Joint winner, Australian Publishing Association Book Design Awards 2005: Best designed non-fiction book
This is one of my favourites. I took apart an old book (a copy of A Tale of Two Cities I bought for $5 at Goulds in Newtown, the best bookshop in Sydney if you don't have allergies or expect books to be shelved alphabetically), scanned in the various 'bits' and put them together, inside out. The splotchy bits are mould from the endpapers. I used white crayon to blank out bits of the text on the front, and coincidentally found a page that had "foulish" language on it ("rough hairy skins of beasts" etc). The pink is a fluro PMS, which doesn't reproduce well digitally but it's a visual assault when you open the cover. I made the title from letters cut out from a page of the book.
I was initially apprehensive about the ridiculously long title of this book, so decided to make a feature of the type; I wanted something industrial but still fun (it's a humorous autobiography). I made the letters playing with a paper stencil on the photocopier, then layering them in Photoshop. Below, you can see how the J and K are each made with about four layers.
I started making the letters for another cover, but marketing didn't like it, so I played around with it a bit in a nonprofessional setting – see below, where I used it on the zine that accompanied an exhibition in 2005 called Girls Are Ugly When They Drink (the other photo is a shot of the exhibition space – most of the artwork was drawn on brown paper beer bags), before revisiting it when this cover came up.
Incidentally, it was supposed to be a two colour cover – the blue and purple are both metallic PMS colours (premixed inks, a bit like house paint, so you know you're getting an exact colour, commonly used for branding – think of the logo of a bank; the colour is always reproduced exactly the same ... Westpac red, Commonwealth yellow, ANZ blue). However, realise a metallic PMS is reflective, and therefore causes problems when the barcode is scanned (it reflects back into the scanner) so we had to add a third colour (a very dark blue) for the barcode. Oops. Now I know.
4 comments:
Hi Zoe, I'm a cover designer as well, and I've seen a lot of your work in the perth airport bookshop when i go back to visit- so it's nice to put a designer to a cover! Anyway, I was looking for a barcode program and wonder if u hv one to recommend? the one i filched from my old job just died :p. Ming, Kuala Lumpur
Hi Ming, thanks for your message. I get the printer to drop the barcode in, I don't want the responsibility for getting one wrong! The only program I've worked with previously is bar-code pro. z
As a marketer I take exception to your description of those at what some believe is the business end of publishing as 'killjoys'. I understand the frustration designers can feel when an evil marketer 'rejects' a design dear to their heart, but surely some of the blame for your pain can be laid at the foot of those briefing the job. Most often a design is deemed unfit not because of any issue with the design itself, but because it doesn’t adequately speak to its market. An art form in itself, briefing is surely an underappreciated part of the process, is isn't it? If that's done right then no one should need to kill the joy.
Dear Anonymous,
The killjoy comment is, like much of what I say, tongue in cheek - if it weren't for the marketing end of publishing I wouldn't have a job. Often, the blame for having something I love rejected is because I haven't correctly understood what is being asked of me in the brief, and I absolutely take my share of responsibility in that. A brief needs to be well written but it also needs to be well interpreted, and when a design is rejected, it is generally a combination of faults in communication. My point in the post is that it is also in part the whim of the people in a marketing meeting. Briefing is an extraordinarily difficult thing, and I greatly appreciate and respect people who can deliver a well written brief. As a freelancer, I have the pleasure of choosing who I work with, and the people I do currently work with are all excellent at writing briefs that are detailed but still allow me creative freedom. I certainly didn't intend to be offensive to people in marketing - but when I've worked on a design for weeks or months that the editor and author also love, only it have it vetoed by marketing, it's difficult to not feel a bit grumpy from time to time. Best wishes, Zoe
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