Something New

Since I started working in the design field professionally, most of my work–save for a few hand-made things and some photography–has been done on a computer. I sit down in my chair every morning and stare at this screen for hours and hours and hours. And if I’m not here, I’m on the laptop somewhere else, staring at its screen for hours and hours and hours. It gets to be a little too much sometimes.

Before I started in graphic design–even all the way back to high school–I did a lot of painting. I loved how physical is was, and I feel like there was a little more of a connection to it when I was standing there in front of a canvas and putting something down than there is when I move a mouse and type things. Maybe that’s how backhoe operators feel sometimes–like they just want a shovel to dig a hole with.

A few months ago, my friend Christine moved somewhat close to where I live (and the distance will be even shorter in three months when I move) and got in touch. She had recently had twin daughters and had been on mommy duty pretty much nonstop. Before that, she was an incredible painter. She told me that after looking after the kids for so long, she’s ready to get back into creative mode and that we should somehow collaborate. I agreed and what we decided upon was screen printing. This is something I’ve dabbled in before (mostly one-color, one-piece-run t-shirts) but had always loved. I’ve collected art/rock posters from the likes of Coop, Justin Hampton, Shepard Fairey and Ames Bros. all the way from the early ’90s up to now and the process has always fascinated me. So now we’ve decided to dive in and figure all of this out. Because I work a lot and because Chistine is a full-time mom and her house, while close, is still 45 minutes away, we’ve only been able to work on this endeavor a few hours per week for the last month or so. That’s why it’s taken several weeks to finish our first poster: Frankenstein.

I’ve been daydreaming about screen printing for a few years now, and one of the things that always stuck in my head for some reason was the idea of doing a series of prints of old movie monsters–Frankenstein, Dracula, The Wolfman, The Mummy, The Creature From the Black Lagoon, and whatever else I could think of. So, after briefly throwing around ideas for a poster that would announce a Chicago reading that Monkeybicycle was doing, I pitched my movie monster idea to Christine and she was on board. That’s when we got to work.

My thinking has been that each of these monster prints would be three-color and would be monochromatic. Frankenstein is green, as you can see in these photos. (We’re still debating what colors each of the other monsters will be.) Christine has a fantastic eye for color, so she mixed up three shades of green and we were on our way. The process is lengthy, but not terrible. We had to spread it out over several weeks, so one color per week is what we ended up with. The background color is just a full block of light green, so it didn’t require burning a screen with a design on it. Oddly enough, though, it was the most difficult part of the process because of the volume of paint we were applying to the paper. In the future, we might look into hand-painting the backgrounds to save time, but we’ll see.

The second screen was easy once we got the burning of the image down. There was nothing to line up, really, with the first color, so we just kind of ran with it. I was worried this might throw off the third color, but it turned out fine. The only problem we ran into was the registration based on the fact that we cut our own paper to size and there wasn’t a lot of precision involved. Some of the prints were slightly off alignment, but not terrible, and I’m giving us some slack for this being our first time doing this.

Color #1

Color #2

Color #3

After weeks of getting together in Christine’s basement–where, I should’ve mentioned, we built a full-on screen printing studio–We finally wrapped up Frankenstein and I’d say he’s looking pretty handsome. Or, at least as handsome as Frankenstein can look, anyway. Here are is the final product:

I’m hoping that down the road somewhere,  I can filter all of my freelance design work into this endeavor (Christine also does freelance design work) and we can make some sort of an actual side-business out of all of this. Whether the projects are screen printing or working on a computer again (which is where these screen printed images begin anyway), I love the idea of collaborating with someone I trust and I think we could really launch this thing to supplement our incomes. We’ll see how it goes, but no matter what happens, I’m having a ton of fun with it right now and that’s what’s important.

Filed under: Uncategorized , screen printing, monsters, Christine

What Happened to Originality?

As a graphic designer, one thing that frustrates me to no end is outright theft. Of course, I recently wrote a post about how I inadvertently “borrowed” from a PT Anderson poster for Punch-Drunk Love, but in my defense, it was completely unintentional and the image I used was a blown-up snippet that was completely unrecognizable.

