The art of creation for dummies (Ever judge a book by it's cover?)

Member Name: chris105

Product:	Ever judge a book by it's cover?
Date:	16/07/01 (76 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: a heck of a job (when I get to do it), book covers are the business card of a book

Disadvantages: badly thought out, a book cover can give a completely wrong impression of a book

This category was created for me - come on, admit it dooyoo! It's been there for ages, screaming at me and begging me to write in it. If there were a category in all of dooyoo, and only one category (God forbid!!), where I should be allowed to post, this would be it.

No doubt.

Why this overabundant enthusiasm? Even less modest than usual? Well, perhaps... but even more importantly, I feel I belong here since a good part of my (hectic - aren't we all? I know) living is made designing book covers. Actually, said part of my living also involves the much less glamorous but equally demanding designing of the inside of a book, but this under-appreciated area deserves a category of its own... (sometime perhaps, this could be an idea for another op - but only eventually, I promise you, I shan't bore you with loads of work-related ops at one go)

The publisher I work for is the main publishing group in the country (my country, that is, not the UK - would it were so, think of all those books, and all those covers!), so I'm kept quite busy with covers coming in.

As in all creative jobs, once the artist is constrained by that hated word - TIME (aka "deadline's looming, get that cover to the printers yesterday!") - the flow of creative ideas, if any, is reduced to a trickle. It is usually said that art cannot be rushed, and like most cliches it is very often true (with apologies to Wolfe), but in my job some form of compromise must be reached. It is all well and good to create that one memorable book cover that was six months in the making, with all the trappings of a work of art, and that makes prospective customers in a bookstore drool over the book. But if the rate is more like one cover per week, to be completed in between rushing madly to finish two or three different text layouts, the cache of wow/out-of-this-world/event-of-the-century-nah-mil lennium ideas for book covers depletes itself dangerously.

>At times, I find myself distilling ideas, seeing what I can save from the left-overs to recycle into another cover. The problem is, since I like to think that I still retain a small measure of pride in my work, the recycled stuff bores me and depresses me at my next attempt to introduce it. Thus, I find myself, clock mercilessly ticking away notwithstanding, trashing all old ideas and starting from scratch. Much to the chagrin of my employer, I might add, who'd rather have the finished product in, like, 10 seconds!

But I'm digressing (yet again). I'm not attempting self-justification at the relative (?) mediocrity of some of the covers, honestly I'm not - you haven't seen any of them anyway, so I needn't worry about that. I'm trying to explain, in my convoluted roundabout way, why book covers require such concentration and applied psychology (sorry, couldn't resist that, as Jill'd say it sounded so posh...). I'll try to let you into my train of thought when I'm creating a book cover - fasten your seat belt, it'll be a rough ride, I'm not one for a TGV ride (or is that France? geography buffs please help here...).

I

Absolute first comandment, no matter the time constraints, is to read the book. Now this may sound like a great thing to have to do for a living, but it ain't so when the cover is for an advanced level chemistry book, I assure you. In which case, incidentally, I proceed to plan B (which is, in case you're wondering, not actually reading the book but skimming through it thoroughly and discussing contents and style with the author - but that's step 2, sorry, I'm rushing ahead of myself).

Reading the book will give me an indication of the subject-matter, obviously, but also of the target audience of the book, which is absolutely essential if the cover is to attract the right segment of people. The mood of the writing will have to be reflected in the desig
n, of course. There are only few things worse than opening a book to find something completely different in tone and mood to what the cover suggested.

II

Wherever possible, I then try to have a discussion about the book with its author - unless, that is, the author is (i) dead, (ii) absolutely intractable, or (iii) labouring under the assumption that a meagre book designer who can probably barely read the newspaper would never understand the profound concepts incapsulated in his oeuvre. [Please don't get me started on this pet peeve of mine - horrid authors - it's way too late in the night for that.] Discussing the book with the author often provides insights into how s/he conceives the book visually.

Of course, this step works best when designer and author respect each other's territories. It becomes a total waste of time if the designer presumes to suggest (gasp! shock!) alterations to ANYTHING in the text (believe me, not even if there's so much as a spelling mistake - this will lead to fainting spells and convulsive fits), or if the author comes up with the dreaded phrase: "well, I know this isn't my department at all, but the way I kind of saw this book is with a green and pink shading...". The latter nightmare is usually closely followed by said author retrieving from briefcase/handbag/pocket a sketch of author's "cover suggestion" as drawn by niece/son/pet goldfish.

Let's get off this particular subject before I get all worked up, please.

III

The next stage is the technical bit, where I check with the publisher whether there's a specific size to the book or whether I'm free to experiment. Other details are whether I can go wild with full-colour or whether budget constraints mean that I have to create something decent with one/two colours.

What I am ignoring in this op is that this whole process moves hand in hand with the design of the actual
inside of a book - the style of the cover and the text obviously have to be, if not identical, at least consistent and not clashing.

IV

Now comes the fun bit. To which there are no hard and fast rules. Sometimes I start with a clean slate, and scribble around until I hit on something which inspires me. Other times there are photos/images/illustrations that could be included, perhaps linked to similar images inside the book, so I'd start from there and distort/change/enhance the image. Images can be a starting point to create a totally new collage, so that the end result will barely bear any resemblance to the original, yet subconsciously make the reader feel at home with what is to come.

In other assignments, I could have an idea in mind - stemming from steps I, II and III - of a concept for the cover, from which I'd proceed. Sometimes the end result is related to this concept, and other times the original concept merely serves to signpost the way to "pastures new".

All of this, last but not least as is oft said, is subordinate, to some extent, to the lord of publishing: marketing and sale-ability. Art and functionality do sometimes differ, I must admit. I have innumerable beautiful covers that lie forgotten in some corner of my hard disk, all because they weren't "catchy" enough! Sigh! Creating something that is both beautiful and leap-off-the-shelf-into-customer's-arms practical is THE real challenge, at the end of the day.


I could go on and on. But you get the gist of it. Of course then there's the equipment available. Creativity without instruments is unfortunately not enough. The arsenal of tools at my disposal, on computer, make a complete difference.

Ok, ok, I promised to stop. I shan't ramble on any longer. And please don't go nit-picking on me, saying that I haven't been to the point. I was just trying to give a different slant to the category. An
"inside" point of view, if you like.

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