Cover Stars
Brought to book
What does it take to design a book cover? How much do you need to engage with the author or understand the audience? What are sources of inspiration and what tips can one impart with aspiring designers? We talk to five of our favourite Irish book designers based in Ireland, the UK and US to find out why you can judge a book by its cover.
Jack Smyth jacksmyth.co London
What pathway lead to you designing book covers?
My first creative job was designing the window displays and in-house signage in Tower Records when it was still on Wicklow Street. I didn’t have much design experience, but I became a bit obsessed with it and decided that I wanted to go back to study design so I could use words like ‘font’ and ‘kerning’ without feeling like a phony. So, I moved to London in 2013 to do an MA in Graphic Design at Kingston University.
As part of that course, I entered the Penguin Design Award, which is an annual cover design competition for students. At one point, freelance book cover designer Nick Castle was brought in to do a guest crit, and after giving my work some crushing feedback, Nick and I chatted for a while and I think he picked up that I was quite keen on designing book covers. He put me in touch with the Art Dept at Little, Brown Book Group where I landed an internship while I finished out my course. The internship turned into a junior position and I‘ve been clinging on by my fingernails ever since.
What is the most important part of a book cover design brief for you?
I think there are (widely speaking) two types of brief: those that are trying to create a new, bespoke cover for the book in question, and those that are trying to emulate the cover of another already successful book. The best briefs are the ones that give you everything you need but prescribe nothing, and are genuinely trying to achieve something new. But publishing is a business, so a lot of the time that business tries to replicate the success of other books. Unfortunately, this sets a very low ceiling for what can be achieved and doesn’t always feel fair to the book itself. It can be really difficult to try wrestle the project away from that initial desire the publisher might have to, say, make it look a bit (a lot) like Normal People by Sally Rooney.
I will also say that sometimes no brief is the best brief. Every now and again I’m sent a manuscript by an Art Director and that’s it. No brief, just, ‘Can you give this a read and design a few options for it?’ This means I can try to respond to the book without any real preconceptions or expectations and often that’s when really exciting work can occur. It doesn’t always mean an instantly successful outcome, but that freedom can produce something unexpected.
What sparks ideas for book cover designs? Do you read the whole book/manuscript? Do plot, themes, characters, symbols, imagery or atmosphere impact on your choices?
When I’m working on fiction, tone is the thing that really interests me. I think trying to capture the tone of the author’s writing can be a really powerful way of communicating with the viewer and, as a result, I often try to avoid leaning too much specific imagery. Of course, this isn’t always the case, but I do always try to keep tone/the author’s voice as the main directive element. I think this is what makes or breaks a book for a reader, not necessarily the location, any element or makeup of characters. I don’t go into a bookshop thinking, ‘Jesus, I’d love to read a book based in Tipperary where the protagonist is an accountant and has a cat,’ so I try not to rely on figurative elements too much in the hope that I can draw people in in more subtle ways.
I’m a big fan of doing nothing for a while once I’ve read a manuscript or looked over a brief. I think that your subconscious is brilliant at turning stuff over or boiling things down to their core elements while you’re just going about your day. I often find that an idea or some clarity comes to the surface after not actively thinking about a project for a few days.
How do you approach the relationship between images, font, colour and information?
I suppose they’re all tools you use for the job and you pick whatever you need for each cover. I think one of the really nice things about designing book covers is that you use whatever approaches the book needs, whether it’s collage, illustration, type, photography, or anything you can think of really. I think the challenge is always not to overdo it. When there are so many possibilities, the temptation is to try get everything on the cover, but it’s much more difficult and much more effective to take something simple and get more from it. I think that’s why I really enjoy working with type-led covers – I love when you get a book cover that’s basically just the title and the author’s name, but it feels right because it has been handled just so.
Which designers and covers do you admire most?
I think John Gray (Gray318) is the biggest influence on the work I do. I don’t think any covers I’ve done would look the way they do if I hadn’t had my tiny mind blown by John’s work when I began designing covers. More recently, Anna Morrison’s work has been hugely inspiring to me in a different way. She’s developed this very individual style which only she can do, and there’s something very rare about that. It’s great thinking, ‘Ok, I kind of know the parameters of what a book cover can be,’ then seeing Anna’s work and going, ‘I don’t know a damn thing.’