What I’m talking about here is the outright stealing of ideas. I see it all the time, and it’s rampant–especially in the film community. DVD cases are the worst offenders. I could put 20 covers here, side-by-side with ones that are almost identical, in no time at all. It seems to me DVD cover art has become some sort of parody industry. It’s kind of funny, but really it’s not.

I know that my design work isn’t groundbreaking by any means, and it’s probably even formulaic to some extent–I’ll blame that on the limited amount of time I have to do it in with most projects–but I would never be so hard-pressed for an idea that I’d look at something and say to myself “hey, I’ll just take that idea and rewrite the title!” To me, that is complete sacrilege. I do get inspiration from a wide range of places, and if ever I do something that could even remotely be tied to something done previously by another designer, it’s most likely done as a tribute. I’m hoping that–and not just some lazy designer stealing something that was already made–was the case with what I’m going to show you below. Though, I doubt it.

Last night I walked into Borders and went straight to the New Fiction shelf. I always go there first, both to see which new books are out and how this new batch of covers looks. The first thing I noticed last night was this cover:

This book is called By Blood We Live and it’s a collection of vampire stories from the past 30 years or something like that, edited by John Joseph Adams. Of course, when I saw it I immediately recognized the design. As a cinephile, I pay close attention to just about every aspect of the movie industry, and as a designer I’m especially drawn to posters. In fact, it might be movie posters that got me interested in graphic design in the first place. One of my major goals in life is to design a movie poster of some sort. Anyway . . .

After seeing By Blood We Live, I immediately marched over to the DVD section of Borders to confirm my suspicions. And sure enough, there I found a copy of The Lost Boys. Here’s the cover (or, at least the poster, which is the same design save for a few words here and there):

So, you can see the resemblance is uncanny. Even down to the font and the red line separator. Like I said, maybe this is some sort of homage. Let’s hope so, because I’d hate to think of a designer being that lazy.

Filed under: Book design, film, posters

The Collagist

I’ve never been much of a web designer. There are a few really remedial pages out there on the internet that I had a hand in, but nothing more than a bunch of HTML tags and a small amount of javascript. Nothing like some of the beautiful things we all see everyday. The truth is, I’m a little intimidated by web design because despite teaching myself a few things here and there, I have no training in it. I’d love to take a class or two on the subject, but even the cheapest ones I’ve come across are well outside my budget. So, I do what I can to learn what I need to know on my own. And actually–despite the digital revolution–I’m much more fond of designing for print, which, to me, seems like more of a tangible thing than something you can only see on a screen.

The Collagist

Despite all of my reservations, I’m required to design for several Web sites on a somewhat regular basis. It’s rarely something I look forward to, but this week has been different. The company I work for is launching a new online endeavor on August 15th, and I was in charge of building the site. The Collagist is a literary journal of epic proportions. This inaugural issue is jam-packed with amazing authors–including Gordon Lish!–and lots of other content. And working on the site has–much to my surprise–been a lot of fun. There are so many intricacies when it comes to coding, and it took a lot of revisions, but between me and the editors/publishers who also rolled up their sleeves (especially The Collagist’s editor, Matt Bell, who did just as much work as I did and provided the extra pair of eyeballs I needed after staring at Dreamweaver for hours on end) and dug in to make this site come to life, we made it through the long days and actually had a good time–for the most part–while doing it.

I don’t know if designing Web sites is something I can ever fully get excited about, and I’m not sure if I’ll have as much fun with it if I have other projects like this in the future, but maybe the more I do it and the easier it becomes, I’ll have other positive experiences like I had with The Collagist this week.

Until then, I’m looking forward to getting back to designing books over the weekend.

Filed under: The Collagist, Web design, dzanc

I’m an Inadvertent Thief, But I Steal From the Best

When I moved to Seattle in 2000, I became fast friends with some people in the art world. One of them was the curator at the Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington. I spent a good deal of time in that place, and the first show I saw there was “In Between Places” by Uta Barth. It was a collection of really amazing photography that was, for the most part, out of focus or contained a lot of elements in the foreground and background. I really loved the idea of recording spaces in between here and there. I used to have an idea that if you could focus your eyes on those places–in mid-air, I guess–you can see spirits. Silly, but you never know.

