Some covers that were shelved...in a good way

Some of my covers do get approved and I thought I would share a recent update of work. New covers are found on my designrelated portfolio page, but here are a couple favorites that just wrapped up:

http://tiny.cc/xG7s0

http://tiny.cc/jl9Kl

So I'm overdue to post...

Sorry, I've been knee deep in cover work and well, let's just say some of it will be appearing here in the next few months.

For my next shelved book, Torah Queeries for NYU Press. My very kind Art Director tried his best to get these through, but in the end sometimes a conceptual cover is not what is wanted or I supposed needed. I'd like to think otherwise, but having an editor for a husband, I understand the rationale.

From Amazon: "This incredibly rich collection unites the voices of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and straight-allied writers, including some of the most central figures in contemporary American Judaism. All bring to the table unique methods of reading and interpreting that allow the Torah to speak to modern concerns of sexuality, identity, gender, and LGBT life."

I have to admit, I struggled with this one for a while until the idea of the pink triangle forming a Jewish Star came to me. Once it did, I wondered what took me so long.








However, in the end the feedback was that the pink triangle was too much of a reminder of the Holocaust (the patches worn by Jews on clothing). I never thought of this interpretation myself, instead only thinking of the gay pride icon and also thinking that paired with the "queeries" in the title the connection made sense. It's a good reminder to consider all meanings in your designs. The final cover (which I did not design) is on Amazon.

The Nightingales of Troy

I give all the credit to my art director, Eleen Cheung at W.W. Norton for guiding this jacket along and getting it printed. Even at the end we were making adjustments and Eleen had an endless amount of patience with me and the author (and everyone else) to make this happen.

The book is comprised of ten linked short stories which track the lives of four generations of women from Troy, N.Y., "where love comes to die." The first story begins in 1908, and subsequent stories are spaced approximately a decade apart. Because there are so many stories it seemed important to NOT show everything and give more of a feel of the lush & complex stories.

There is quite a bit of rich detail in the writing to draw upon. For imagery, I chose to focus on women representing the 20s time period where the name of the novel is taken from the corresponding story. I hinted at some of these concepts in the early comps, such as the Madonna/saint since there are many spiritual overtones throughout.





A nun grows poppies (opium) in one story:



After this round, the author suggested she would like to see Troy featured. This photo (I thought) had a nice balance between mysterious & beautiful...


Then it was suggested to try synchronized swimmers since they appear in the book in one of the stories: I was skeptical...but I did like the symmetry of the photograph.



In one of the above rounds I sent this comp. It didn't go over at the time, but elements of the design appear in the final (modern-day Troy at the bottom):


This comp was submitted later in the process...


After this concept was chosen, I then took vintage images (or made images vintage looking) relating to the individual stories and made them into small icons. The only catch was that the author wanted icons for every story. Originally I was told to try and fit all the icons on the front cover, but after some discussion we were finally able to get some pushed to the back cover (7 on front, 3 on back). The final design:



The final jacket was a selection in the Philadelphia AIGA design awards this year (the PDAs).