Coverings

To paraphrase the title of a famous book, “It takes a village to make a novel.” Most of the people in that village don’t get credit. The author’s name appears on the cover and in the front matter that lists the publisher and copyright notice. In some cases, set in small print, you’ll find the name of the company that designed the cover.

Many publishers use outside designers to pull together several cover designs. These designs are discussed by the pub boards and marketing folk in hopes of fine tuning the art to be the most eye-catching and compelling image it can be.

A lot of art goes into the writing of a book—the part between the covers. There is also a great deal of effort that goes into the art of cover design—and I mean “art”. It takes skill to blend images, colors, and typefaces into a single unit of communications that captures the attention of a potential buyer and draw an emotive response from the reader. 

The men and women who do this work deserve more praise than they receive.

An image of a book in the most recent Christianity Today brought all of this to mind again. Multnomah has released Do I Know God? by Billy Graham’s grandson Tullian Tchividjian. The image of the book stopped me in my tracks. I think it’s gripping, innovative, out-of-the-box, and very well designed. I spent a season designing church ads for a small magazine a friend and I published. I learned a great deal about eye-travel, colors, fonts and more. This cover has it all. 

As you can see in the above picture there is a 3D element to the cover. The “windows” are shaded in such a fashion that it looks as if I could stick my finger into the book. The photo-image of the thinking man adds to the illusion. It looks like he’s sitting in one of the squares.

The sectioning allows the eye to fall first on the well-known name of Billy Graham, down to the title and subtitle, to the seated contemplative man, then to the author. In less than a handful of seconds the potential reader has learned a great deal about the book. 

The gold color—which lends a sense of wealth, comfort, and warmth—reads well and elicit a sense of well-being.

Authors seldom have final approval on cover art but most publishers encourage author participation. I’ve been fortunate. I’ve been happy with almost all my covers although there have been a couple of times when I had to make my opinion known. 

The level of skill resident in cover artist amazes me. Not only must they be artist, but they must be masters of several high-end computer programs, aim at a sometimes vague and moving target, and deal with fussy author types.

As an author, I’m indebted to the skilled designers who make my first impression for me.

Comments

[Pam Halter]

My best friend is an illustrator who has also designed covers. What you say is right, she, and all who do that job, are not given enough credit. It's a grueling job and very time consuming. Let me tell you, it took me a lot less time to fix the edits in the picture books we published than it did for her to fix the artwork.

[Don the Baptist]

Are you saying those aren't REAL holes in the wall?

[Photogrammetry services]

Nice post. Thanks for sharing.
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