David Gee / Works on Paper

2011-12-20T10:04:00.000-08:00

The January 2012 issue of Wired features a short article on well-known books that were written in short amounts of time. Apparently, A Clockwork Orange, On The Road, etc., were churned out in some haste. Assorted book cover designers were asked to redesign the cover for a selected title, and given a three hour time limit to do so.

Here's my contribution for Fahrenheit 451, which was written, on rented UCLA typewriters, in only nine days.

For those keeping track, I spent about two hours (and three dollars) tracking down a used paperback copy of Fahrenheit 451, twenty minutes torching said paperback in my backyard, and about another twenty minutes scanning and cleaning up the results. The soot-covered scanner glass I cleaned on my own time.

2011-11-28T06:44:00.001-08:00

Melody Godfred contacted me out of the blue to redesign the cover of her novel The Agency. In it, a woman lives a double life as both a CIA and high-powered Hollywood agent (Two jobs? What's that like?) and, eventually, her worlds collide. Fun stuff. One of the quickest and most pain-free jobs I've taken on, too.

2011-11-24T07:29:00.000-08:00

In case you didn't know, November is National Novel Writing Month. Full details are available here. Lead by the Inimitable John Gall, book designers are asked to participate in the 30 Covers 30 Days challenge in which three book synopses are sent out and we are given 24 hours to complete a cover design for the novel of our choosing. Below is my hasty design for Acile's novel, Crow City. But first, the brief:

What happens when a lonely Philosophy student whose disillusioned world view sends him into regular fits of cynicism meets a man who wants to be the prettiest face in town? They make a deal to reintroduce said philosophy student into society.

What follows is a whirlwind of coffee shop pranks, night clubs, sparkle, glitter and discussions about the very nature of mankind. But Alexis doesn’t take it well at all. Memories from the one girl he wanted to forget come to the surface. He sees her in the wooden figurine of a Japanese cat, sees himself in the crows on the rooftops, wishing for black wings to carry him away…

Will he survive in the big city? Or will he succumb to the desire of letting himself fall—and testing if he can really grow wings?

Footnote: I actually spent almost all of my allotted time trying to crack a different cover brief but as I was going nowhere fast I switched gears, and briefs, giving myself a luxurious 90 minutes to complete the cover above.

2011-10-31T11:53:00.000-07:00

"... no signs, no lights, no lines on the road..."

Listen here.

2011-08-30T21:41:00.000-07:00

For the Covering Lolita Project

I wanted to pay tribute to the sex (Lolita), the violence (Humbert) and the carefully clinical, yet florid, inner workings of the text itself (Nabokov) all at once.

2011-08-25T07:21:00.000-07:00

Approved. PMS 8003M and black.

Far out.

2011-06-16T06:57:00.000-07:00

As much as I'd like to think that a rejected idea can always find a home on another project, it has not once happened for me. Clients say 'no thanks' and I move on – unlike the comps which just collect dust in a pile on my hard drive. Looking at some of these covers again, free of their titles, etc., I started to like them once more... they're just so ridiculous.

Exactly:

2011-04-21T10:54:00.000-07:00

From the editor: The book is about a girl in 1985 who is eleven and living in Saskatoon. It jumps between two eras: the one where the daughter first discovers her mother has cancer, which then follows the year that happened after, and a second timeline that begins the day her mother dies and moves forward from there, spanning to about the age of eighteen. She jumps back and forth, alternating with each chapter... Throughout all of this, she’s sending letters to Corey Hart, who never responds, and constantly repeating his lyrics in her head to keep going.

An early comp here:

And yes, Corey Hart has seen the final cover and he likes it.

2011-04-05T06:24:00.000-07:00

Latest e-book cover for Joyland.ca. Megan Stielstra's Everyone Remain Calm is a collection of slightly absurdist, comedic short stories that deal with loss, identity, domestic balance and, in the titular story, Anemophobia.

More on my my Joyland series design here .

2011-03-28T13:46:00.001-07:00

Latest catalogue cover. Approved today.

"Take one."

2011-03-15T09:40:00.001-07:00

This one went though quite a few rounds of overthinking on my part and even one wild goose-chase involving a call to the Toronto Police Mounted Unit, searching for horse blinders that might fit on a human head (long story). I think the final cover here gets right to the heart of the matter quite simply and efficiently.