Anyway, from that point on, I really got fascinated with blurry images and tried a lot of it in my own photography. Sometimes it turned out well, and sometimes it didn’t. After a little while, I moved on to other things.

Until last year.

I came across a promo for Jack Johnson’s new album somewhere, and in it there was this really cool orange ball. The thing sat in the background, out of focus and somehow kind of menacing. But seeing it really reminded me of how much I love blurry things and gave me some ideas for cover of the new issue of Monkeybicycle. (You can buy a copy of that here, by the way)

I dabbled with some blurry photos, and after not coming up with anything that I felt really hit the nail on the head, I went to the trusty stock photography sites. What I ended up with was a photo that has a blurry aspect to it, but is primarily just an nice marriage of colors. And, it’s landscape so I could wrap it around the book. Back cover: done.

The reason I’m talking about all of this is because last weekend, when I was at a beautiful theater called the Somerville Theater in Boston, and as I was leaving I came across an old poster for the movie Punch-Drunk Love. If you recall that movie, you’ll remember there were a lot of brilliant, Technicolor tones, both in the opening credits and the characters’ wardrobes. Also in the poster.

Anyone who knows me, or who doesn’t know me but had talked movies with me at any point, knows that I consider Paul Thomas Anderson the best filmmaker we have. His work inspires me endlessly, and I am pretty much moved on a non-stop basis for one reason or another whenever I watch any of his films. The guy is a genius.

What I didn’t know is just how much this guy’s work inspired me, apparently. Because after leaving the theater and going home to look up the Punch-Drunk Love trailer on YouTube, I found the cover of Monkeybicycle6 at the :12 mark. You can see it what I mean here:

I got this image legitimately, and I don’t know why these colors showed up on the stock photo site, but when I discovered where they came from, I was ecstatic. I’m still looking into if these colors are somesort of stock footage from the old Technicolor film days, which I suspect they might be. But wherever they originated, I just think it’s super cool that my book cover is now associated with the work of P.T. Anderson, at least in my mind.

Filed under: Book design , covers, design, monkeybicycle

For the Kids

One of the things I love the most about my job is that once or twice every year, I get to design a book that is entirely written by kids. The company I’m working for right now created a fantastic program that puts a writer-in-residence into various schools around the country. Many of the sessions thus far have been in or around Michigan–where the company is based–and a few have been in New York as well. I’m hoping that the economy will turn around soon so that we can begin to sponsor more programs like this. Each time, whether the kids are in elementary school or high school, there is such enthusiasm by everyone involved. It’s just a really great experience to be a part of. Even though I’m working remotely and don’t get to actually meet any of the kids, I’m sent photos of them holding up their books, and emails they and their parents or teachers have written, and I love it.

The latest book I’ve designed in this series is for a fourth-grade class somewhere in Michigan. A lot of the stories were about animals, and the title has to do with an island. For some reason–maybe because I watch too much Lost–I had an idea of trees and jungles. So, I implemented that as best I could, trying to make it fun and something that the kids would look at and enjoy. To the right is what we ended up on.

And here is the one we went with for last year’s program. I really like this one.

UPDATE: Here is the cover for yet another writer-in-residence anthology, just finished and–holy crap–turned around by the printer in under 24 hours!

Filed under: Uncategorized , Book design, covers, design, DWIRP, dzanc

Roses are Red . . .

I know nothing at all about poetry. I read it . . . sometimes. And when I do, I generally like it. Am I reading good poetry? Something outstanding? I have no idea. I just know what I like, and whatever the rules are for good poetry, I don’t pay attention to them. That’s why Monkeybicycle’s poetry arm has its own editor and I steer clear of it.

Over the past year I’ve had the pleasure of designing the covers for some poetry collections put out by Black Lawrence Press. When I’m working with fiction I try to read the entire book before I jump into the cover design. With poetry, that could be a problem. Since my interpretation of a poem amateur and nothing like what anyone else would think in most cases, I’ve been depending on BLP’s art director to steer me down the right path with these books.  But now she’s gone and I’m on my own. I’m going to have to approach these collections the same way I approach fiction, and that’s going to be a bit scary. But maybe I’m making too much of this. Maybe I’m letting my fear of poetry get in the way. Can it be that much different than interpreting the writing in a novel and translating it to a cover? Probably not. And while I’ve relied on the art director at BLP to direct me in the past, some of the decisions that were made didn’t really make sense to me, or I wasn’t a big fan of the aesthetic I was asked to create on the covers. So maybe I’m better off now. Maybe I can come up with some unique new ideas that the press hasn’t seen before now.