If you had one piece of wisdom to impart which you have learned to date…
If you hang your bananas up by a hook, they’ll stay fresh twice as long. Bananas don’t want to lie in a bowl or on the counter – they want to hang up like they’re still on the branch.
GRAHAM THEW grahamthew.com Dublin
What pathway led to you designing book covers?
My father was in publishing, so I grew up in a home stacked full of books. Alongside the usual kids’ favourites, I had exposure to an eclectic mix of books from an early age including a lot of quirky titles picked up at European book fairs. Book design was going through a dynamic shift in the 1970s and looking back I can see its subtle influence on my creative process.
Originally, I went to art college wanting to be an illustrator, but quickly realised I was better suited to design. I was a pretty terrible illustrator. In my final year in college, I got lucky and won a student book design competition and managed to wedge my big toe in the door of the publisher, getting to design a few titles the following season. My initial forays into designing books were pedestrian at best, but there must have been some spark because I was soon working regularly with a handful of publishers in Dublin.
What is the most important part of a book cover design brief for you?
A strong cover brief can be the difference between a streamlined and liberating design commission and a random whack-a-mole design-by-committee rejection fest. The author, commissioning editor, sales team and designer may all have very different ideas for a what a particular cover could be, a solid brief should build consensus and confidence amongst everyone.
The ideal cover brief should be laser beamed and concise – sometimes a single, savvy pitch-line like ‘Alain de Botton meets Wes Anderson’ is worth as more than the standard who’ll buy it, why they’ll buy it and where they’ll buy it info on a brief.
What sparks ideas for book cover designs? Do you read the whole book/manuscript? Do plot, themes, characters, symbols, imagery or atmosphere impact on your choices?
Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to read all of the titles I design, but oftentimes it’s unnecessary, particularly with some straightforward non-fiction titles. A good brief and a selection of chapters can be enough to get a good sense of the book’s identity. This is often enough for a book that may rely on a strong supplied image like autobiographies, cookbooks or children’s books, for example. However, that’s not the case with fiction, where it’s usually important to read the full text. Most stories have a face value and an underlying concept or message, it’s important to fully read a manuscript to reflect on both.
In broad strokes the process is usually read, scribble notes, think, panic, read more, sketch ideas, a bit more panic with lots more sketches and then make a decision on what broad approaches to take. An initial concept can spark from a variety of sources – an object, a time and place, an abstract or metaphorical interpretation of a theme or an event. Part of the process is weeding out the bazillion ideas into that one knockout concept that captures something intrinsic in the novel.
How does your interaction with the commissioning editor/art director/author work and vary? Do you always, or never, speak directly to the author?
Once I have an initial design to show, I’ll present to the marketing department and/or commissioning editor. For the most part, it’s an exciting part of the process – showcasing the creative thinking of a cover design leading up to the big reveal is one of my favourite parts of the job. Like most design projects, the story of how you got there is integral to a design’s success. Plus, you get an immediate sense if you’ve nailed it or missed the mark, adding to the excitement.
Interaction with authors tends to be kept to a minimum, usually the marketing department will liaise with them once we have an agreed cover, or I’ll pitch the cover to them directly at that point. However, occasionally it can work to develop a relationship directly with an author early on in the process to get their input directly and help flesh out their vision – if it’s carefully managed by the publisher. Working with authors has been almost universally positive with only the very rare diva thrown into the mix.
How do you approach the relationship between images, font, colour and information?
Every cover is very different, another reason I love designing books, there’s no hard and fast rules. However, prior to investigating the finer details like type and colour palettes, I’ll consider the medium of the chosen concept
I’m developing – does it need photography, illustration, a collage or is it just typographical? How will the book title itself interact with the imagery on the cover, is it integrated or separate? Understated or florid?
Once these elements are coming together, I’ll then consider font choices. Options like whether it’s a hand-drawn, serif or sans type treatment, if it’s a modern or traditional approach all need to be carefully navigated. Subtle differences in typography can have a huge impact on how a cover is perceived.
Weirdly, for a designer, I’m colourblind. I’ll always get another safe pair of eyes to look over my work, just to make sure the colours that I think are in the design are the actual colours in the design. At least 30% of the time they’re not, mostly leading to car crash palettes, sometimes seemingly inspired choices.