From the pub: 9/11 was a death blow to the older consensual view of reality, and as a result, North Americans no longer inhabit one cognitive universe. What this means for the future of politics, and for our society at large, is at the heart of Among the Truthers.

A couple of early comps below.

2011-03-09T08:00:00.001-08:00

Tony Burgess' books are usually a little bonkers. This forthcoming title is no exception. Idaho Winter is either equal parts Young Adult genre fiction masquerading as meta-fiction or vice versa. I'm still not sure.

From the publisher, ECW Press:

...Idaho becomes enraged upon learning that his suffering has been cruelly designed by a clumsy writer who confesses that he made his book meaner than all the others so it would stand out. Idaho locks the author in a closet and runs off, armed with the knowledge that the entire world is invented and that he has the power now to imagine it differently.

The cover was partly inspired by the old two-colour Hardy Boys serials (collectively ghostwritten yet attributed to one fictitious Franklin W. Dixon), partly inspired by my old late 1960s Boy Scouts Handbook in which you are taught how to survive just about anything except the hackneyed whims of 'the author'.

2011-03-04T06:52:00.001-08:00

Herewith a series of book cover designs for Joyland, a short-fiction e-book publisher.

Chris Eaton asked that I use the pugilist image supplied by illustrator Julian Forrest. (I cropped the image to hide the fighter's identity, and gave it a postage stamp edge, providing a couple of Pynchon in-jokes) I really liked the slight impasto quality of the illustration and it ended up informing the rest of the series in that I made sure that the hand of the creator – the rough edges - remained visible, or at least the appearance of rough edges remained visible.

This all fit nicely with Joyland's already-established old paper, faux-analogue look.

You can read me ramble on at greater length about the inspiration behind this series here with Joyland author, e-book advocate and one-time advertising reporter, Jim Hanas.

2010-11-15T08:47:00.000-08:00

Approved this morning. The idea itself came to me very quickly. However, holding the books steady on the glass and pressing 'scan' in Photoshop with my free hand took quite some time.

This Way or That Way

2010-11-08T07:02:00.000-08:00

I was recently asked to take part in a project based on Taduesz Borowski's book of stories about his experiences in a Nazi concentration camp. Designers were asked to supply their own interpretation of the cover in order to create a larger body of work that would hopefully create discussion about how the holocaust is represented and mediated.

I knew immediately that I didn't want to rely on the same visual shorthand for this project. No shots of the camps, no shots of the bodies, nothing that would tell you what you already knew, or have been told you knew. Also, I wanted to contemporize the cover if possible. Doing so would not only give the cover a new face, it would also, I hope, create a deeper sense of dread. The events that took place in Auschwitz didn't take place in black and white (history rarely does), and they didn't take place under black skies, through grainy filters; They happened on nice days. The sky was blue, as it is and I think this just makes the cover that much more chilling.

At the risk of sounding too high-minded, I was trying to get past what Bertrand Russel called "the knowledge of description." Or I was attempting to, at least.

But something interesting happened: I started to second-guess myself. I started wondering if I was serving the book or serving my ego by wanting to 'do something different.' Back at the drawing board, the following comp emerged:

Arguably, it strikes the mood just right but seems like something we've all seen before. But maybe we have seen this before for a reason.

It was a 50/50 proposition up until 9am this morning. Part of me still feels the daylight shot cover feels wrong, but for that very reason it's the one I sent.

Update: The This Way Project book is now out and available on their website. John Bertram was kind enough to forward a shot of my spread in the book, seen here.

2010-11-02T07:21:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was given one of those dreamy super-rush jobs of a project; just shy of one week from brief to delivery of multiple comps. I like how short timelines offer just enough time to figure out a conceptual strategy and execute it. Herewith, one of the short-notice comps.

Ultimately, the project ended up in an equally quick kill-fee. The client went in another direction. Had I slaved for weeks, I would feel worse about this. Had the project continued to move forward, I would have relished the fact that a Canadian designed the cover...

2010-09-29T07:03:00.001-07:00

Just-approved repackaging job. Gil Adamson's Ashland is a collection of dark, haunting Southwestern gothicky goodness. My words can't do it justice.

