Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz

This week I received a copy of Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, a new cover I designed for W. W. Norton and art directed by Debra Morton Hoyt. The final cover printed beautifully, thanks in large part to an amazingly detailed painting of Sor Juana from the 17th century (I love her eye staring down the viewer).

 

The original painting before cropping/recoloring:

Anonymous, 17th century / Portrait of Sor Juana de la Cruz / Museo de American, Madrid, Spain / Photo credit: Art Resource, NY

As a book designer, you go through so many comps in a year, it's easy to forget what you sent in for the first round. Sor Juana was a title I worked on almost a year ago, but I was reminded of the other designs I turned in after receiving the printed book. Luckily, this project had a fairly quick approval process and we moved forward with just slight revisions on the cover above. Here are a few other typographically driven comps I was pleased with (though I fully understand why the final was chosen):