Books Covered by Tobias

Kimberly Glyder blogs

Kimberly has started a nice new  blog about her amazing work. Be sure to check it out.

Chip Central

I hadn't been to Chip Kidd's site (goodisdead.com)in quite some time. The celebrity king of covers has a blog (Journal), links to his writings and an extensive library of his covers (Work). The Work section can be viewed by year, title, author, or randomly. Whichever way it makes for a good site to go to for a little visual inspiration.

We Love Books Book

Earlier this winter, as I've noted before, four of my covers were included in a book exhibition in Paris which featured designers from all over the world. Today I received my copy of the show's book in the mail. A few thoughts:

First, this was a huge honor. Out of the seven  US designers, I am the only one from outside NY. It is a little funny to read: "États-Unis / New York" for the first six entries and then "États-Unis / Davisburg, Michigan". Not only is it a little funny, but a little daunting. I am totally grateful to the show's curator and directors for including me. To be honest, and I'm not trying to put on some false humility here, I'm not sure why I was asked to be included. The other designers included here are top-notch and for me to be listed next to them is a little embarrassing (Michael Beruit, Paul Sahre for example). And I can think of a dozen other designers who I would included before me if I wasn't me and was the curator (like Henry Sene Yee, Peter Mendelsund, Richard Ljoenes, to name just a few). But, alas, I am totally honored and grateful. I wish I would have sent in some different covers now. I wish I had a few of my newer pieces to include, but nevertheless it is what it is.

One caveat about my biography. It makes me sounds like a pompous wannabe. I am, in my own mind at least, a wannabe to some extent. But, I really don't want to sound like a pompous one. What I submitted was something along these lines: 

"...he has even had the privilege of having some of his covers show up on the New York Times bestseller list...".

 Since the book was published in France it has both the french and english translations. The latter came out this way:

"He produces 100 covers a year, particularly for the New York Times bestsellers."

Ugh. No, not particularly for the New York Times bestsellers. That's the other six US designers and the Art Directors of New York who were featured speakers and participants (Kidd, de Wilde, Gall, Carson). They design bestsellers. I am lucky when that happens. Eesh.

Nevertheless, it is inspirational to see all the great work from all over the world. Amazing, amazing stuff that I am honored to have just a small bit part in.

Cover Featured on Design:Related

Thanks to the publishers of Design:Related for featuring my cover design of A Slobbering Love Affair this week.

The publisher wanted the cover to mimic a mid-century movie poster. Original comps featured vignettes of Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann and other media-celebs. We were careful to find a flattering photo of the president as the author's contention is that the media is swooning over him. Therefore it was important to give Obama the stature and glow of a classic Hollywood leading man.

Check Out

... Galley Cat presents yet another example of duplicate cover images.

... the inspiring packaging design of  Mily Nguyen of 3dotr. and here.

... the result of government over-regulation: children may be banned from library book rooms in Maryland. Not kidding.

... the new section on my website of rejected cover designs: File 13

Book Cover Archive

Ben Pieratt (formerly of Fwis and the Book Cover blog) has launched an incredibly useful and intriguing site: An Archive of Book Cover Designs and Designers. With over 800 covers currently in the stacks and more to come, this site is searchable by title, author, designer, photographer, genre, pub. date, etc. It is a growing catalog of book covers and their designers. The site is beautifully simple, fun to look at and extremely interesting.

I'm not sure how the entries were chosen, but it looks as if they are all based for their exceptional designs. This is not a site of stinkers, nor do I think is it intended to be a platform for critique (like the previous mentioned Book Cover blog). However, each entry does allow for comments to be made.

Kudos to Ben for producing such a valuable resource.

Roughed-Up

Font Feed has a nice little tutorial (*link fixed*) on how to give your type a nice roughed-up or stamp-like feel. Sure, you can buy fonts that have the effect, but usually the effect looks unnatural.

So, you can see on the header of the post that the effect worked pretty well. Though, this would have been more helpful to know about three years ago as I reckon this trend has already overstayed its welcome.

Five Reasons you Might Want to Avoid Self-Publishers

No offense to the self-publishers out there. But in my experience the benefits of designing covers for self-publishing authors (SPAs) are far outweighed by the negatives. Here's why:

1. You will spend your time baby-sitting.
If you take on a project from a SPA be prepared to spend a lot of time walking them through each and every process of getting a finished cover to press. I can spend more hours talking on the phone with a SPA in a day than I do my regular publishing clients in a month. That can suck your time and energy dry. On the other hand, art directors and their freelance cover designers have a special rapport, almost an unspoken language. There is no need to explain what "comps" and "mechanicals" are. Both already know about spine sizes, back copy, check-digits on bar codes, and matte-lam finishes. SPAs do not.

2. Self-publishing authors can't (won't) pay you enough.
One mistake I have made too many times is to feel some pity for SPAs. "They are working on their life project, after all," I say to myelf. "So, I should be willing to cut them a break so they can see their dream materialize." Uh-uh. Don't do it. While charity is nice and all, it has no place here. SPA covers tend to take many more hours to complete than any other cover you might have. Why? See number one above. Not only will you end up designing a cover that you really won't be proud of in the end, but you have to account for the untold hours consulting with the author about printers, prices, paper stocks, spine thicknesses, interior typesetters, etc. Again, things that rarely get mentioned when working with traditional publishers.

What's New

Well, I guess fall is here. To celebrate the end of the summer we spent a few days off with the family riding roller coasters at Kings Island near Cincinnati. I spent a lot of time at this park when I was a kid and it is great to be able to relive those memories and make new ones with my own kids. (This photo is of Firehawk, a coaster I rode with my 11 year old. You ride this one lying down. It was a blast.)

I am thrilled to be working on a cover for Henry Yee at Picador and another new project for Jonathan Sainsbury at Random House. These guys are both some of the most respected art directors in the industry and it is a real honor to be working with them.

My First Cover for Collins

This cover should be really nice. I think it is going to print with some great special effects as well.