers. It sounds a little silly but I work on a solution until I like it and then I present it. You almost have to be your own audience and trust your own reaction to the work.
This cover got selected for 50 Books/50 Covers this year. There is a spot UV varnish on the wet part of the boot.
I was backing up my files and found this rejected cover for a poetry book. I was actually the one who rejected it. It wasn't the right fit for the book but interesting nonetheless.
This one is another challenge and brings up a common problem for cover designers. When you are presented with a multitude of images to use on a history book - which one or ones do you choose to best represent the book? I almost always try to avoid a collage approach, which author's seem to always suggest, and if possible find one or two that work well together. This book deals with different cultures within Canada as well so that required an added degree of sensitivity. The first sketch with the frying pan was rejected because it seemed to focus too much on the Anglosaxon-Canadian experience. I worked all morning on the new sketch (top), with the Batman soundtrack on full throttle for motivation, and opted for more of a type only approach with a cooking pot that isn't too culturally specific.
approval pending
approval pending
Catamount April, 29
One of the benefits of living on the US border is that the Adirondacks are literally in your backyard. Probably should have been working but it was such a beautiful day.
The Summit
The Summit
Just wrapped this one up. Misandry for those who don't know, including me when I was briefed on this, is the hatred of men.
This cover took a couple of kicks at the can before we settled on the this one. It falls into that category of solutions where once you come up with it you say that it can't possibly be that simple and direct - can it?
Enter the Chrysanthemum
Fiona Tinwei Lam
Even though I have baked a lot of loaves of bread in my life I still get the same thrill each time I open the oven and see finished product. The same is true for book covers. I just received this in the mail. The poet sent me a video of her reading one her beautiful poems - Chrysanthemum.
Even though I have baked a lot of loaves of bread in my life I still get the same thrill each time I open the oven and see finished product. The same is true for book covers. I just received this in the mail. The poet sent me a video of her reading one her beautiful poems - Chrysanthemum.
This one was a tough one. Paraphrasing the author: The thesis of the book is that a distinction can be made between two types of objects: one (objects of natural science) can sustain magnification; the other (objects typical of humanistic inquiry) cannot. This means that humanistic inquiry cannot match scientific inquiry. Because the objects of natural science permit magnification, we can dissect them into smaller and smaller pieces, each time discovering new, important information about them. Cultural objects, such as a photograph, will not yield to microscopic study - we generate noise, not signal.
I will admit it is kind of an odd image but I thought it made for an intriguing cover.
I will admit it is kind of an odd image but I thought it made for an intriguing cover.
The brief for this cover was to somehow convey the sense that the book is a really a conversation between two philosophers. The cover with the two chairs is the approved version.
stock image
stock image
approval pending
Do you think there is an unwritten law in graphic design that you can't put a tapeworm on the cover of a book?
Do you think there is an unwritten law in graphic design that you can't put a tapeworm on the cover of a book?
Fall 2009 catalogue cover
I love doing catalogue covers. Because they are more ephemeral than book covers you can push the limits a little further.
Thurston is one of Canada's best know nature poets. I added in the tree branches on the edge at the last minute. I was actually closing up the file when I accidentally deleted one of the of masks from another concept that I didn't present and the tree branches overlapped onto this sketch. I really like it when these kind of accidents occur. It makes you stop and look at things in a new way. I posted the other sketch that the branches came from below.
The Watch that Ends the Night
There was no budget for stock photography on this one so I shot it myself. I ran over to a friends house this morning to photograph his canoe strapped to the roof of his barn. I borrowed his lovely daughter Vanessa's hand made paddle and asked my daughter to photograph me from above in a paddling position. As I said in an earlier post this cover really resonates with me. I spent many hours canoeing in the Laurentians when I was growing up. One of my father's many gifts to me was the art of paddling a canoe.
Anatomy of a cover
Anatomy of a cover
This is a recently approved cover for a poetry book. Boxing the compass refers to the ability to memorize all 32 points on a compass. It also refers to the action of a rudderless boat which will eventually rotate in a full circle hitting all the points on a compass. The title poem deals with a father on his death bed.
Note that this is just the sketch so it is still a little rough.