Says Jonathan Ball, Ashland is indeed the book’s main character, a dead, haunted realm, its inhabitants cursed for eternity to reenact the events which led to their damnation.

Heavy.

2010-09-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

From the Penguin Canada website: In her home on Empire Avenue, Donna Whalen was stabbed 31 times. Her friends, family, and neighbours believed it was her abusive boyfriend, Sheldon Troke. But the evidence is all circumstantial, providing a daunting challenge for police and prosecutors—and the course of justice takes many unpredictable twists and turns before the truth is finally revealed.

This is a work of documentary fiction and as such it was difficult to visualize both 'sides' of the story: both sides of the testimony, both sides of the fact v. fiction story-telling itself. The still and quietly quotidian cover image adds some tension and offers no clues ... is this a literal death or not?

Two colour with a metallic surprint. Here's the full jacket.

And here are some rejected pre-title change comps...

2010-08-13T08:32:00.000-07:00

Trade paperback iteration of previously published book by Hamish Hamilton for which I designed the hardover jacket. When I lifted the fox out of the original painting for the hardcover seen here...

I was left with what you see on the paperback - the negative space silhouette. Two totally different but completely complimentary covers from the same hi-res image. Swish.

PS, buy the book, it's great.

2010-07-26T06:06:00.000-07:00

Recently approved. Poetry is always a hard nut to crack. It's often about illustrating the mood of the text, or else coming up with something which, at first blush, seems entirely abstract.

Where does this cover sit in said equation? 50% author's request to see a bird on the cover, 50% this excerpt from the title poem:

An act born from a crowd’s seething will
I heave the blunt harm of a brick at helmets
and shields, a slow, magnificent arc.
My brick in flight is like a dove, you shriek.

Good V Bad

2010-07-02T12:36:00.000-07:00

From my A.D.: 'Matt has come from Vancouver to Toronto to try and talk his HIV positive friend, Zane, out of letting himself die as a political/artistic statement, denying himself the life-saving AIDS drugs that are denied to so many poor people around the word. Our hero just wants his friend to live and in trying to get him to abandon the plan, he writes seven short notes that turn virtue into vice. The notes provide the friend with "seven good reasons not to be good.'"

The book also deals with quantum entanglement, a theory which states that once two particles interact in some way, you can separate them by light years of space but that intimate connection will remain, to the extent that tinkering with one particle will have an instantaneous effect on the other no matter the distance between them.

Herewith, the final cover. Spot gloss on the molecules.
Click to enlarge.

An early comp which dealt with the book's themes of interconnectedness and loss in, perhaps, a more literal manner.

And this perhaps wisely-rejected comp which played with the ideas of Matt's seven letters themselves. I'll be the first to admit it: the type is awful.

Fall

2010-03-30T06:33:00.000-07:00

Recently-approved catalogue cover. Even though the book cover as a book cover thing has been done to death, I still find it an entirely appropriate solution for publisher catalogues.

2010-03-23T09:11:00.001-07:00

A couple of recent poetry covers for ECW press. George Murray's collection of aphorisms plays off of the quick and transient nature of information consumption.

And speaking of consumption, here is Elie Christie's follow-up to her debut poetry collection, Gutted.

Both of these covers required hours and hours of sketching and thinking before the admittedly simple solutions presented themselves. Executing the ideas took very little time in comparison. As Dolly Parton once said, "It costs a lot of money to look this cheap."

2010-03-12T07:20:00.000-08:00

A while back Dan Wagstaff, the Casual Optimist, (you read his blog, right?) invited me to take part in his Designer Q&A series. Quite an honour considering the company I'm in. You can read the full interview here... http://www.casualoptimist.com/?p=2947

2009-10-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Just sent these off to the printers. Robert J Sawyer is Canada's pre-eminent Hugo and Nebula Award-winning science fiction writer. The initial brief asked me to stay away from a typical sci-fi look for this non-serial series.
Not pictured: the crazy radial spot varnish I added as a finishing touch. I'll try to post a shot of the finished covers when they show up in my mailbox. Or on the shelf. Whichever happens first.

2009-08-04T10:38:00.000-07:00

Turns out Glenn Gould was not the monastic esthete recluse we always thought he was – turns out he was something of a lothario, in fact.

