Case Study: Book Cover Design
For a number of years, I have been designing book covers and inside page layouts for poetry publisher Tupelo Press. For We Are Changed to Deer at the Broken Place, the brief for the cover was to use artwork selected by the author, Kelly Weber.
I developed sketches into a few proposals for the client. A choice was made from this about the text’s relationship to the shapes in the photo, after which I proposed some typeface options. These typefaces would then also be reflected inside the book.
The client selected the version in which the text was broken up among the visual shapes made by the woman and moose. A sans serif typeface was chosen for its modern feel and in contrast to the serif typeface the poetry inside was set in.
Sketches
What is book design? Book design integrates all components of a book into a coherent product that can be printed and distributed. A book cannot exist without design; it is what turns a collection of text into an object with appeal and usefulness. As a tactile object, a book should be a joy to both hold and read.
And So Wax Was Made & Also Honey (Tupelo Press, 2020) — Winner of the Eric Hoffer Award's da Vinci Eye for books with superior cover artwork
The Beautiful Immunity (Tupelo Press, 2023)
Butterfly Sleep (Tupelo Press, 2019)
Lost, Hurt, or in Transit Beautiful (Tupelo Press, 2021)
ghost gestures (Gold Line Press, 2020)
We Are Changed to Deer at the Broken Place (Tupelo Press, 2022)
Mother Tongue (Gold Line Press, 2020)
All the Emergency-Type Structures (Inlandia Books, 2018)
You're the Only Friend I Need (Gold Line Press, 2020)
Nebulous Vertigo (Tupelo Press, 2025)
Map on an Onion (Inlandia Books, 2016)
In the Days that Followed (Alice James Books, 2024)
Former Possessions of the Spanish Empire (Inlandia Books, 2018)
Craters: A Field Guide (Goodmorning Menagerie, 2017)