So I wait with you in a crowded dark
where ageing men must revive or perish,
and wonder, my father, what under morphine
your dreams are? The old man on his ship’s deck
and you a boy among the ropes and canvas –
that hour’s sunlight over all the days you’ve seen.
I thought it would be interesting to present a small boat on the cover which also resembled a coffin. For my first sketch I actually took an image of a coffin and put in on water. It was interesting but there was something not quite right about it. It needed to be more ambiguous and the water didn't look right for Newfoundland. I found another image of an actual boat that struck the right balance.
Note that this is just the sketch so it is still a little rough.
So I wait with you in a crowded dark
where ageing men must revive or perish,
and wonder, my father, what under morphine
your dreams are? The old man on his ship’s deck
and you a boy among the ropes and canvas –
that hour’s sunlight over all the days you’ve seen.
I thought it would be interesting to present a small boat on the cover which also resembled a coffin. For my first sketch I actually took an image of a coffin and put in on water. It was interesting but there was something not quite right about it. It needed to be more ambiguous and the water didn't look right for Newfoundland. I found another image of an actual boat that struck the right balance.
Approval pending. These kind of subjects present their own challenges. How can you say something original about a subject that has been so exhaustively mined for visual ideas.
This one proved tougher than most. It is a novel about a dystopian future where livestock have become extinct. The final chosen solution is the one with the broken plate. I added the cows into the design. I think the problem with a cover like this is that when you try and approach the subject matter head on it doesn't work. The trick is to find a lateral way to approach it leaving more to the imagination of the viewer. I really liked the option with the fence and the partially obscured "i", but it was maybe a little hard to decode. A bit of a homage to Paul Rand.
Have you ever seen a more conflicted looking war hero? The book is about a French-Canadian soldier who is awarded the Victoria Cross, the highest military decoration of the British Commonwealth and is turned into a reluctant hero.
Just coming up for air. What a last couple of weeks!! This is a recent cover I worked on. Not sure it will be accepted but there was something I really liked about it. The book is about risks of globalization for the U.S. These kind of covers are always a challenge. How can you express this in a new way when there has already been so much done on this subject. I went for the world as a fish bowl with the U.S. which oddly enough looks like a gold fish when coloured orange. Maybe I am fixated on dead gold fish which I tried on another cover as well.
Another one in the works. Small format 6 x 6 with the possibility of extra colours or special printing techniques.
I am working on this one right now. The book deals with the fact that Freud didn't have the benefit of the all the advances that have been made in neuroscience than can now be used to complement analysis. I liked the fact that the brain scanning table resembled an analysts couch. It makes a nice contrast it with a victorian armchair.
Amnesty International
This is a t-shirt design I am working on. The only stipulation is that I have to use the barb wire element from their logo.
Sins of the Flesh
Rod Preece
This cover was one of several that won in the AAUP (Association of American University Presses) book and jacket show. The version on the bottom is the way the cover looked at the final stage of mechanical production. I spent about a day drawing the pig but it just wasn't working. At the eleventh hour I looked for an image in one of my royalty free books of line art and found a new pig. Thankfully the client agreed that it was an improvement. There was a time when those trusted line art books were put to good use as university presses don't usually have budgets for images. I think I will do a future post that just features those covers.
This cover was one of several that won in the AAUP (Association of American University Presses) book and jacket show. The version on the bottom is the way the cover looked at the final stage of mechanical production. I spent about a day drawing the pig but it just wasn't working. At the eleventh hour I looked for an image in one of my royalty free books of line art and found a new pig. Thankfully the client agreed that it was an improvement. There was a time when those trusted line art books were put to good use as university presses don't usually have budgets for images. I think I will do a future post that just features those covers.
This cover is progressing. The first sketch which I posted earlier met with a positive reaction with some caveats. The type treatment and overall feeling was too whimsical for the poetry. I turned up the volume and went for a harder edged feel.
2nd sketch
First sketch presented
2nd sketch
First sketch presented
Montreal's Best BYOB Restaurants
Joanna Fox
Without trying to over think this one too much, I went for a light hearted, fun approach.
Without trying to over think this one too much, I went for a light hearted, fun approach.
