Book Covers
during my time at Catapult, Counterpoint and Soft Skull press I created numerous book covers, and ensured files went to print successfully, as well as keeping up with freelancers. I have also trained new designers and interns, and worked to develop brand guidelines to keep everything going to print in those imprints of the same style. The following are a few book covers I worked on, and the thinking that went into each concept.PRACTICE OF THE WILD
This book had such a beautiful lyrical quality to it that a lot of the covers were inspired by quotes from it. For the first comp I was inspired by the sentence “a place in earth is a mosaic within larger mosaics” and since a lot of the book is observations in natire and wandering the west coast/pacific northwest images from those areas are masked into a mosaic.
The second, and approved cover was inspired by the coniferous environment of the pacific northwest and their pinecones, and the wild harmony of pinecone itself
The third was inspired by the line “the stratiography of rocks...the outward expanding circles of the trunk of a tree can be seen as texts” which made me want to show a woodcut on the cover
CONTRADICTION DAYS
Since a lot of this book is rooted in JoAnna’s obsession with Agnes Martin and time in Taos I wanted to show an abstraction of a vast sky and landscape as Taos is through torn paper like the deckled edges of fine art books. We opted against any visuals of motherhood and instead went with with colors inspired by Agnes Martin’s own palette and the pastel calm colors common in nurseries and surrounding babies to show that the pregnancy was a part of the writers journey.
The second was also focused on the relationship between the two artists, the top with pieces cut out, only for those pieces to be mirrored on the bottom like Agnes was so deeply intertwined with the writer that reflections occurred, all over a horizontal line that separates the subtitle like the horizontal and grid fixation in Agnes’s work.
And for the third I was interested in the relationship between the artist Agnes Martin and writer Joanna, and wanted to show a piece by Agnes Martin with rigid horizontal stripes curling back to reveal Joanna’s story.
BANG BANG CRASH
I had a lot of fun exploring options for this title, a memoir of a former drummer turned writer. Some unused drafts included a watercolor explosion that felt like it had some 90s alternative stlye to it, and a not completely legible Swiss poster inspired design, and various options between. We landed on a photographic treatment with a drum set that included the same Zidjan cymbal the author uses.
HEAVEN IS A PLACE ON EARTH
Told in a series of essays that balance memoir with fieldwork, Heaven Is a Place on Earth explores different utopian societies and ideologies proposed throughout the United States. What really struck me in terms of design were descriptions of how the societies envisioned their utopias. The final cover, and my favorite concept was inspired by the Auroroa Colony's attempt to create a "second Eden" in Oregon. From there I dug through a lot of images, and wondered what and Eden would look like, and in thinking of an American Eden I was epecially drawn to wildflowers. Like the societies they are idealistic, almost unreal in their beauty, and have some ephemorality to them.
Swipe for an outtake of another comp I enjoyed, one description of heaven was "a city with the streets paved in gold, and since the book follows the author traveling to different comminites, and the american ideal of the road trip, I wanted to show that travel and the golden streets.
Swipe for an outtake of another comp I enjoyed, one description of heaven was "a city with the streets paved in gold, and since the book follows the author traveling to different comminites, and the american ideal of the road trip, I wanted to show that travel and the golden streets.
Generation Occupy
On the ten-year anniversary of the Occupy movement, Generation Occupy sets the historical record straight about the movement’s lasting impacts. Far from a passing phenomenon, Occupy Wall Street marked a new era of social and political transformation, reigniting the labor movement, remaking the Democratic Party and reviving a culture of protest that has put the fight for social, economic, environmental and racial justice at the forefront of a generation.
The movement changed the way Americans see themselves and their role in the economy through the language of the 99 versus the 1 percent. But beyond that, in its demands for fairness and equality, Occupy reinvigorated grassroots activism, inaugurating a decade of youth-led resistance movements that have altered the social fabric
My comps for this were 1) a visualization of the Occupy movement giving people a voice, showing a megaphone, enclosed in an O for Occupy. And 2) how Occupy created language of the 99% and 1% and revived protests, I created pins, like someone would wear to show their views.
The movement changed the way Americans see themselves and their role in the economy through the language of the 99 versus the 1 percent. But beyond that, in its demands for fairness and equality, Occupy reinvigorated grassroots activism, inaugurating a decade of youth-led resistance movements that have altered the social fabric
My comps for this were 1) a visualization of the Occupy movement giving people a voice, showing a megaphone, enclosed in an O for Occupy. And 2) how Occupy created language of the 99% and 1% and revived protests, I created pins, like someone would wear to show their views.
