The Success Equation

Last Spring, I worked on this title for Stephani Finks at Harvard Business Review Press. Stephani, as always, gave me the perfect direction...and from there I had a great visual metaphor to draw upon:

The "Untangling" in the sub is really the crux of the book – Untangling Skill and Luck in Business, Sports, and Investing.

From the beginning a graphic, type driven design was my approach on all the comps. Here are two alternate designs and the final red one. It makes sense the author would gravitate to the comp that includes insets of each of the three topics discussed in the book (business, sports and investing), though it lacked any visual relationship to the word "untangling." I was still hoping for the green one which plays on this theme the best in my opinion, but the final design does make a good fit.







The final jacket

Designer Genes

A couple years ago I briefly worked on a title called Designer Genes. Here is a short summary from the tip sheet:

The possibility exists that there will arise an elite class of genetically engineered citizens, followed by an era where each generation selects the genetic makeup of the subsequent generation. This man-driven evolution will replace Darwinian natural selection.

This is a compelling concept. The approach needed to be accessible and warm, but sill authoritative. Here are a couple of the options I sent along (forgive the quick photoshop work). In the end they went back to a previous designer's comp. Still, an interesting topic and I was pleased with these two directions.

Hello again / New book project

Signs, Streets and Storefronts is a new book project that recently wrapped up. From Amazon:

Signs, Streets, and Storefronts addresses more than 200 years of signs and place-marking along America’s commercial corridors. From small-town squares to Broadway, State Street, and Wilshire Boulevard, Martin Treu follows design developments into the present and explores issues of historic preservation.

I began with the interior design first and adapted the cover about a month later. Here is an alternate comp from the first (and only) round that is closer to the interior design. The idea was that the blue would be a metallic:





However, the consensus was that this orange cover was more dynamic:

 

Below is a sampling of the interior spreads. The book is b&w throughout with a color signature. The shapes and angles of the signs are appealing and it struck me that recreating them might be a nice addition to the chapter openers. Once I redrew the lines and integrated them into the spreads, I carried this style element throughout the book on the TOC and  frontmatter. Definitely a fun project (especially placing the Lustig graphics throughout).

50/50

Hope to see everyone there!

Come check out this year's selected covers & books

Wednesday, December 7
6:00–8:00 p.m.
AIGA National Design Center
164 Fifth Avenue (between 21st and 22nd Streets)
New York, NY 10010

The Color of Night

From Booklist:

“In this sharp blade of a novel, every word is weaponized as Bell stands at the portal to chthonic evil.”

This is a violent, disturbing, and engrossing novel, recalling the savagery of the Manson era. My self imposed direction was to display violence without being too graphic.

Early on in the story, the main character comes upon a dead fawn, and then makes the hide into a fawnskin to wear. For the first comp and the only one not showing a woman, I wanted to show the fawn and the juxtaposition of innocence and brutality.




Many of my other covers do show a 60s stylized version of women, appropriate to the era in which this novel takes place. Knives play a large role in the story, so I've incorporated them throughout.




A slash to evoke violence.




Probably the most literal depiction of the story, and one that was deemed too over the top.




Early on many of the comps use slashes I created on the computer.




Later, I was encouraged to try cutting the photos of women for a more unsettling effect. My studio looked very, very disturbing.



All credit to my art director, John Gall, for pushing this comp to what I think is it's best outcome. I scanned the final image (with slashes) and did quite a bit of Photoshop work to get the slash marks to be realistic, creating more depth and contrast. The final cover:

NEW, NEW

A quick post to introduce my new design portfolio site: www.kimberlyglyder.com


Take a look!

Judging 50/50

At my first job out of RISD I used to take out the AIGA annuals on my lunch break and read each one cover to cover. The most intriguing part of the annual, hands down, was always the 50 books/50 covers section and most definitely was an inspiration to start my own book design career. I would see the same names over and over, and I developed a fair amount of hero worship for these book designers.

Fast forward many years. Last month I was at AIGA’s New York office judging the 50 books / 50 covers show. This was not only meaningful to me as a designer, but also because the show itself had been cancelled, then reopened. There has already been much said on the subject­­—good and bad—so I will forego that debate and highlight instead that there were a decent amount of entries this year. The number was slightly down from the prior year, but in comparison to the total amount entered into the 365 competion, it was a good showing and, in my humble opinion, definitely worth the time, money, and energy for AIGA to continue the legacy of this competition.

AIGA’s Gabriela Mirensky was our coordinator for the judging and the overall process went very smoothly with Chip Kidd as our chair (whose insistence on including 50 of each category I’m happy to report was fulfilled). Joseph Sullivan from the Book Design Review blog and designers Arthur Cherry and Barbara Glauber rounded out the jury and it was a pleasure spending two days with such talented people discussing book design. As Peter Mendelsund noted last year, the criteria for which pieces were selected had more to do with the need for consensus among all 5 judges rather than the any lack of quality among those pieces which were not selected. It was a rare treat to see the work of so many designers I admire all in one room, receiving the recognition each book designer deserves, but only a handful can receive each year.

Finally, I will say that in my mind, the 50/50 competition advances the work of all book designers and gives us a means of showcasing the talent in this field. Yes, we are constantly updating our blogs, twitter, facebook, etc. to get an immediate reaction to our work, but having a large selection at once across all subject matters and all design styles and documented is a good thing.

We are definitely up against many challenges in the coming years regarding the value of our profession. I’m happy there is a place where book designers are celebrated. I’m also hopeful that the annuals and now, the Design Archive, will provide other designers a place to find inspiration (though I’ll go ahead and note here that I miss the printed design annuals for which I don’t think there is a numerical way of evaluating how many times we open and close those pages as opposed to a website). Thanks to everyone who entered and hopefully the entries will increase next year.