No matter how obvious the solution may seem at first, I always think to myself, "I could push things further – take a left turn somewhere." I explored a few concept-driven directions but sometimes my job can be summed-up thusly: choose the right photo and get out of the way.

Here he is, in his original context: receiving a watch from Toronto mayor Nathan Phillips.

Thanks again to The City of Toronto Archives for making my job that much easier.

2009-04-05T18:39:00.001-07:00

Another non-book cover related post? This is a calling card for Hooligan Filmworks, a film production company here in Toronto. The business cards were each burned by hand. I can't count how many times people have asked me about how to achieve this particular effect. Vice-grips and a blowtorch, in case you were wondering.

2009-04-03T07:24:00.001-07:00

Even though I'm a copywriter by trade, my ad-man day-job occassionaly affords me the chance to do some design work for clients. This is a proposed logo (shown in situation) for an Ontario non-profit wine trade association.

2009-03-29T07:14:00.000-07:00

While the mercury is beginning to rise and the birds are starting to sing again I'm looking forward to dead leaves and scratchy sweaters.

I'm often asked to adapt an existing book cover design for catalogue use but, this time I was given the chance to come up with something new.

2009-03-20T12:24:00.001-07:00

Just waiting to hear back from the author but, these are the two comps I submitted for Sky Gilbert's latest collection of funny, explicit and personal poetry. To many, Sky needs no introduction. As you can see, with these comps I aimed one shot to the body and one shot to the head, much like the poetry itself.

Addendum: Luckily, the client didn't buy the silhouette cover below as I recently realized it's eerily close to this one, right down to the typeface, too. http://www.bookcoverarchive.com/book/the_error_world

Sky's site: http://home.istar.ca/~anita/

2009-03-17T06:44:00.000-07:00

There is certainly no shortage of books on the environment these days. The challenge I faced with this project was packaging the title without using the usual imagery you find on books of this nature. Luckily, thanks to global warming, some recent mild weather gave me the chance to run out and shoot this in my back yard. I sent a bunch of comps through for consideration but, this one is my pick of the litter (insert rimshot).

2009-02-20T09:13:00.000-08:00

One of many, many wrestling titles I've been working on. Also, my second Chris Benoit book. Now, I'm aware that the newspaper-as-book-cover device has been done a million times but I felt it still had some value here since this book contains a lot of newspaper and magazine reportage.

2009-02-19T04:58:00.000-08:00

Approved. This was my first piece of mass-market genre-fiction.
I know that both of those things make a lot of people's backs go up but, I had a lot of fun designing this psychological future-thriller re-pack. The narrow dimensions alone were cause for much delight and head-scratching.

You can read up on the book here:
http://www.amazon.ca/Neuropath-R-Scott-Bakker/dp/0765321890/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235048303&sr=8-1

2009-01-21T11:17:00.000-08:00

Douglas Coupland once descibed Can Lit as something that "is not a modern art form, nor does it want to be." Jury's still out on that one. Google his NYTimes blog entry on this subject.

Broken Pencil is a Canadian alternative culture magazine focussing on indie literature, zines, etc. One of these comps should make the final cut.

If you've ever stepped foot inside a Loblaw's or No-Frills grocery store, this cover might speak to you.

http://www.canadiandesignresource.ca/officialgallery/?p=56

2009-01-12T11:30:00.001-08:00

Back cover copy: "Gone to Hell is the true story of priests who abrogated their vows, violated their position of trust, and tossed their faith and religion aside – all for greed."

Backstory: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17120210/

2009-01-07T05:22:00.000-08:00

A collection of true stories about how even geniuses can have bad days. We can only live in hope. With chapter headings like "Alexander Graham Bell’s Six-Nippled Sheep" and "Nikola Tesla’s Earthquake Machine" this book is chock-full of potential cover material and/or acid-rock album titles.

Update, 3rd of March: Here's the final, approved cover.

2008-11-24T18:36:00.000-08:00

Two of many concepts to be offered up for consideration for this paperback repackaging. I took these shots in my kitchen this evening so at the very least, the location is right.

