Friday, September 17, 2010

If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This


Many times I receive a manuscript, read it through and just hope I can do the writing justice with a cover design. This is the case with Robin Black's beautiful If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This. As with all short story collections, the difficulty lies in finding imagery that can represent the tone of all the stories.

From the Random House website:

"Brilliant, hopeful, and fearlessly honest, If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This illuminates the truths of human relationships, truths we come to recognize in these characters and in ourselves."

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The title story is where I originally began. It centers on a woman who is dying of cancer addressing her neighbour, who wants to erect a fence that blocks her driveway. The fence became a visual icon for me in the first round of comps:





The second set of imagery I used was paint strokes, inspired by the story, Immortalizing John Parker. The main character, who is a painter, reflects on her own life while painting a portrait of an aging Alzheimer's patient.




The painterly feel of the comps was what I was asked to concentrate on and from there a series of painted comps was submitted for review. First warm, then cooler colors...






Towards the end, the focus shifted back to an earlier comp with the 9 paint strokes. From there, we adjusted the background color and the final jacket was complete. Seen below is the front cover, spine and back:



A small aside: Initially I used 9 paint strokes because the manuscript I received over a year ago had 9 stories. It wasn't until I showed up for Robin's book reading at Bryn Mawr College that I realized the book had 10 stories.

5 comments:

Ian Koviak said...

lovely end piece. I remember you posting that some time ago somewhere. I love the first 2 comps as well.

a2me said...

Love all these designs. Now i want to read the book. ho amusing that you've already quoted me.
Best,
Anne

K. Glyder said...

thanks Ian

Anne, it's the perfect quote! And the book is a must read.

Alex said...

I love the second comp—really nice. The final jacket is nice too (as always). Don't worry about 9 strokes vs. 10...there's more beauty in odd numbers anyway!

Babette said...

Wauw, it's amazing to see your design process. As a design student, I am always curious to see the steps a designers has taken to come to an end result. And you show them all. Love it, and nice surprising result!
Cant wait to read the rest of your blog.