Book Cover of the Month: September

I love this cover. It reminds me of the works of the famous surrealist Salvador Dali. The author, Beth Hetland, illustrated the graphic novel as well as the cover. This is her first release from a major publisher, Fantagraphics.

Hetland is a Professor at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago where she teaches several comics and comics adjacent courses. She holds an MFA (2011) from The Center for Cartoon Studies and BFA (2009) from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has exhibited at comics fests all over the country, and received several awards for both teaching and comics.

The illustrations were drawn digitally using Procreate on an iPad and with the Apple Pencil. Hetland learned how to draw digitally from her students. She saw them all using an iPad in class and asked a lot of questions on technique. Previously, her illustrations were done with pen and pencil.

Book Cover of the Month: August

This book cover is so gorgeous that it absolutely must be my best book cover for August. A History of Japan in Manga is exactly what the title says. We get a history written in comic book format. Comics are a fantastic way to learn about history and actually retain the information. The book has line drawings colored in a cool tone of pink, which is my favorite color. It tells the story of Japan from its beginnings to the present day. 

The author, Shunichiro Kanaya, both wrote and illustrated this book as well as the cover. He is a lecturer in the Department of Japanese History at Toshin High School in Musashino, Japan. He is the author of several books on Japanese history and has appeared as a history commentator on NTV, Fuji TV and TV Tokyo. He is a busy man but I hope that he has the time to write more comics.

Book cover of the Month: July

Forget Me Never by Susan Wittig Albert is my best book cover for this month. It has one of my favorite color combinations, blue and yellow. In this 29th installment of the China Bayles series, the author has focused on the coffee bean because it helps with memory and the title is about not forgetting. In 2019 the author started self-publishing under her own imprint, Persevero Press. She subcontracts out the cover art design and I have been unable to determine who the designer is. 

An attractive book cover determines whether your book sells. The average consumer spends just eight seconds looking at the front cover and no more than fifteen seconds looking at the back. The average national buyer takes even less time than that to make a decision about the number of copies he or she will buy. Good covers don’t guarantee big sales, but bad covers can kill projects. I am always immediately attracted to any book cover with bright covers. Since I love this author I was going to buy the book regardless of the cover. If I was not familiar with her, I would have picked up the book at my local bookseller and taken a closer look at it.

Book Cover of the Month: May

My favorite book cover for May comes from A Nest of Vipers by Harini Nagendra.  Molly Von Borstel created the cover. She is the Art Director for Faceout Studios in Oregon. This book cover has several elements that I adore. There is a sari and an interior  gateway painted in an orange red color. It is heavily decorated with narrative reliefs of deities and plants. The placement of two snakes on the sides is appropriate for the storyline as well as the title.

Von Borstel graduated with a BFA in graphic gesign and joined Faceout in 2019. She loves the visual storytelling aspect of her job and has won several awards. Last year she was recognized in Print Magazine's Top 50 Covers and received the Best in Show Award from Publishing Professionals Network Book Show.

Book Cover of the Month: April

I love the happy color of yellow on this book cover. It was illustrated by author Abby Denson. She is an American cartoonist, writer, and musician, known for her gay young adult comics series Tough Love and her comics travel guides to Tokyo and Japan.

Her work has garnered the International Manga Award, Moonbeam Children's Book Award, IPPY Award, and Lulu of the Year. She has taught and lectured at various venues including the Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art, Eugene Lang College at The New School, and Sophia University in Tokyo. She has participated as U.S. Arts Envoy to Colombia.University. Denson is a very accomplished cartoonist.

Book Cover of the Month: February

My favorite book cover for this month was done by illustrator Leuyan Pham. She illustrated both the cover and inside pages for Gene Luen Yang's Lunar New Year Love Story. It is also my best book for this month. Pham was born in Vietnam. She attended the University of California, Los Angeles from 1991 to 1993, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1996 from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA. After graduation, she worked as a layout artist from 1996 to 1999 at Dreamworks Animation. She then quit to illustrate children's books full-time.

What I love most about this book cover is the color. The reds and purples mix well together and produce an eye catching piece of art. This color pallette is continued throughout the inside The reader knows they are getting a happy story because of the color palette.

Book Cover of the Month: January

This monthly post was begun in order to highlight the artists who design book covers but this month I came up short. I was unable to locate the name of the cover designer of this gorgeous book cover. I love this book cover, especially the birds flying in the air. I also love the rendition of the Alhambra in the foreground as well as the color palette that the cover designer used.  The small magenta area makes the illustration glow.  