Recently, the art director gave me an image to use for a cover. I liked it and it at least worked well with the book’s title. But then, after doing up a few comps, I was given a new image to work with. I liked it much better and was happy to go forward with it. That’s about when said art director left the press and I was kind of in the middle of everything with this book. I didn’t mind it though, because I’ve found recently that when I work on my own and execute my ideas instead of someone else’s, I’m happier with the results and the feedback I get seems to be very positive. On this particular project, the art director and the author had some ideas about the type treatment that the cover would receive. Something like American Typewriter is what they had in mind. I wasn’t aware of that when I worked up my comps, so when I found out, I went back and changed the fonts on some, and left my own on one design.

What I went with was something called RailroadGothic, which is much bolder than any typewriter-style font. It allowed me to enlarge it a bit more and get some more impact out of the title. As it turns out, both the author and the editor at BLP seemed to like this comp the best, so I’m pleased to say that it’s the one we’re using. It’s over here on the right–>

What is cool about using a bit bolder font is that I can take it inside the book and spice things up a bit. I always try to connect the covers to the interiors in some way. And with this font, I can provide a nice contrast to the very clean, minimal feel of the poetry. From what I’ve read of the book, it’s very contemporary and very fun, so I think using a san-serif font and embolding it a bit really provides a nice accent to what is some really great writing.

Hopefully, working on this book will put a little fire in my belly when I come across future poetry titles. Because now, rather than dreading them out of ignorance, I think I’m probably going to start looking forward to them instead.

Filed under: Book design , Black Lawrence Press, covers, Poetry

A Blast From the Past

When I’m not working–which is probably what I should be doing right now, like always–I try to unwind by doing things not really related to design or literature. But most times, I find myself back in front of the computer, reading something or playing around with the Adobe Creative Suite. That’s what I’m doing tonight. For fun, I decided to revisit an old design and see what I could do with it now.

When I went into art school, I knew I wanted to design books. Up to that point, all I’d really done were covers for Monkeybicycle, but I did try to get my hands on as many books as I could, moreso for the cover design than what was inside. When I start doing something, I tend to get completely immersed in it, and it’s all I can see for a while. That’s why, shortly after I started school, one of my first class projects was to create a book cover. I’d learned some things on my own, and I feel like I have a decent eye for art, so I felt I had an advantage with the assignment. Still, though, I had a long way to go. And still do.

This is the cover I did. It’s for a book called Back Rooms: Voices from the Illegal Abortion Era. The reason I chose this one is because I wanted to do something that I felt could evoke a strong response, and what better to do that than the issue of abortion? I also thought the elements of the cover could be subtle and still say quite a bit. That’s why I chose what I chose as far as the image and colors I used. Wire hangers are somewhat a given when it comes to back-alley abortions, which is the main topic of the book. And when you think of this procedure, it’s obvious there’s going to be some blood involved. It’s an incredibly unsafe procedure and many women have died from it. That’s why the background is the color it is: to make you think of blood.

Looking back on this cover, I really like it for where I was at the time. Of the fifteen or so people in my class, I really think this one stood out as the best. Or at least one of them. I think the obsession I developed with book design months earlier had a lot to do with that. But for as much as I’ve liked this cover for so long, I couldn’t help but wonder what it might look like if I did it today, with everything I’ve learned between then and now. So, I took a quick stab at it. Wait, maybe “stab” wasn’t quite the right choice of words there. Regardless, let’s move on.

I threw this one together pretty quickly–over the span of about a half-hour–and if I were doing it for a client, I’d probably spend another seven or eight hours on it, working up several variations and comps. But while the layout and fonts would probably change a bit, I think the elements that I used that first time around when I was in school, and am still using in this one, would probably remain. They seem to set the tone of the book well.

