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The
Bookbuilders event on February 29, “Judge A Book by Its Cover,” was highly
informative and entertaining! Three very creative speakers illustrated the
process of designing book covers. Alex Camlin, the Creative Director at Da Capo
Press, Carol Chu, Associate Art Director at Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Children’s
Books, and George Restrepo, a locally based graphic designer, all brought
students in Pub Club and others into their creative process.
The event
started off with Alex Camlin, who has worked at Da Capo for eleven years. He
began by emphasizing his personal style, which leaned more toward graphic art
and away from photography. In going through the different phases of cover
design for Jack Kerouac’s The Sea is My Brother, Camlin stressed looking at the
styles of several of Kerouac’s other titles, such as On The Road.
Through looking at these styles Camlin was able to come up with a similar retro impressionistic cover with recurring imagery from Kerouac’s other titles for The Sea is My Brother and it was approved by the editor and those in charge of Kerouac’s estate. Camlin described the process of revamping a book cover for the movie’s release with We Bought A Zoo (which largely involves making sure “Now A Major Motion Picture” headlines the title). Camlin also showed previous designs for the cover of The Thing About Thugs and mentioned the research involved in coming up with a concept or design for a book cover that fits the story and, in this case, the time period for that story.
Through looking at these styles Camlin was able to come up with a similar retro impressionistic cover with recurring imagery from Kerouac’s other titles for The Sea is My Brother and it was approved by the editor and those in charge of Kerouac’s estate. Camlin described the process of revamping a book cover for the movie’s release with We Bought A Zoo (which largely involves making sure “Now A Major Motion Picture” headlines the title). Camlin also showed previous designs for the cover of The Thing About Thugs and mentioned the research involved in coming up with a concept or design for a book cover that fits the story and, in this case, the time period for that story.
Carol Chu
spoke next about her experience during her five years with Houghton Mifflin
Harcourt thus far. She stressed that the Harcourt Children’s house covered
picture books, novellas, middle grade and young adult genres and that it
required a lot of different hats and variation. Chu described the process of
creating the most fitting covers for Croak, The Vespertine, and The Spring
Sweet, which in the case of the latter two novels, required setting up a photo
shoot! She described the collaboration necessary with artists while going
through the phases of the cover of Wuftoon, a YA novel. She also talked a bit
about the challenge in designing picture book covers to sum up in one image
what the next thirty-two pages portray. Chu is an illustrator herself and showed
us what some of her covers, from YA novels to literary magazines, look like and
the process in perfecting them.
George
Restrapo wrapped up the panel by elaborating on his designs, from the Improper
Bostonian to a Harcourt cooking book and mentioning his love for fonts. Each of
the panelists discussed how they got started, and all involved a strong graphic
design background and art school. Chu’s master thesis involved propaganda in
children’s books. Camlin insisted that in high school he thought graphic design
was a “money career” and pursued it for that reason, among others. For those
who want to get into graphic design careers, Camlin emphasized networking,
perseverance, luck and timing. Chu and Restrepo both agreed that a portfolio,
website and online presence is key, while all the panelists agreed that you
have to believe in what you are doing and go for it. It was a lovely discussion.
Thank you Bookbuilders! And thank you to the John P. Pow Company for sponsoring
the catering for the event.
Written by Ariel Rosen
