DOWN AMONG THE DEAD MEN

The first comp shown here is the selected cover. The other two are alternative sketches.

It was interesting to work on a cover for a memoir about a woman whose career was in a morgue. Much like the author, I found myself needing to be sure I payed both respect to the deceased, as well as not create an environment that was overly solemn.

Each sketch here plays a different role in communicating what this memoir is about. The selected cover (top) shows the work environment, which is probably the most appropriate for the content. The second option showcases the object of Williams' work, the deceased. And the third sketch presents a more abstract view of the book's content, a lighthearted object, but communicated in a more serious tone.

A few of these options play with darker tones, but this is appropriate given the content. I could not very well play with an overly joyous color, nor did I feel it would be appropriate to play with reds or oranges, these could easily look too graphic juxtaposed (sorry, I went to college for design, so I have to use my jargon every now and then) with the content.




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137

Another project I worked with Albert Tang on. This book is a biography about Wolfgang Pauli and Carl Jung (as the subtitle alludes to). The number 137, is a number pondered often by Pauli, and to be honest… who doesn't want to design a book cover with a title that's a number. You can look at a deeper description of the book on Norton's Page.

I thought that by having 137 looking as if it was coming from Pauli's head was a good way to allude to the happenings inside his mind. The subtle repeating of the number shows that this was something ruminating in Pauli's head often. Having Jung, a psychoanalys, in the upper portion of the cover seemed to state that he was inside Pauli's head.

Bizarre fact… the room Pauli died in was number 137. I think someone was pulling a cruel joke on him.


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POX AND THE COVENANT

A project I worked with Source Books on. This book deals with the plague that was brought into Boston through the HMS Seahorse (it's a boat, not an animal), both of these comps emphasize these two elements. The final cover is shown first.




Here is the image that I altered for the above comp. I wanted more depth and contrast than was in the original piece, so I went in and blurred some areas and bumped the contrast. This image is from The Library of Congress.

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IN BAD FAITH

I believe they went in a different direction for this entire project. I thought the image of the suite holding the ace fit perfectly with the concept of "cheating shareholders". I also picked this specific typeface to match what was happening on the type on the playing card. (I'm adding this random type here to balance my rag)



And here is another option I was working on. I had a few more comps, but these are my favorite two.

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THE CLIMATE WAR

This one isn't out yet, but I wanted to place it on the site. It seemed fitting to take a beautiful image of the sky and split it up with a sharp and disturbing bit of black (like it's being cut).


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FREEDOM SUMMER

Here is a project I worked on for Viking. I read the manuscript, which was extremely well written and entertaining. If you ever get a chance, you should pick up a book by Bruce, he's a talented and kind author.

All the elements within each of these designs were inspired by documents during the era and events of Freedom Summer. The type in the first comp (final) was inspired by the type from newspaper headlines during the event. The orange color came from the clay in mississippi that is referenced often. The second comp uses the layout of a campaign sticker as inspiration, and the third comp uses imagery and a typographic layout from a document referring to Freedom Summer. The photography on the last two options are from The University of Southern Mississippi, photographed by Randall Herbert.





Here is an image from the freedom summer movement that inspired the cover above.



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AMERICAN SALVAGE

Well, I got tired of having a website that was impossibly difficult to update… you know… you have to go through hundreds of hoops in order to post one thing on your site. I've decided that they guys like Drummond and Yee had it right… blog… live feed… the future… I'm in it now… Or will be soon. I'll start fresh and be updating this week. Thanks for your patience. In the meantime… here is a cover I designed… it's really small here. I worked with Albert Tang on this one! The image is from Millennium Images. This wasn't the final, but it was a fun one to work on! (watch out, I overuse exclamation marks… and ellipses)


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