Sketches

Here are some sketches I created while brainstorming the cover for Tweet Land of Liberty.

Tweet Land of Liberty

It's my birthday! 

Incidentally, it is also the release date of Tweet Land of Liberty by Elinor Lipman. I had the chance to do a little illustration for this book cover. The book is a selection of rhyming tweets that chronicle the 2012 election season. 

Coffee Shop Reading

Here is a quick illustrated banner I made to help promote the release of The Land Grabbers.

Sketchbook

I drew this a while ago when I was brainstorming ideas for the cover of Outlaw Marriages (http://www.gabiandersonstudio.blogspot.com/2012/04/outlaw-marriages-book-cover-design.html). This is a sketch of Greta Garbo and Mercedes De Acosta, one of the couples profiled in the book. 

Play with Pattern

I recently decided it would be fun to experiment with pattern making. I could definitely use some more practice but I'm pretty happy with how this attempt turned out.

Unpublished Covers

Here are a few variations on a couple ideas for a book cover. In the end none of these were approved for the final design but I still like like the outcome. 

We Shall Not Be Moved

The Development of a Book Jacket

Prior to working in publishing I was unaware of all steps it takes to get a book on the shelf. The design process alone starts about a year before the book hits shelves. In this post I will explain the process I used to create the book jacket for Ethical Chic, published by Beacon Press and on sale June 19th.

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Once a book has been launched, the editor of the book will send around a Design Memo outlining many key elements of the book that should factor in to the design. For instance, the editor may show similar titles and discuss what has or hasn't worked for different covers in the past.

After this initial meeting it's off to the drawing board (so to speak)! Generally, I do a lot of research before starting on a design. I like to read at least a portion, if not all, of the unpublished book to get a better idea of what the book is about. I collect tons of images and color inspiration before I start work in my sketchbook and on the computer.

Once I have several ideas that I'm happy with I present them at a design meeting where I discuss the inspiration for my idea and what the cover is trying to accomplish. Sometimes it takes many rounds before a cover will get approved.

After a cover gets approved in-house it is sent off to the author for approval. Once the author has approved it you have a cover!

Some time goes by before you have to think about this book cover again. Closer to publishing date, I put together a galley that will get sent out to various people for blurbs. These blurbs will be used as copy on the final jacket.

 Once all of the blurbs are in I get flap copy and create the final jacket.

During this stage I also pick case materials, such as the spine, sides, and end-papers. 

Once the jacket design and case materials have been approved, they are sent off to the printer. A couple weeks before the release date the final product is delivered!

One of my illustrations is featured on the Beacon Broadside. It's a coffee shop drawing based on the Summer 2012 catalog. Check it out here http://www.beaconbroadside.com/ !

Beacon Press Fall catalog

Time is going by so quickly! The Beacon Press Fall 2012 catalogs are now printed! The cover is an illustration of our beautiful building located on Beacon Hill in Boston. It's such a great location to have an office.

Outlaw Marriages book cover design

Hooray, my first book cover is now printed! Here is the final cover,

Long overdue post

My long hiatus from this blog is finally over! I have new material that is being published soon, which I am very excited to share. For the past eight months I have been working as the Design Assistant at Beacon Press and have worked on many fun projects.

Here is a catalog cover I created for Beacon's summer 2012 list. The front is comprised of several Beacon authors/characters mixed with people reading Beacon books. The back has a key explaining who's who on the cover.