I feel I owe Ingrid Paulson a nod for subconsciously inspiring the napkin concept with her recent cover for James Chatto's "The Man Who Ate Toronto."

And yes, I chewed the pen myself.

2008-10-24T08:35:00.000-07:00

Where does one begin with a title like this? Wow. At least I'm not averse to conducting the appropriate field research – when necessary, of course.

Here's one of two rough concepts offered up. The other concept will have to wait until I hear back from the interested parties. As this cover is the back-up option, I felt it was safe to share.

Update: here's the approved cover. In true Canadian fashion, a compromise was offered and accepted. Drinks are on me.

2008-10-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Turns out a book about Metallica might need some more rock and roll in the cover after all. Here's the next super-rough comp for this title. I'm going to try to push for a black gloss on black matte finish for the background image as a nod to their "Black Album" and help push the ticket to the front as I feel the word "Metallica" alone might grab the right people's attention.

Also, the years spanned in this book are '82 -'84, not '82 -'87 as previously stated. For all you sticklers out there...

2008-09-26T12:50:00.001-07:00

What a title! This book compiles years of research results that paint a detailed picture of the Canadian psyche. I hear there will be charts and graphs inside. I'm excited to read this. I submitted four comps and this is my pick of the pack.

Here's the runner-up...

*final subtitle TBD.

2008-09-26T05:46:00.000-07:00

Edward Dacres is a dissolute, unsuccessful painter living in London in the late 1930s. He receives a letter addressed to Edward Davis (a successful painter of salon-style "Fox & Hound" scenes) requesting Davis' participation in a cultural exchange designed to educate the colonies in the "Finer Arts". Assuming the identity of Davis (among others), Dacres hops on a ship to Canada and hilarity, gin and personal disasters ensue. Think Kingsley Amis meets Evelyn Waugh.

These are two of the rough comps sent through earlier this week and I hope to hear back on which one is selected soon.

The archival shot below is of The Art Gallery of Toronto (later to be the AGO) found in the utterly fantastic and fascinating photo section of the City of Toronto Archives website.

2008-09-04T19:20:00.001-07:00

Here's a question: does a the cover for a book about Metallica, or any other heavy metal band, have to look like a heavy metal album cover? This book collects photos from some of the band's earliest shows when they were nobodies on the bottom of the bill. I thought this picture said it all - and it's a rare glimpse of the band when they were mingling with the kids. When they were kids.

Now I also have some flailing-hair-and-distressed-typography covers up my sleeve but, I just wanted to throw this one out there.

Movie Night

2008-08-18T19:08:00.000-07:00

SPARKS is a Toronto-based film production company. The owner asked if I had any ideas for repackaging their reels. Companies like SPARKS send out hundreds of reels a year and as someone who works in advertising, and receives these reels, I could build a house out of those black plastic cases. So, I suggested card stock digipacks with a gloss UV on the logo etc. They're a bit nicer to hold and the smaller size makes a dramatic difference on the shelf. I'll post a shot when I get my hands on one.

Here's the outside of the case

and the inside

This design idea is now blowing out across all their materials, starting with their
cards.

The book cover jobs have slowed down a bit lately so this kind of traditional design work makes a nice change. This is my second film company identity program. The first was for Hooligan Filmworks, another local company. I'll post some of that work in the near future.

Stayin' Alive.

2008-08-01T06:13:00.000-07:00

First in a series of three textbooks for a local academic publishing house. This volume focuses how to plan and prepare for emergencies. The next two volumes will deal with response and recovery. Went in a few directions with this one but was asked if it was possible to incorporate emergency iconography for a quicker read.

It's serious reading so I wanted to see if I could have a little fun with it.

It's at the printers now.

2008-07-11T06:47:00.001-07:00

Here's round two. These rough comps are both in the running for the final cover.
As mentioned previously, I was asked to approach this cover in a more conventional manner.

The luggage tag collage was thrown together pretty quickly and I only sent it at the last minute not really thinking it would make the cut. Should it go forward, I'd like to take the small hammer to it and tap things here and there a bit.

The airplane cover was based on an image the art director suggested I play with.

2008-07-08T06:32:00.001-07:00

Another title change required another concept comp. The map and arrows wrap all the way around the cover. See "Where we Are" and "You Are Here" posts below for the full backstory.