How do you rate the evolution of book cover design in Ireland? With a large publishing industry next door, do you think it is a growing field within design/visual communications here?
Internationally, book design feels like it’s going from strength to strength. The value of a beautifully designed physical book has gone up, perhaps as a reaction to the ebook explosion of the last decade, and you see this in the Irish market too.
Which designers and covers do you admire most?
It’s impossible to keep up with the explosion of incredibly talented book designers on both sides of the Atlantic. I think anyone in this field would be in awe of Peter Mendelsund, Art Director at Alfred A. Knopf who came to book design late in his career and with no training, his work is as varied as it is phenomenal. London based Penguin book designer David Pearson’s work is consistently inspirational. I love anything by Helen Yentus, such smart and beautiful covers.
Choosing a favourite all time book cover is impossible, but Jamie Keenan’s treatment of Lolita is hard to beat. It’s such a beautifully simple cover that visually switches back and forth between a generic bedroom, the setting of much of the book, and Lolita’s legs. I’m left scratching my head wondering how he came up with it.
If you had one piece of wisdom to impart which you have learned to date…
A lot of good design comes from equal parts panic and inertia.
Anna Morrison annamorrison.com London
What pathway led to you designing book covers?
A tutor at Camberwell, where I was studying illustration, suggested publishing might be an area for me to explore once I graduated. She thought I worked well with type and image. It was not something I had considered, so
I’m so glad she pointed me in that direction. I contacted a few publishers and got a bit of work experience at Penguin and I think that helped me get a junior designer role at Random House.
What sparks ideas for book cover designs? Do you read the whole book/manuscript? Do plot, themes, characters, symbols, imagery or atmosphere impact on your choices?
I do try to read some of the book, if available, even just to get a flavour of the narrative and the author’s style. It’s usually within the text I can pick up certain imagery or ideas that can be translated onto the cover. I love trying to interpret imagery in abstract way, having a cover that lures a reader to pick it up and make it stand out in a bookshop.
How does your interaction with the commissioning editor/art director/author work and vary? Do you always, or never, speak directly to the author?
Again, this depends very much on the publisher. Smaller houses sometimes don’t have an art department so, often, it’s the editor who gets in touch. I do tend to mostly liaise with art directors. Very rarely do I speak with authors, although recently I’ve had an author Natasha Lunn reach out to me to see if I could design her cover to her wonderful book Conversations on Love. The art director agreed so they commissioned me. I was so thrilled that she had asked specifically for me.
Did moving to London seem an inevitable step for you? What benefits and challenges has it brought to your role?
I moved to London to go to art college. I’d always dreamed of living here when I was a young teenager, it seemed so exciting and was where everything I was interested in was happening. It was difficult at first, a bit lonely, coming from Belfast which was so much smaller and easier to get about. Everybody knows everyone at home too. I was so naïve when I moved here, living in east London and travelling to Peckham everyday and I had no money to get the tube. I spent a lot of time on buses! But, on the plus side there was so much going on, all the art galleries, night life etc… I got a job in a pub and met so many interesting and inspiring people from all walks of life, I relished in the diversity of people I met which was very different from Belfast. I loved it.
Which designers and covers do you admire most?
Jaysus, there’s so many designers I think are insanely talented. Fellow Irish designer Jack Smyth is one of them, some others are Jo Walker, Kishan Rajani, Holly Ovenden, Micaela Alcaino, Luke Bird, David Pearson, I could literally go on for days! So much talent out there. A real stand out cover for me was Jack Smyth’s The Plot, so bloody clever! Also, loved Holly’s cover for The Wolf Den, just so beautiful.
If you had one piece of wisdom to impart which you have learned to date...
You are only as good as your last job!!
Fiachra McCarthy fiachra-mccarthy.squarespace.com Fenit, Kerry
What pathway led to you designing book covers?
Previous to starting my own practice, I worked for many years as a magazine art director for titles such as Hot Press, IMAGE and House and Home. I collaborated with editors to create arresting designs which harmonised with the writing - this was a great foundation for book cover design.
What is the most important part of a book cover design brief for you?
Each project is different, but, by and large, a good brief document is a great entry point into a project. I’m always aware that publishers and authors may have been working for years on this book before it reaches me. So, a good brief document will give me a sense of where we are on this journey, and get everyone on the same page, so from day one we’re all moving in the right direction.
