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.
For many years there has been debate about the Mt. Ararat “anomaly”. Many believe it to be the remains of Noah’s Ark while others deem it nothing more than an interesting rock outcropping. Of course, without standing on top of the thing and taking a solid scientific look see, we will have nothing more than debate. I’m not going to add more words to what has already been spoken, but I did want to let you fly over Mr. Ararat without ever leaving your chair.
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