2008-07-04T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here's the super-condensed synopsis cribbed from Penguin's website: "...The settings, familiar and exotic alike, serve as mirrors of the characters' own displacement, reflecting not only their estrangement from others but also from themselves."

One of the stories in the collection tells of a trout that turns a village upside down. Given the title, I thought a close-up of the fish's skin created a nice tension.

Sadly, these covers didn't make it. They were a bit too edgy for the author and the audience. Honestly, this is the kind of feedback I like to get. Not only does the client know what they want but asking me to tone something down is far better than telling me something isn't edgy enough. I think, anyway.

2008-07-03T12:13:00.000-07:00

The book Where We Are (see below) is now to be called You Are Here. My earlier concepts may still be in the running but, I sent this rough comp through this morning as I was asked if I could somehow focus on how our relationship with space dictates our design of urban landscapes.

2008-06-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

One of two titles I'm currently working on. This book deals with how as humans, we've lost touch with the ability to navigate our surroundings. Even though we have larger brains and greater cognitive abilities than most animals, desert ants do a better job of knowing exactly where they are. This book also touches on how this inability of ours to find our way impacts the world at large.

These are the comps I'm rooting for.

A variation on a theme. The perspective in this shot may do a better job of communicating the idea of isolation.

Still here.

2008-05-27T07:13:00.000-07:00

Much to show soon. Stay tuned, both of you.

Music

2008-04-08T04:38:00.000-07:00

I am on occasion asked to design CD and album covers. I find it can be a tricky business, since it's much like that old saw 'dancing about architecture.'

The Toronto band Don Vail band got their name from an old teacher of theirs and they play a kind of dark, yet sweet, and complicated indie rock. So, I wanted to represent the art and science behind their sound. The clear tray with abstract-expressionistic colour bursts is visible behind the chalkboard sleeve.

Admittedly, it's a bit academic. In the end, this is another design for the remainder bin. It was rejected by the band (who ended up rejecting the label offer as well) but it did result in this comment from the label rep:

"...the band feels it doesn’t really say “Don Vail” (how ironic since in fact that is exactly what it says)"

which made me laugh out loud.

2008-04-01T07:18:00.001-07:00

Here's the latest sketch I sent through just this morning. It's the eyes following the heavenly glare on the vinyl that do it for me. When I find the time today, I'll try a version with Mary holding a microphone.

PRESS

2008-03-27T09:16:00.000-07:00

I'm loathe to toot my own horn but, In keeping with my tendency to post just about everything I've worked on or am currently working on, here's a not-so-recent clipping from Quill & Quire Magazine on the top seven covers of 2007. I'm in rather good company.

And here's an ever older clipping from Italian GQ all about how Europeans could learn a thing or two from us North Americans (or Canadians, in my case) when it comes to book design. That's my very first cover ever (Showbiz) in the middle there, surrounded by some real greats in the industry. Wowsers.

2008-03-24T11:27:00.000-07:00

Here's the story of the French resistance and how a couple of Canadians volunteered to go to France, live double lives and act as spies for the movement. Here are a couple of dead covers, round one and round two, for said book, too. (the uneven kerning probably killed them) Round three is at the publisher's at the time of this posting so we'll see how it nets out soon enough. This was a fun project to work on - I could scour through old 1940's wartime photos all day.

Also, I copped my own pull-the-spine-onto-the-front-cover device on the "Wasps" post below.

Here's round three. The publishers felt something a littlle more representational might be in order for this title. Various photos were suggested and upon reviewing them, I felt it important to keep some notion of secrecy in the imagery. Hide the faces. Being an undergound, anonymous movement, the cafe shot works well enough and hints at conspiracy. This explains the crop on the second version.

And the type treatment, well, I just wanted it to read "French."

2008-03-24T11:09:00.000-07:00

A lot of new covers to post soon.

In the meantime, here's a recent poetry cover for Asher Ghaffar's latest. It's tough to explain this one. I had to go over the brief a few times but, ultimately, the book is about the erosion of political and personal boundaries and shattered family histories. I really should let Asher do the heavy lifting on this one. See http://waspsinagoldendream.blogspot.com

2008-03-04T07:15:00.001-08:00

This is the latest collection by Canadian poet Robert Priest. However, this is not the cover. The feeling was that this concept may be a tad too literal, given the title. The poetry within leans towards the abstract so that's where I've been directed to go. I'm interested in seeing the end result as I was sure I nalied it on this one. Stay tuned.

