BookLust

Re-Covered 6

So I'm nearing the end of reading The Fortress of Solitude, and I'm looking at the paperback cover, and I've seen the hardcover edition, and I gotta say, I'm not overly impressed with any of the cover designs. I get that all the artists were trying to communicate that comic-book super-hero thing with the loud type and loud colours reminiscent of the old comic books, but it just didn't grab me. Perhaps because I was never really a big fan of comic book heroes? I kinda think it's a guy thing. And make no mistake, this is a guy's novel; but it's the kind of guy's novel that I can get into, because the characters are believable and sympathetic, and Jonathan Lethem is a great writer. But I gotta say that overall, I still prefer Motherless Brooklyn. There are parts of Fortress that just don't work, I think, or at least, they didn't work for me. But I'm not finished reading the book yet.

Anyway, I couldn't help myself, I had to 'Re-cover' the book. Yeah, I know, how cliché to use the Brooklyn Bridge. But it just works for me. The other covers are far too busy. My gut feeling is that there's enough 'busy-ness' in the story; a busy cover for this novel is just overkill. But you can all disagree if you feel different.

Oh, and Lethem has a new book coming out in November, entitled Men and Cartoons. It's a collection of short stories, and the cover design is absolutely freaking perfect. Can't wait to get the book. Two of my most fave subjects: Men. and. Cartoons.

LATER THAT SAME DAY:
Arggghhh... this is driving me nuts. I should be cooking dinner. But I thought about it some more, and decided that the cover should be stronger, should communicate that comic-book connection, especially the creation of 'Aeroman' and all he represents in the book. So this is what I came up with. Strong, but hopefully not too over the top.

Re-Covered 5

This is a different kind of re-covered. This is a display of what I wanted the cover to look like, and what sadly, ended up after too many "creatives" got involved. Right now over at Foreward, those talented book-designer folk are showing off their rejected cover designs. Yeeeesh. If I could make my rejected work look that good.

So I thought I would show you's all a cover I did a couple years back which caused me no end of mental anguish. And it was supposed to be so simple!!! And I was supposed to have creative freedom!!

This is the cover that I sent to the art director. Pretty self-explanatory, I think.

And this is what it ended up looking like, after I don't know who got involved in the #@!!#* "creative process" if you care to call it that.

Pretty astounding, eh? I bet you're speechless.

Re-Covered 4

I completely forgot that I have done a lot more "re-covers" than I realized. I design e-book covers for LTD Books on a freelance basis. A few times over the years I have been asked to re-design an older cover that will soon be going into paperback publication. This is the most recent "re-cover" that I have done for them. I'm not sure why the original design is such a bizarre shape. If you look closely you can see two baby carriages in the foreground. I guess it would help to know a bit about the story. Here's a blurb:

A reclusive pilot's seclusion in his wilderness cabin is interrupted by a novice mother and her adopted twin babies. Soon he finds seclusion isn't what its cracked up to be. The last thing Nick Hunter expected when he arrived at his remote cabin in the Adirondack Mountains was to be knocked out cold by a gorgeous, emerald-eyed woman. When he wakes to find out they are marooned there with one-year-old twins, he wishes he'd pass out again. Despite his desire to escape the civilized world, he finds himself an instant caretaker, an instant father. Lani Cabot knows the situation is only temporary, but she is drawn to the enigmatic Nick, who has secluded himself in this wilderness, obviously trying to escape from a secret in his past. For a wonderful, brief time, she has a makeshift family - a family she could otherwise never have.

So because of the story line, I was asked to put the two babies' heads in there. Had I the choice I wouldn't have put them in. I think the babies are overkill. But overall, I like the look. These images are all from old magazines that I bought at various paper shows in the past. Those mags sure do come in handy, I must say.

Re-Covered 3

Over at Foreward about a week ago, any and all book designers (and book designer wanna-be's like me) were challenged to re-design the above cover on the left, Cottage For Sale. I don't know anything about the book, but regardless of that, I wasn't thrilled with the design. I especially thought that the typography was uninspired; bland; lifeless. I also was not thrilled with that annoying block of yellow/gold at the bottom. The whole design seemed to me to be done in five minutes in a hurry, with no thought at all put into it. Of course that does not mean that my re-design is any better, I'm not entirely happy with it, but I ran out of time to improve it. I must say that I am happy with the idea and the intent, just not too thrilled with the execution. I would have been much happier if I actually owned a digital cameria (soon!); at least I would have been able to take a good shot of the cork board. Instead I was stuck scanning this goddam thing, which was a right royal pain in the ass because my work area is small, and it took a lot of maneuvering and swearing and such before I got a decent scan. Be that as it may, what I wanted was a more organic, human approach. I like hand-lettering in book design; it always gets my attention. I think I needed more practice with the hand-lettering here, but once again, time was limited, as was my patience. So there you have it. As frustrating as this exercise was, I did have fun. Comments, critiques and shameless praise are of course welcome.

Re-Covered 2

Since it is the 60th anniversary of D-Day, I thought I would do something that has some connection with WWII. So I've chosen to "Re-Cover" one of my own e-book cover designs. This is one of the many covers that I have designed for the e-book publishing company LTD Books.

As is often the case (for me, anyway) I pretty much have to do what the author wants. In this situation, the author specifically requested this B-29 plane with a pin-up painting of Mary Jane on the side (it's so small you can barely see it). A lot of the action takes place in Japan, hence the old Japanese military flag in the background. It's pretty self-explanatory. The thing is though, I can't stand doing literal intrepretations of book covers. Aside from the fact that I don't think it's a good idea to do this, it's not very exciting for the artist.

Here is a brief synopsis of the story:

GUAM , SOUTH PACIFIC, 1945 -- B-29 Superfortress bomber Mary Jane is found intact in thick jungle minus her crew and mysterious World War II payload. The incident is hushed up and forgotten until... AUGUST, 1990 -- The Mary Jane has slipped through a time barrier, once again on her deadly 1945 bomb run over the Pacific, the crew still believing Japan is their sworn enemy. What is her mission? And can she be stopped?

I decided in the new design to not even put in a plane. And yes, I may be confusing the reader with having such a large image of the pin-up girl. But I don't know. I think that there is more of a sense of mystery in the new cover, and I guess I'd like to think that people would figure out that the girl is one of those typical pin-up gals one would see on the side of a plane. But perhaps I'm being too estoteric.

June 6th is also my husband's birthday. It delights him to no end that he was born on the anniversary of D-Day, because he has a passionate interest in WWII. He also loves the fact that the anniversary of our first date is Dec 7, the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbour. If he had it his way, we would have been married on some other great day in WWII history, but I put my foot down. No more silly dates. So we got married on April 1st.

Re-Covered

And yet another semi-regular feature that I would like to add to this ecclectic stew. Pretty self-explanatory, I think. But I'll explanatory-it anyway. I take an existing book cover and re-design it. Sometimes the original cover is really bad in my opinion, and sometimes it's amazing. Either way, I re-design it; trying to perhaps improve a stinky design, or just try a different perspective on an already outstanding design.

So why have I thrown all caution to the wind and chosen to post a re-design one of the best covers ever by one of the best book designers ever? (That would be Mr. Chip Kidd).

Because I have had way too much red wine.

I welcome any kind of comments including the "who the hell do you think you are" variety.

I'll just say: hell. i'm a silly sloshed gal who should stay away from the computer, that's who.