Amassing Power
David Massell
From the back cover: At the turn of the century American industrialist J.B. Duke set his sights on one of North America's greatest and most spectacular rivers - the Saguenay ... to develop, and sell its tremendous hydroelectric potential. I was given a stack of photos to work with and this one of Duke in a bowler hat jumped out at me. The curve of his hat and a curve in the famous river.
From the back cover: At the turn of the century American industrialist J.B. Duke set his sights on one of North America's greatest and most spectacular rivers - the Saguenay ... to develop, and sell its tremendous hydroelectric potential. I was given a stack of photos to work with and this one of Duke in a bowler hat jumped out at me. The curve of his hat and a curve in the famous river.
Another one in this ongoing series. Because showing a specific national currency wouldn't work, the problem became how do you show money without showing it?
Valgrain
Ok so it's not a book cover but how many designers can put "feed bag" on their resumés. I don't know if you know what most feed bags look like but living in farm country you see them all the time. Usually they are just one or two colours, badly printed with a generic cow or chicken graphic on them. It took a whole day on press to get the registration right but in the end it really paid off. I love it when the printer is up for a challenge. He started off by saying it couldn't be done but in his hesitation to say "absolutely not", I saw an opportunity.
Chess Pieces
David Solway
This is one from the vault. It was my first poetry cover. I had to scan all the actual chess pieces because I didn't have a camera yet.
This is one from the vault. It was my first poetry cover. I had to scan all the actual chess pieces because I didn't have a camera yet.
Catalogue covers are always a challenge which is probably why I like doing them. How can you say something new about book publishing? Do you focus instead on the seasons spring and fall and the same question still applies. For this particular year I asked my very talented wife, Gail McGowan to do two of her wire sculptures - a frog for spring and a squirrel for fall.
When I watch her work, twisting and bending the wire with speed and complete self-assuredness in the final outcome it reminds me of a story about Alexander Calder. There was to be an exhibition of his wire sculptures at a big east coast gallery. He was picked up at the train station a couple of days prior to the opening by the gallery curator. When Calder emerged from the train with only a small suitcase the curator anxiously asked where his works were. Calder pulled a large roll of wire from his bag and said "right here."
When I watch her work, twisting and bending the wire with speed and complete self-assuredness in the final outcome it reminds me of a story about Alexander Calder. There was to be an exhibition of his wire sculptures at a big east coast gallery. He was picked up at the train station a couple of days prior to the opening by the gallery curator. When Calder emerged from the train with only a small suitcase the curator anxiously asked where his works were. Calder pulled a large roll of wire from his bag and said "right here."
The Lost Franklin Expedition
I guess if you stick around long enough you not only do multiple covers for the same author but also on the same subject matter. The first is a poetry cover about the lost Franklin expedition. It is a three part fold that reveals the graves of the Franklin party on Beechey Island in the Canadian arctic on the last fold. The second book is about to be published and is a collection of letters from Lady Franklin in her quest to find out the fate of her husband.
This one required a lot of tweaking to make sure people got the idea readily. One of the last 08 covers - what a year!
Opening Doors Wider
Edited by Sylvia Bashevkin
This is another one of those covers where the title drives the design.
This is another one of those covers where the title drives the design.
Maisonneuve magazine
The Alcoholhic Monkeys of St. Kitts
I found this in my files when I was cleaning out my office. Maisonneuve is a Montreal based magazine - New Yorker with edge. It was kind of a dream job for a designer. I redesigned the entire magazine from front cover to back including the masthead. It is still going strong today. Check it out.
I found this in my files when I was cleaning out my office. Maisonneuve is a Montreal based magazine - New Yorker with edge. It was kind of a dream job for a designer. I redesigned the entire magazine from front cover to back including the masthead. It is still going strong today. Check it out.
A Fragile Social Fabric?
Raymond Breton et al.
This cover must have taken an entire day to produce. I literally had to thread each of those needles in photoshop.
This cover must have taken an entire day to produce. I literally had to thread each of those needles in photoshop.
Interview with Christopher Tobias
Technonatures
White and Wilbert, editors
This cover plays off another cover I did recently. I find this happens quite frequently where cover solutions build and play off each other.
