Yesterday I attended the Cover to Cover talks at the Arnolfini, organised by the West of England Design Forum. I have already seen great lectures by the two speakers - David Pearson and Teresa Monachino - but as I found them really useful I figured it was worth getting out and seeing them again. I also thought it would be good to show my face at a WEDF event. It certainly helped that Teresa put a few of us on her guest list - she was one of our tutors last year!
Teresa was up first in front of a sell-out crowd, and she began by talking about "the designer as author", showing a few pages from her Really Boring Colouring Book (which she gave me a free copy of last year). It's a nice book and certainly something of the sort of standard I would hope to achieve in my projects this year, in terms of concept and execution. She then moved on to her Around The World With The Bodoni Family, another nice project but one that surely would only be appreciated by other designers. Apparently it was printed using letterpress by the Society of Revisionist Typographers and as such cost her a hefty £68 each to make! The Design Museum took 40 copies and sold them at £95 each.
Her more modest Words Fail Me was next and it was really great to hear that it has been picked up and serialised by Private Eye magazine. At this point Teresa took a moment to express her dislike of the regular "Bookalikes" column in Private Eye. In it, they poke fun at people who produce generic book covers that often completely rip off the work of other designers. She defended these light-fingered designers by suggesting that they were probably working with no budget. That is not a valid excuse in my book (pun intended), as good, original design does not have to cost anything. I think she may have had a different opinion if my publication project last year was a copy job.
She then went on to show some good examples of book cover cliches, pointing out that obvious solutions for certain genres (chick lit, historical, thriller) are often best. I do agree with this, as the reader often wants to know what kind of book they are getting at a glance. It's all about appropriateness in design, something I am hearing a lot about lately.
One of the most valuable lessons I got from Teresa, which she mentioned again here for the benefit of all present, was that when designing book covers you should run off mock cover ideas, then put them in situ in a nice little book store and look to see how they compete for attention on the shelf. The design should sit well with the others in the same genre while at the same time having the biggest impact. This can be achieved through colour, typography and format (as well as actual positioning on the shelf). This is something I will definitely try with my next publication. Perhaps I will bump into her at Mr. B's.
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