What sparks ideas for book cover designs? Do you read the whole book/manuscript? Do plot, themes, characters, symbols, imagery or atmosphere impact on your choices?
Ideas can come from anywhere, sometimes it’s from the text itself, sometimes a good brief document will spark ideas. I’m big fan of having conversations with the publishers, sometimes something that feels off the cuff can spark a direction that wouldn’t have come from a brief.
With the cover for Sophie White’s Corpsing the publisher told me over coffee it was a ‘haunted house story, but her body is the haunted house.’ Immediately the image of a haunted house with legs came to me, it felt right straight away and was a big hit with the author. It’s great when an idea feels like it’s sparked organically through collaboration and feels like the right fit from the start.
How do you approach the relationship between images, font, colour and information?
I think all those years of magazine design were like layout bootcamp for me. You have to work so quickly and to such tight deadlines that it really hones your layout and typography skills. As soon as you’ve finished one issue, you have to start another one, so there’s no room to be too precious either. I think that’s left me a fast, accurate designer with really strong typography skills, which seems to be something people respond to in my work.
How do you rate the evolution of book cover design in Ireland? With a large publishing industry next door, do you think it is a growing field within design/visual communications here?
Overall, Ireland’s publishing industry is incredibly strong and vibrant. I think we punch way above our weight, and to me that’s driven by an audience who want to read Irish writing and aren’t afraid to be challenged. Designwise, it feels like things are getting better and better. 15 or 20 years ago cover design was done in-house and treated almost like another stage of the typesetting process, but I think now people can see that a great cover can get your book out into the world via social media, book blogs, Facebook book clubs, and that the initial visual aspect is more important than ever. In terms of design, I’ve seen a few covers of Irish editions that beat the UK or US edition designs hands down. So, I really hope to see Irish book design get strong and stronger in the future.
Which designers and covers do you admire most?
I think my overall design hero has to be Paul Sahre. I came across his lecture ‘Paul Sahre: A Designer And His Problems’ online and it pulled me out of a professional rut and made me wonder could I become a self-employed book designer too. As well as being a skilled designer who constantly pushes the edges of editorial design, he is also very funny and selfdeprecating, which you don’t often get in the world of design.
There seems to be a great crop of book designers working at the moment that I really enjoy following and who make me try to push my own work further. These include Jonathan Pelham, Jack Smyth, Rafi Romaya, Sarah May Wilkinson, Alex Kirby and Lauren Wakefield. Here in Ireland, I really enjoy Niall McCormack’s beautiful, detailed work and Kate Gaughran and Cathal O’Gara’s covers too.
If you had one piece of wisdom to impart which you have learned to date...
I’ve been running my own design practice for almost five years now, and really feel that being my own “boss” had been the missing part of the puzzle for me for so long. In any job I’d get bored after a year or two, and then move on to the next job for the next two years! These days there’s such a huge variety of work across my desk, from cutting edge literary fiction to beautiful tomes on medieval handbells, I never get bored and get an immense sense of satisfaction from being in control of my work life. It might not be for everyone, but for anyone who thinks it might be for them, jump in!
Sarahmay Wilkinson fiachra-mccarthy.squarespace.com Fenit, Kerry
What pathway lead to you designing book covers?
I was born in the Coombe, grew up in Bray, moved to Canada when I was about six and then went to Parsons (design school) in New York at 18. I was born into a hyper creative family and always felt encouraged and supported. Parsons were really encouraging and I started an internship in my second year at this amazing hair product company called Bumble and Bumble. I ended up doing product launches, package design and advertising.
I got my hands into everything and learned about production and printing from a really broad perspective which has been tremendously helpful in later years.
Book covers are a much more specific product, the canvas is very limited, but I think and hope that what I bring to this space is bigger thinking about it as a package and not just a cover… all these different aspects of launching a book, it’s not just about content and cover, but making sure to land in the market in a particular way that is going to make it a success – whether that is financial, reviews or readership.
How do you approach a brief? What is your process?
I work in-house and as a freelancer. Working inhouse as art director at W.W. Norton, we have certain processes that are in place. We have a design brief and always require manuscripts. Potentially, we will ask for thoughts from the author. Design briefs can be great tools, but they are not, ultimately, the work. Whenever I feel lost, I always know I can go back to the manuscript – the work is there, the answer is there. It’s right here, 300 pages, find it.