This cover plays off another cover I did recently. I find this happens quite frequently where cover solutions build and play off each other.
Gay Male Pornography
Christopher N. Kendall
I would put this cover into the "type only with a twist" category.
I would put this cover into the "type only with a twist" category.
From the brief: "The mother, Isabel, pays the rent with an all-night job delivering newspapers out of her van. And the climactic section involves a kind of quest road trip in which Isabel, now 20, and her grandmother set out in a Volvo on a quest to find Isabel’s mother. Eventually they do find her and her van alongside a prairie road. She’s burning papers from her life alongside the road."
My first idea which really intrigued me was to use the open doors of the black van referred to in the novel as symbolic open arms. I spent a lot of time trying to find an image of a van shot from above with the doors open to no avail. I finally found a site that had diecast models of cars for sale with doors that opened and I ordered a Ford Econoline black van. I had to pick it up from my U.S. postal box and when declaring it on the way back over the border, I got involved in a conversation with the custom guy who was really into cars. For about 30 seconds there I actually felt like I was one of the guys, talking about cars. In the end he had a hard time understanding what the hell it was, that I was planning to do with it. I think he is still trying to figure it out.
The publisher in the end wanted this novel to tie into another novel by the same author that had just been shortlisted for a literary prize so we went in another direction, still using the van though. Prairie landscapes with blue skies always seem kind of corny to me. The final version has a blackened sky which works.
Final cover
This catalogue cover concept owes a debt to Woody Pirtle's great 1989 poster for the UCLA summer studies program. He crafted a palm tree out of an open book. This is book as flower for MQUP's spring 2009 catalogue. The photographs of Cara Barer also served as inspiration for this cover as well.
Suburban Legends
Joan Crate
From the brief: "the book makes an analogy between a suburban wife who is dealing with loneliness, divorce, aging, and copious amounts of winter (tons of winter imagery in this book, which I'd love for the cover to pick up on), and the character of Snow White, who sacrificed everything for the dwarves and was replaced by newer, flashier, fantasy figures.
This is the first sketch I presented.
In the end we opted for a more simplified approach with a more modern feel.
From the brief: "the book makes an analogy between a suburban wife who is dealing with loneliness, divorce, aging, and copious amounts of winter (tons of winter imagery in this book, which I'd love for the cover to pick up on), and the character of Snow White, who sacrificed everything for the dwarves and was replaced by newer, flashier, fantasy figures.
This is the first sketch I presented.
In the end we opted for a more simplified approach with a more modern feel.
An Irish History of Civilization
Don Akenson
This is a two volume series. There is nothing that original about having an image go over two covers in a series but in this case it seemed a nice way of using the image of the man in a boat on an Irish river. The boat in this case is called a 'coracle' and is specific to Ireland and Wales.
This is a two volume series. There is nothing that original about having an image go over two covers in a series but in this case it seemed a nice way of using the image of the man in a boat on an Irish river. The boat in this case is called a 'coracle' and is specific to Ireland and Wales.
I had sort of given up on using references to constructivism on a book cover design mainly because it has been done so many times. However in this case the authors asked for a Canadiana version of Soviet constructivist graphics so I went for it.
I just got asked to submit cover designs to a design competition where the entries only use classic fonts and I was reminded of this quote by Vignelli. I only use about 4 or 5 different fonts on most of my cover designs. They are, in no particular order:
New Baskerville (will go with me to the grave)
Helvetica
Futura
Trade Gothic
New Century School Book
Sundre
Christopher Willard
From the brief:
Sundre is a town in Alberta. The cover for this novel is challenging because we don’t want Prairies and grain elevators, the big sky, etc, even though they figure in the story, because the book is really about a husband and wife talking about the past—but they are both dead.
In a nutshell the concept is headboard as tombstone.
From the brief:
Sundre is a town in Alberta. The cover for this novel is challenging because we don’t want Prairies and grain elevators, the big sky, etc, even though they figure in the story, because the book is really about a husband and wife talking about the past—but they are both dead.
In a nutshell the concept is headboard as tombstone.