Here's the latest sketch. Robert drew a lot of inspiration from turntablism and its inherent fragmentation of sound and language. Also, Janus figures as another source of inspiration – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janus_(mythology)
Ideally, I'd shoot the headline for the finished product. This is still at the "something like this?" stage.

2008-02-25T06:56:00.000-08:00

Stephanie Dickison is a freelance writer who, according to her website stephaniedickison.com, will take on any assignment, including wiriting a book about what it's like to be a freelance writer. She's a very nice client. Thanks for the card, Stephanie. Sorry I didn't use the shot of your cat.

The cover photo wraps all the way around to the back to reveal the floor littered with file folders, sheets of paper and assorted home-office detritus courtesy of my wife Jodi, a freelance producer herself. I shot this in my bedroom (I needed to sweep and Swiffer anyway) and gave Jodi the slippers afterwards. Good times!

(My Battle with) MY BATTLE WITH ANOREXIA

2008-02-14T07:46:00.000-08:00

Feb 20th update: SOLD.

2008-01-31T12:52:00.000-08:00

Just finished this version this afternoon. Is the third time really the charm? Only time spent watching my inbox will tell. While the title running off the edge of the cover might be a bit gimmicky, here I think it works.

2008-01-25T07:58:00.000-08:00

Dead. "Too subtle" was the comment I received from the editor. In retrospect, I agree. An unappetizing big apple (ha ha) is not the way to go. Clearly, I'm avoiding the issue at hand: a book about surviving Anorexia in New York City. Something more literal, something that yells from across the room, is required of me so, back to the drawing board and the liquor cabinet. Can't wait to see how I solve this one.

See 'Kid Rex' post, below, for the beginning of the story.

2008-01-14T05:19:00.000-08:00

"We're working on a book about Scrabble - thing is we can't actually use any of the elements from the game itself."

Fine. I feel like I've seen a million books about the game that use the tiles to spell out the title. So, I'll use the blank tiles instead. After all this book is more about the players than a history of the game itself. The players make the game... the game is nothing without them... anything else I can overthink?

A tough one, but fun in the end. If the approved comp is any indication of the final result, I'll be happy.

2008-01-14T04:56:00.001-08:00

The author had some very specific ideas about this cover. I had a hard time reconciling some of her requests about shots of Venetian bridges and foggy shots of New York City. Understandably, this is a touchy subject. Also, upon researching other titles about anorexia I was struck by just how many feature the authors on the cover smiling as if to say, "you can overcome it, too."
I think that, as a memoir of sorts, this cover offers something different. It's a bit stark, and a bit lonely, but I think that given the subject matter it has the right mood...

Again, this is the comp. When the final cover is finished, I'll post the whole thing.

UPDATE: January 18/07

Rejected. I'll post the final version soon enough.

2008-01-14T04:17:00.000-08:00

I was recently asked to come up with a cover for LesleyAnn Coker's new novel, Boob Tube. As a writer for Soap Opera Weekly, LesleyAnn knows a little bit about the goings on behind the scenes in the soap opera industry. As such, she's written a novel to be independently published later this year. It's a bit of a juicy gossip "the names have been changes to protect the guilty" book – but it also deals with some body image issues facing aging starlets. Hence the image that the author supplied. I really thought I nailed it with the TV Guide style clipping over the cleavage, but they ended up picking the sideways, diary-esque design despite my subtle protestations.

RECENT POETRY COVERS

2008-01-14T04:04:00.000-08:00

These are lo-res versions of covers for books that should be hitting the shelves within the next few weeks. Augustine in Carthage and The North End Poems add to my ever-expanding poetry covers catalogue for ECW Press' MisFit imprint.

"Equally crude and charming, locker-room macho and sensitive, these poems are always singularly marked by formal ingenuity and stylistic élan. A poetry that gleefully articulates the possibilities of a 21st century balls-deep masculinity, Porco’s new collections begins with its most important work, “Augustine in Carthage,” a trans-historical re-imagining of Book III of St. Augustine’s Confessions, which includes (among other things) philosophizing strippers, Tampico bombers, rabbit holes, coprology, and comic-book heroism."