This time around, I went with a darker red, first and foremost. More dark and blood-like. It sets an entirely different mood for the cover, I think. And instead of a well-shaped coat hanger, I finally found a bent one, which seems more true to how they would probably be during one of the abortion procedures. The hanger in the first one was just too proper, and didn’t really reflect the title and subject of the book. This one definitely does that.  And the font is a bit more grungy than the very clean one that I used back on the original. Again, I think this is more representative of the book. I just think that, overall, this is a down and dirty book, and the cover should definitely reflect that much more than it did when I made my first go-round.

Like I said, if I was actually doing this for a client, it’d probably look much more different than it does here. But still, it’s fun to go back to something I did so long ago and update it, even for fun. I really shows me how my work has changed and how much I’ve learned over the past several years. I don’t know if it’s necessarily for the better or not, but I’d like to think so. Maybe I’ll go back and revisit this three years from now and it’ll be a complete departure from this most recent incarnation. I’d like to think that it would stay somewhat close though. If it does, it means I’m headed in the right direction at this point, and I should feel good about my work.

Filed under: Book design , Book design, covers, for fun

Monkeybicycle6

For fun (and because I want to sell this book) I’m going to use this design space to let everyone know that issue 6 of Monkeybicycle–the book I blogged about having so much fun with in a previous post–is now available for pre-order at monkeybicycle.net. This is a book that I both edited and designed and I’m incredibly proud of it. I really tried to dig into it in both areas to make it the best it could possibly be, and I truly believe I was successful. So, if you’re looking for something really great to read, look no further. Monkeybicycle6 is what you want. Here’s a list of contributors: Shane Allison, Sheila Ashdown, Richard Barrett, Matt Bell, Ryan Boudinot, Kim Chinquee, Martha Clarkson, Michael Czyzniejewski, Daniel O. Harris, Drew Jackson, Jason Jordan, Jing Li, Frayn Masters, Corey Mesler, Cristin O’Keefe Aptowicz, CS Reid, Nora Robertson, Sarah Salway, Curtis Smith, Tyler Stoddard Smith, John Spiers, Joe Sullivan, Matthew Summers-Sparks, Twixt, Laura van den Berg, Cody Walker, Brandi Wells, and Jay Wexler. In the world of literary journals and small presses, these are some of the top players. I’m incredibly excited to get this book out to as many people as possible, so pick up a copy for yourself today, and help spread the word!

Filed under: Book design , covers, design, monkeybicycle

Getting From Here to There

In this recent batch of book covers that I did for my company, time was of the essence. It was in part due to my procrastination (or, as I like to see it, working nonstop on other projects with deadlines), and also because I either didn’t know or totally spaced on the due date; we had to have them all finished by a certain date in order to ensure their inclusion in the upcoming distributor catalog. One of them, however, had some added pressure put on it due to the fact that it was optioned by a film studio and they wanted the cover (as well as the interior) wrapped up asap and galleys produced, I’m assuming, to get them into the hands of financiers and potential cast members. Not sure exactly where all of them were going, but I knew the book needed to be finished quickly.

When given this project, I was told a few things to keep in mind: this book is a Jewish crime novel set in 1963 New York, and that it should probably be something that could work on some level as a movie poster. Now, it’s always been one of my goals to design a movie poster, so I took that to heart. I should say, too, that before I even knew the film aspect of the book, I was sent an old, worn photo by the author. I was a bit dubious as to how it could work as a book cover, but after some tinkering, it didn’t turn out too bad. The only problem is that it’s a headshot, and therefore gives a face to the protagonist. When I would work this cover up and send it to the film studio later, they’d say the same thing. It was rejected. Here it is:

One of the reasons I thought this might be acceptable, at least to the author and to my company, is because it’s very reminiscent of another book that we published by the same author, and the two of them looked fairly handsome together. Again, if I was coming up with this on my own–and with the first book–it’d probably look totally different. but I figured that since we went in this direction the first time, it’d probably work this time around too. The first one looks like this:

From there, with the new specifics about the book and what the people involved were hoping to see, I went back to the drawing board and came up with something inspired by Paul Rand. I thought that aesthetic fit perfectly with the content, and wouldn’t look bad as a poster. Classic red cut-out and old-school lettering. I love the simplicity of Rand’s work on the old film posters, and I see a lot of homages to it still today (The recent posters for Burn After Reading, for example), so I figured why not give it a shot? The style seemed to work well with the book’s content, let’s go! It looks like this:

I don’t remember being given specifics about that one, but on some level it didn’t work apparently. So, once again, I started over.

