From the brief: "The mother, Isabel, pays the rent with an all-night job delivering newspapers out of her van. And the climactic section involves a kind of quest road trip in which Isabel, now 20, and her grandmother set out in a Volvo on a quest to find Isabel’s mother. Eventually they do find her and her van alongside a prairie road. She’s burning papers from her life alongside the road."

My first idea which really intrigued me was to use the open doors of the black van referred to in the novel as symbolic open arms. I spent a lot of time trying to find an image of a van shot from above with the doors open to no avail. I finally found a site that had diecast models of cars for sale with doors that opened and I ordered a Ford Econoline black van. I had to pick it up from my U.S. postal box and when declaring it on the way back over the border, I got involved in a conversation with the custom guy who was really into cars. For about 30 seconds there I actually felt like I was one of the guys, talking about cars. In the end he had a hard time understanding what the hell it was, that I was planning to do with it. I think he is still trying to figure it out.


The publisher in the end wanted this novel to tie into another novel by the same author that had just been shortlisted for a literary prize so we went in another direction, still using the van though. Prairie landscapes with blue skies always seem kind of corny to me. The final version has a blackened sky which works.


Final cover

This catalogue cover concept owes a debt to Woody Pirtle's great 1989 poster for the UCLA summer studies program. He crafted a palm tree out of an open book. This is book as flower for MQUP's spring 2009 catalogue. The photographs of Cara Barer also served as inspiration for this cover as well.

This is one of my recent covers. It gets my vote for the best subtitle of all time.

Suburban Legends

Joan Crate

From the brief: "the book makes an analogy between a suburban wife who is dealing with loneliness, divorce, aging, and copious amounts of winter (tons of winter imagery in this book, which I'd love for the cover to pick up on), and the character of Snow White, who sacrificed everything for the dwarves and was replaced by newer, flashier, fantasy figures.

This is the first sketch I presented.



In the end we opted for a more simplified approach with a more modern feel.

An Irish History of Civilization

Don Akenson

This is a two volume series. There is nothing that original about having an image go over two covers in a series but in this case it seemed a nice way of using the image of the man in a boat on an Irish river. The boat in this case is called a 'coracle' and is specific to Ireland and Wales.

I had sort of given up on using references to constructivism on a book cover design mainly because it has been done so many times. However in this case the authors asked for a Canadiana version of Soviet constructivist graphics so I went for it.

I just got asked to submit cover designs to a design competition where the entries only use classic fonts and I was reminded of this quote by Vignelli. I only use about 4 or 5 different fonts on most of my cover designs. They are, in no particular order:

New Baskerville (will go with me to the grave)
Helvetica
Futura
Trade Gothic
New Century School Book

Sundre

Christopher Willard

From the brief:
Sundre is a town in Alberta. The cover for this novel is challenging because we don’t want Prairies and grain elevators, the big sky, etc, even though they figure in the story, because the book is really about a husband and wife talking about the past—but they are both dead.

In a nutshell the concept is headboard as tombstone.

Hugh MacLennan Series

Here are the final two in this series. Each Man's Son is a novel set in Cape Breton in a coal mining community. It features a violent death near the end of the novel. The son's father, a failed boxer, kills his mother. The image of the coal cart underground evokes a coffin

The Return of Sphinx is a novel about a prominent Canadian politician whose career is destroyed when his son gets involved in the separatist movement in Quebec and is arrested for making a bomb. The revolt of youth against parental authority. The crushed smoking pipe seems like the right image to suggest this.





I couldn't put my finger on why the image of the canoe viewed from above on the cover of The Watch That End's the Night resonated so strongly for me. Then I realized that it reminded me of what was probably the seminal book of my childhood, Paddle to the Sea. An indian boy carves a wooden canoe and leaves in on a mountain top in the spring. The book follows its journey to the sea.

Pedaling Revolution

Jeff Mapes

A straight up solution for this cover seemed to be what was called for. The tricky part was finding the right cyclist. I must have gone through about 800 Royalty Free stock images to find a cyclist that didn't look like a Tour de France wannabe.

I think this approach is interesting because the two pairings are not how they originally seem to appear.

Bush’s Law

Eric Lichtblau

Very simple idea but it seemed perfect for this cover.

Just got approved. This is a poetry cover and this is the part of the poem that inspired it:

...It’s the doorstopper-
ability of phonebooks,
the necessary tubing
that defines
the nothing blowing
thru ducts.
It’s the word “through”
spelled with “u.”
It’s all such
pure products.

This one just went through. That is a book on the cover believe it or not.

The Art of Living Series

Two more in this ongoing series

This cover just got approved. It will be printed on semi translucent paper over a printed case. It is the story a marijuana smuggler in the caribbean. The smuggler's name appears in the negative spaces of the marijuana leaves on the printed case. The three horizontal lines represent the distinguishing markings they but on their shipments.

Blood Pudding

Art Corriveau

This is a book of short stories. The title story was the inspiration for the cover. The lead character Paul had a Mémère (word for grandmother in Quebec) and he remembers a painful episode from this childhood. "She sat in that rocking chair in the kitchen. I was always afraid to find her in there alone. She would pull up her dress so that I could stand closer to her, between her legs. She would call me her little bonhomme. Would kiss me on the lips..." I ordered this vintage apron online and photographed it for the cover.