From the back: "Channeling the beliefs, passions, fears, friends and fights of Nick Macfarlane, a young steeltown warehouse worker, Knox creates the kind of hardscrabble, blue collar world that exists everywhere. "

Love the sticker they added online. Nice touch!

Fly On The Wall is a series of illustrated sinister short stories that I art-directed. The original concept would have made your eyes hurt, if not throw their hands up in defeat and leave your face in a huff.

Like so:

WRESTLING

2007-12-27T02:58:00.000-08:00

ECW Press publishes a lot of wrestling titles. I had half-jokingly told editor Michael Homes to send some my way and here we go - three recent rasslin' covers. The Benoit book was a tough one due to the timing and sensitivity of the subject matter but it was also the quickest turnaround of any cover I've worked on to date. It was a matter of a couple of hours from initial briefing to front cover approval. Seeing it used as a backdrop on Entertainment Tonight was a surreal thrill. Larryland, well, I'll have to work on that one some more - it was a case of "Quick, we need something for the catalogue!" but really, how can you lose with a picture like that? I love it.

2007-12-27T02:30:00.000-08:00

Dave Thompson has written about ten million books. I worked on his Bowie biography "Hallo Spaceboy" a few years back, and when the opportunity arose to work on this book, a history of adult cinema, I took it. The book is, as the subtitle says, a history of adult cinema and explains how the VCR basically helped wipe out the x-rated movie house industry. The purple cover was rejected by the buyers as being too much like a "Coffee Table Novelty Book." I did manage to sneak the cheeky girl onto the spine of the finished cover - for shelf appeal.

This book was recently reviewed and pictured in Playboy magazine thereby knocking one more item off my lifelong 'to do' list.

Further reading here: www.avclub.com/content/words/black_and_white_and_blue

2007-12-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

rob mclennans's latest is a long rumination about Canadian poetry written as he travels by rail across this fair land. As such, he requested I use an image that he supplied of a model train. I thought that the book required something more abstract and something that balanced the title with the content. The final result (above) was achieved by crumpling up sheets of photocopy paper and leaving the lid open on the scanner. Instant viewer-produced light source. A little bit of computer magic was involved, but only in the layout phase. The earlier cover concept, with the giant Pink Pearl eraser, was wisely (?) rejected.

2007-12-26T20:16:00.000-08:00

Okay. So this was a tough one. It's a book about books, sort of. It's actually much more than that and much more than this: a cross between Fight Club and Fahrenheit 541. There was some skepticism when I presented this cover concept. But there really is no point in having a first time authour's name emblazoned across the cover of a book, is there? "Oh my god, Corey Redekop has written a novel called Shelf Monkey?!" He later tattooed this cover on his arm. I kid you not.

The title-obscuring blurbs that wrapped all the way around the cover went over well, as did the generic "BOOK" execution (with the title, author name, ISBN etc., on the spine), but in the end, the Flammable Warning image was the way to go.

p.s. I had, at one point, thought about placing a monkey behind the bars of a UPC code, but rejected it as bit of a one-note samba. Luckily, someone else had the same idea.

2007-12-26T20:04:00.000-08:00

Stephen Brockwell's most recent work is a collection of poems written in many different styles and many different voices that collectively question the notion of authorship. So, I mocked up a fake slipcover, wrapped it around my copy of "The Elements of Style" and photographed the results on my kitchen counter. My most meta work to date.

You can read about mimesis here (csmt.uchicago.edu/glossary2004/mimesis.htm) or you can buy the book. Your call.

2007-12-26T18:25:00.001-08:00

Here's the one that started my side-gig as a book cover designer, Jason Anderson's "Showbiz." It's a gonzo-esque tale of presidential assassinations and stand-up comedy. Looking back at it there are a million little things I would change, but it still makes me laugh. This cover landed me in Quill & Quire Magazine, Italian GQ (mere pages away from Monica Bellucci) and an Applied Arts Annual – although they chose to edit out all references to alcohol being part of the 'creative process'.

Further reading here: covers.fwis.com/showbiz