One of the main elements of this story is whether or not the protagonist actually becomes the title character, his heir apparent. That’s a bit of mystery for a while, and I thought that ambiguous element really lent itself to the cover on the left, my next attempt. To me, this one hit the mark; there is the hint of the title character on the cover, but you don’t really know whether it’s him, the protagonist, or someone else altogether. I think the idea that it could be anyone–while still alluding to the title character–made it attractive. Dress it up with some 1960s-style font treatment and voila! You’ve got your cover! Or, at least that’s what I thought. But yet again, I didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. No problem. Keep in mind that I was working on this one along with, I believe, six other covers, so I was busy, busy, busy. I’d already spent much more time on this cover than any of the others, but as you’ll see with the next one, I think going through the process really pushed me to find just that right mix of New York, Mystery and open-ended potential for the story.

OK, last go-round. I took everything that I was told–all the necessary elements, all the constructive criticism on the other covers–and I really tried to put it to good use. This time, I was thinking straight movie poster. I should mention that one of the “mystery” or “crime” elements the author thought should be incorporated into the cover was a thumbprint. I don’t recall seeing a thumbprint anywhere in the book’s content, but it’s quite possible that I missed it. And even if I didn’t,  a thumbprint does say “crime,” so it’s understandable. I went through a few comps during the Paul Rand portion of the process that I won’t bother to include here. Instead, I’ll show you the last one I came up with, the one that uses the thumbprint perfectly, and incorporates the city, the mystery, the crime, the drama! It’s this one:

I was tickled pink with this. It had a lot of space to work with and I could easily see it as a book cover, and definitely in the local cineplex. Unfortunately, it didn’t “jump out enough” as a book cover and even though I fought for it, it too was sent to the Rejected pile. Of all the comps I did, this one is still my favorite. Maybe I can use it somewhere else down the road. And hey, it’d be awesome if it were considered for the movie poster! I doubt that will ever happen though. With the studio actually having time to work on that (unlike with the cover because the deadline was so close), I’m sure they’ll come up with something on their own, something great for the movie.

In the end, heh, there were discussions and compromises and a lot of rearranging things. What the studio, the author and the publisher decided on–drumroll please–was the origninal cover, the one with the worn photo. So there you have it. I have to say, though, that it was indeed an interesting process and I’m happy I went through it to get from one design to the next, to the next, to the next. Even though everything went full-circle.

Filed under: Book design, dzanc , covers, design, dzanc

When left to my own devices . . .

One very cool thing about Monkeybicycle, the literary journal I run, is that I get to decide what the cover looks like and what goes inside. I love using it as a means for experimentation with layout and overall aesthetic. The cover never has anything to do with the content, but somehow I feel it’s often representative in some abstract way of what’s inside. I like to look at it as one more addition to the table of contents; it’s another story that is being told in that particular issue. With the upcoming Monkeybicycle6 (due out in April), I was on some sort of kick where colorful, out of focus things really resonated for me. So I came up with this:

Monkeybicycle6

It’s just a very colorful cover that I’m hoping will catch the eye of some passers-by in the local bookstores. Since this is the first issue of Monkeybicycle that will be distributed by someone other than me personally calling and emailing stores around the country, I figured I should jazz it up a bit. Make sure it really grabs your attention. I think this does, and I’ll be very happy to see it there on the magazine shelves of Barnes and Noble and Borders. The stories and poems inside are absolutely amazing and I just hope the cover does them justice.

That’s the problem sometimes: if I don’t have anyone giving me feedback, I can get locked inside of my own vision and lose perspective. I suppose that’s the nice thing about so many cooks being in the kitchen when I design other books. It forces me to go back and take a new look at my work. I’m still very wet behind the ears with book design, so it’s always nice to get another point of view. As long as there is at least some trust that I do indeed know what I’m doing from the onset.

Filed under: Book design , covers, design, monkeybicycle