I am still working on this one. A little more tweaking required but the idea is there.

This is an illustration I did for a cover about the use of wire-tapping on American cititzens. I am working on a second concept which I think will be the chosen one in the end.

Another one for the salon des refusés

I am working on this one right now. It is a book of poetry. This jar of used birthday candles is in one of my cupboards and I've been waiting for the right book to use it on.

Good to a Fault

Marina Endicott





This book is short listed for a Giller prize. The main character is an older woman who is involved in a car accident with another vehicule. From the back cover: "Absorbed in her own failings, Clara Purdy crashes her life into a sharp left turn, taking the young family in the other car along with her. When bruises on the mother, Lorraine, prove to be late-stage cancer, Clara—against all habit and comfort—moves the three children and their terrible grandmother into her own house." She becomes a surrogate mother to the children which as the novel progresses gives her life a new richness and meaning. It is fleeting however as the mother of the children eventually recovers and takes back her children.

The idea for this cover came from a wall in our house where our kids marked their heights from an early age. I am sure the same wall can be found in any house with children. In the case of the wall markings on the cover there is only one or two entries, as it were, because the children were not there long enough. Her experience echoes that of any parent. Your children pass through your life and then they are gone, leaving behind only remnants of their presence.

Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong

Paul Chaat Smith

This has already been posted but there are two updates. The author gave his approval and I made contact with the photographer who is letting me use the image. Here is what the author had to say: "The solution you've provided combines the issues of representation, history, museums, and art in one striking and elegant package. Although my approval is not required, if it were this concept has my enthusiastic endorsement." Part of what I love about doing cover design is where a design can take you. I often find images all over the internet and with a bit of determination I can usually track down the photographer and get permission to use the image. It presents a nice alternative to only relying on Royalty Free stock. Thanks to faboo mama for the photograph. Check out her blog.


2nd option presented

Chicle

Jennifer P. Matthews

The publisher wanted something punchy and fun as befits the subject. It took a bit of convincing but the the repeating cover type, which is kind of key for the packaging concept, made it into the final design.


This is the art that I used to create new pack.

Fair Bananas

Henry J. Frundt

The "banana type" one below was the first one I presented but in the end the simpler and stronger concept won out.

Another type only cover. This is the final accepted version.



I presented this one knowing that it wouldn't be accepted but felt I had to at least show it. What is the simplest way to show "Morality Without God?" Leave "God" off the cover. Having it on the spine reinforces the concept.



How many authors have suggested using the "scales of justice". This time it was my idea. I wanted to see if there was an original way to do it.

Identity/Difference Politics

Rita Dhamoon

Another 2 colour cover. Just got approved. This is from the brief: "The three main ideas are the production of differences which don't take full form, interactions between identities, and disruption." The author wanted me to try the idea of movement caught on slow camera which would be one way of expressing her central arguments.

The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem

Peter Swirski

From the back cover: "In The Art and Science of Stanislaw Lem, American and European scholars offer an inter-disciplinary analysis of his influence on Western culture and of the creative partnering of art and science in his fiction and futorology". For this type only cover I wanted to add the notion of discovery and examination.

Pragmatism and Social Hope

Judith Green

Green maps a contemporary form of citizenship that emphasizes participation and cooperation and reclaims the critical role of social movements and nongovernmental organizations. The challenge for this cover was to find a new way of expressing the notion of different entities coming together to form a group without resorting to the usual visual clichés.

A Long Eclipse

Catherine Gidney

From the back cover copy: "Gidney shows that the decline of the Protestant presence on University campuses started with the swirling moral kaleidoscope of the 1960s." I decided to do a type-only cover with a twist. The "U" is emerging from an eclipse.

Nunavut

Rethinking Political Culture
Ailsa Henderson

Nunavut is the new Canadian territory that was established in April 1999. That date appears on the bottom of the license plate.

Chef

Jaspreet Singh





This is the second cover I have done for this writer. 17 Tomatoes was the first one. Jaspreet was involved in the creative process for both covers in ways that really added a lot to the final result. After I came up with concept of using a red cricket ball to tie into the "red tomatoes" from the title of 17 Tomatoes, Jaspreet tracked down an actual cricket ball and suggested using the tiger as an appropriate image.

Chef takes places on the Siachen Glacier on the border between India and Pakistan. This disputed territory is a war zone on the top of the world. From the cover copy: "Chef Kirpal, seriously ill, returns to Kashmir after a gap of fourteen years to cook a wedding meal for a General's daughter." His father is buried in a cravace inside the glacier and he is also on a journey to excavate the body. The first sketch I did using spices and a piece of ice was not representative of the novel. In my discussion with Jaspreet he explained that Chef had another important meaning that I was missing - a military commander. The second option I presented showed the actual glacier and had a feeling of drama that I really liked. I was getting close but it was still laking another dimension. I found the image of a cravace on the Siachen Glacier on the website of an Indian photographer. He gave us permission to use it after 2 or 3 attempts at navigating the language barrier. For once the use of "a novel" is not a gratuitous design element. It indicates the point that is the focus of his journey. He would like to excavate a part of his past that has kept him moving forward.

option 1

option2