I’ll read as much as I possibly can. Typically, novels I will read from start to finish because you never know what is going to happen until the last page. With non-fiction works,
I’ll read introductions and get a sense of what the general thesis is, read key chapters and the conclusion. In-house, I have a team I can rely on, I am not an island unto myself.
How do you approach freelance projects where the budgets may be more limited? What I often ask for in exchange for a lower fee is greater creative control. If you are hiring me and really confident that I am the right person for the job, then I want to drive this boat.
Are there any books which have had more added meaning for you?
I hate to pick favourites, but there’s certainly books which felt really important to me that I really want people to read. That’s when it’s great to have colleagues whom you trust who can say, ‘yes, but also…’ They can pull you back if you’re not seeing things because you’re so invested. Most recently, Olivia Laing’s book Everybody is a tremendously important book, not just that its contents and message are meaningful and important, but her way of conveying ideas is tremendously unique, she takes you in these weird directions and makes these unique connections. This work is about gender and the bounds of our body and how they have been dealt with throughout history.
Is book design responding to society, being brave and boundary pushing?
I would hope so. I see things around me, other forms of design – environmental and architectural is really important to our sense of safety and security. Maybe it is more evident to me. Things we are thinking a lot about is representation of diverse illustrators and authors and trying to spread the work around. As I mentioned, everyone knows everyone, the scene is really small, why? Unfortunately, it comes down to convenience. I know that so-and-so will deliver the work on time, in the format required, because they have done book cover design for the 15 years. But, man, there’s this really cool artist that I just saw on Instagram the other day who is doing work that’s within this world, that’s speaking about these particular topics that’s super relevant to this body of poetry that I just read. Are they going to be a total wildcard, I don’t know, but let’s see. I want to find artists who feel appropriate and right for the work and sometimes that means working with people outside the book cover design community.
Recently I started working with Renald Louissant – traditionally an editorial designer who has just started out. He had never worked on book covers, but I just decided he’s doing super cool things with typography which is enough for me if we can work together, which we did on The Joy of Sweat. It does mean more heavy-handed art direction on my part, as opposed to going to someone who is more seasoned.
Another book would be a poetry book Felon. Reginald Dwayne Betts is an unbelievable poet, activist, really amazing. He suggested we collaborate with artist Titus Kaphar. Getting to work with people like that who are creating socially conscious artwork is a real honour. Non-seasoned designers have a different way of doing things and sometimes that lack of knowledge and understanding of the industry can be to their benefit.
Do you have any advice for aspiring designers?
Work hard, be kind, don’t stop, keep going. If you’re stuck, just do the next right thing you can think of and just keep going. The biggest hindrance to creatives, generally speaking, is that you can become doubtful and, you know what, that doesn’t go away. It doesn’t matter how much success you have, at least in my experience, or how much people say I love this or that. I always feel not quite good enough and that’s what keeps me going, the next one will be different, the next one will be better and I am going to improve in this particular way or work on this particular aspect of my craft. Always moving forward, that’s most freeing. Just hold it lightly and move on. Every book is a new adventure and collaboration, it’s hyper engaging.
Are you subject to the world of algorithms or focus groups which inform the design process?
There is a data, but not as concrete as A/B testing in other industries…That is ultimately a blessing for the creative. How can we make new and interesting work that comes from ourselves if we are being told by a computer what the new popular colour is? I want to be a maker as well as a collaborator because it keeps me on my toes in both spaces.
How do you approach the relationship between images, font, colour and information?
The order in which they are considered, or
I am inspired by them, changes with every single title.
The book cover has a job to do but it is not the same with every book. For example, with Fareed Zakaria’s Ten Lessons for a PostPandemic World, I mean that was going to sell no matter what. That was a highly marketed book. That’s not to say the cover didn’t need to be good, it did and I worked very hard on it. Did I think about letter count, absolutely, because ‘post-pandemic’ is a massive word, and they will want this title big because it’s an important book. Whereas my only directive with David Baker’s poetry book (Swift) is he would like a bird on the cover and I did a whole series of works with birds. And I’m so glad they chose the one we went with, it’s a totally different tone.