The illustration of the Alhambra lets the reader know that the story is set in Granada, Spain. The use of the word "sepharad" in the title also gives the reader a clue to what the book is about. Sepharad refers to Sephardic Jews who were expelled from Spain in 1492 and, thus, you can tell that this is a historical fiction novel.

Hopefully next month I will be able to determine that name of the book cover designer and write a little bit about his or her background.

Book Cover of the Month: November

My best book cover for this month is from The Yellow Rambutan Tree Mystery novel by Ovidia Yu. Illustrator Andy Bridge designed the cover so well that Yu decided to make a minor change in her plot. She saw a clue in the book cover design that she wanted to incorporate into her novel.  

Andy Bridge graduated from the Brighton Polytechnic in 1989 from their illustration course.  He worked for a studio, Great Western, in West London until 2004.  He now lives and works in France.  In his book jacket design process, Bridge works in three dimensions, producing boxed collages and pieces inspired by all kinds of ephemera.  He has worked with all of the major publishers in the UK, Europe and the USA, including Random House, Penguin, MacMillan, Harper Collins and Orion. Bridge is an award winning illustrator.  He illustrated the cover of the 2022 Man Booker Prize winning novel "Life of Pi" boy Yann Martel as well as the 2009 winner "Wolf Hall" by Hillary Mantel.  In addition, he has created original works of art for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line and wine labels for Domaine Saint Rose in France.

Book Cover of the Month: October

Nada Orlic designed this gorgeous book cover for Kevin Butler's novel. She has been designing book covers for the past ten years for her private business Erelisdesign.com and has a design portfolio of 1,300 books. Her goal as a designer is to make a book stand out in a row of other books at a shop and help to make a bond between the book and the reader at the first sight by capturing the most unique elements and key messages of the book.  

Nada's studio is located in her native Belgrade, Serbia.  She holds a printmaking and book design master's degree from the University of Arts in Belgrade. 

Book Cover of the Month: September

I love this book cover for Nancy Bilyeau's latest novel The Orchid Hour. The vivid colors are attractive and the orchid leaves are expertly placed. The book was published by Lume Books, a division of Joffe Books. Both are indie publishers based in Britain. I was unable to determine who designed this cover but whoever they are, they deserve accolades. It's a gorgeous book cover. Don't you agree? 

Book Cover of the Month: August

Kate Mosse's The Ghost Ship has a beautiful cover. What intrigued me the most is the center motif. It contains a fleur-de-lis, a sword and a bloody white fabric. I am presuming that the white fabric is the sail on the ghost ship.

I was not able to determine the identity of the book cover designer. It would have been nice to find out why the center image was chosen. As for the background, I saw similar images for sale on the Internet for authors to purchase. Did the publisher take the easy route here? 

Book Cover of the Month: July

Laura Klynstra designed the book cover for The Tiffany Girls. She is a freelance graphic designer who focuses her work on book covers and illustrated book interiors. In her previous job she worked as the art director at Hyperion Books and at HarperCollins Publishers in New York City. In her free time Laura loves to cook and creates new dishes with her best friend, Mumtaz Mustafa, for their Instagram blog: @spiceandsugartable. Her first baking cookbook, Christmas Baking, was released November, 2020. This creative lady lives in Lansing, Michigan.

Book Cover of the Month: June

I love this book cover. It was designed by Richard Ljoenes for publisher W. W. Norton. He is a designer and art director primarily focused on print-based design—book covers and illustrated book interiors. His background also includes advertising and corporate identity. His design and art direction has been awarded and recognized by many organizations and he has worked on over fifty New York Times Bestsellers.

Ljoenes started his career as a traditional advertising sketch-artist with D’Arcy (formerly DMB&B/Clarion) in his native Oslo, Norway. Eventually markers were replaced with a Mac and over the next few years he developed into a driven designer working on many of Norway’s biggest brands. Although thriving at the firm his status as the sole soccer-hating male on the European continent eventually forced his emigration stateside. After attending San Francisco’s Academy of Art he moved to New York, and following a brief period at Sullivan & Co Design, got his first start in publishing with HarperCollins Publishers. During his eleven years there he held numerous roles at several imprints, including Senior Art Director at Regan Books (w/stints in NYC and LA offices), V.P. Senior Art Director at both the Collins imprint, and more recent, the Harper Division. In June 2014 he left HarperCollins for the opportunity of starting on the ground floor of Regan Arts (teaming up once more with his former boss), a newly established Phaidon Global Company, where he served as Creative Director and oversaw all cover and interior design for a range of fiction, non-fiction, and illustrated books. Spring 2017 Ljoenes started his own studio. He now operates out of Boulder, Colorado.