Hugh MacLennan Series
Here are the final two in this series. Each Man's Son is a novel set in Cape Breton in a coal mining community. It features a violent death near the end of the novel. The son's father, a failed boxer, kills his mother. The image of the coal cart underground evokes a coffin
The Return of Sphinx is a novel about a prominent Canadian politician whose career is destroyed when his son gets involved in the separatist movement in Quebec and is arrested for making a bomb. The revolt of youth against parental authority. The crushed smoking pipe seems like the right image to suggest this.
I couldn't put my finger on why the image of the canoe viewed from above on the cover of The Watch That End's the Night resonated so strongly for me. Then I realized that it reminded me of what was probably the seminal book of my childhood, Paddle to the Sea. An indian boy carves a wooden canoe and leaves in on a mountain top in the spring. The book follows its journey to the sea.
The Return of Sphinx is a novel about a prominent Canadian politician whose career is destroyed when his son gets involved in the separatist movement in Quebec and is arrested for making a bomb. The revolt of youth against parental authority. The crushed smoking pipe seems like the right image to suggest this.
I couldn't put my finger on why the image of the canoe viewed from above on the cover of The Watch That End's the Night resonated so strongly for me. Then I realized that it reminded me of what was probably the seminal book of my childhood, Paddle to the Sea. An indian boy carves a wooden canoe and leaves in on a mountain top in the spring. The book follows its journey to the sea.
Pedaling Revolution
Jeff Mapes
A straight up solution for this cover seemed to be what was called for. The tricky part was finding the right cyclist. I must have gone through about 800 Royalty Free stock images to find a cyclist that didn't look like a Tour de France wannabe.
A straight up solution for this cover seemed to be what was called for. The tricky part was finding the right cyclist. I must have gone through about 800 Royalty Free stock images to find a cyclist that didn't look like a Tour de France wannabe.
I leapt at the chance to design this series of four novels by Hugh MacLennan. These are the first two with two more to go. The seminal Canadian novel Two Solitudes is a romance that traverses the language divide between the english and french cultures. Each cover will have a linear graphic element. In the case of Two Solitudes it is the intersection of St. Lawrence Boulevard and Sherbrooke Streets. This is the historical dividing line between english and french Montreal.
This was actually my first idea for the series but I put it aside to explore the approach below. It was rightly rejected for not looking enough like a fiction series. I liked the idea of showing an abstract graphic "M" that would tie the series together. I don't know how many of you are familiar with Paprika, the Montreal design firm. Their work is incredibly distinctive and has a look and feel that is very specific to Montreal. This first approach has a bit of that feel to it which I felt would be appropriate for this series. In retrospect I think it was too monolithic.
I think this approach is interesting because the two pairings are not how they originally seem to appear.
Just got approved. This is a poetry cover and this is the part of the poem that inspired it:
...It’s the doorstopper-
ability of phonebooks,
the necessary tubing
that defines
the nothing blowing
thru ducts.
It’s the word “through”
spelled with “u.”
It’s all such
pure products.
This cover just got approved. It will be printed on semi translucent paper over a printed case. It is the story a marijuana smuggler in the caribbean. The smuggler's name appears in the negative spaces of the marijuana leaves on the printed case. The three horizontal lines represent the distinguishing markings they but on their shipments.
Blood Pudding
Art Corriveau
This is a book of short stories. The title story was the inspiration for the cover. The lead character Paul had a Mémère (word for grandmother in Quebec) and he remembers a painful episode from this childhood. "She sat in that rocking chair in the kitchen. I was always afraid to find her in there alone. She would pull up her dress so that I could stand closer to her, between her legs. She would call me her little bonhomme. Would kiss me on the lips..." I ordered this vintage apron online and photographed it for the cover.
This is a book of short stories. The title story was the inspiration for the cover. The lead character Paul had a Mémère (word for grandmother in Quebec) and he remembers a painful episode from this childhood. "She sat in that rocking chair in the kitchen. I was always afraid to find her in there alone. She would pull up her dress so that I could stand closer to her, between her legs. She would call me her little bonhomme. Would kiss me on the lips..." I ordered this vintage apron online and photographed it for the cover.
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