It's exciting to see a young person dedicated to book cover design. We readers have alot to look forward to in the future from Ljoenes.

Book Cover of the Month: May

Weyward by Emilia Hart has one of the most beautiful book covers that I have ever seen. Logically, it is my best book cover for May. The cover designer is Michael Storrings.  He is the Creative Director at St. Martin's Press and he has designed book jackets for New York Times bestselling authors like Kristin Hannah, Mary Kay Andrews, Jackie Collins, Emily Giffin, Bernie Sanders, Bob Harper, The Kardashians, Jeffrey Archer and Lisa Scottoline. Storrings has won awards from the American Institute of Graphic Artists, the Art Directors Club, the Society of Illustrators, Print Magazine and the New York Book Show.

To create the Weyward book cover Storrings used images of background flowers from Liliboas/Getty Images. The vines and leaves were taken from bauhaus 1000/Getty Images and the beetles and crow were from The Palmer/Getty Images. Finally, the bugs were from Bodar Tivadar/Shutterstock.com.  He placed all of these images in a pleasing pattern for this cover design.

Book Cover of the Month: April

Lemon Curd Killer had my favorite book cover for this month. Doesn't it look inviting? It makes me pine for afternoon tea but, of course, a tea that someone else makes for me. The yellow color of the table is what I like the most. Yellow is my favorite color and seeing a table of sweets in yellow is appealing. 

I was unable to determine who designed the cover. What I did find was a blog post concerning Penguin vintage book covers and a 2016 book called Classic Penguin Cover to Cover by Paul Buckley. Buckley is the creative director for Penguin who published the book and he has a large staff of designers and art directors that work on the jackets and covers for sixteen imprints within the Penguin Random House publishing group. I will most likely get this book as book cover design is a new interest for me.

Book Cover of the Month: March

The Porcelain Moon historical novel has my best book cover for this month. The cover designer is Elsie Lyons. She used photographs taken by Ildiko Neer to design the cover. Lyons is the Senior Director of Art at Harper Collins Publishers.

Ildiko Neer is a fortysomething German photographer who loves to shoot forests. In fact, she is known as a forest photographer. She said in an online interview that her work reflects the feelings she experiences when she walks through a forest. Many of her photos have a dreamy appearance. Neer typically photographs flowers in either a field or a vase, trees, gardens and grass. She will find locations to shoot from Google Maps. Her favorite theme is nineteenth century. She also loves the post-photography process and uses several software programs, including Photoshop, to enhance her photos.  

Book Cover of the Month: February

It shouldn't be any surprise that I have chosen Andi Watson's graphic novel Paris as my book cover of the month. The bold colors on the cover are what induced me to buy the novel. Unfortunately, the comic strips inside the book were done in black and white. Simon Gane drew and colored the cover. His artwork on last month's Sunburn was my favorite book cover for January.  Gane is a British artist from Bath who works for Vertigo. Vertigo is an imprint of DC Comics that caters to mature audiences but also more sophisticated cartoonists. Gane is also a magazine and children's book illustrator. 

Book Cover of the Month: January

None of the covers of the books that I read this month were enticing. However, if I had to pick just one as my favorite is would have to be Sunburn by Andi Watson. Sunburn is a full length graphic novel about a girl who travels to Greece one summer to visit a family friend. The sunny colors of Greece, blue and white, on the cover caught my attention and was the reason I was interested in getting the novel. 

Illustrator Simon Gane did the artwork for the book. He is a British artist from Bath who works for Vertigo. Vertigo is an imprint of DC Comics that caters to mature audiences but also more sophisticated cartoonists. Gane is also a magazine and children's book illustrator. He sells original artworks from his Instagram page.

Book Cover of the Month: September

My favorite book cover of the month for September is Laura Childs' A Dark and Stormy Tea. I could not determine who the book cover designer is but wonder whether it was an in-house designer at Berkeley. This was disappointing because I like to write about the artist behind the cover. What I like about this cover is that it is a table set for afternoon tea. I LOVE afternoon tea so these drawings are always attractive to me. My favorite dessert, macarons, are on the table and there is a beautiful set of purple china also. What's not to like?

Book Cover of the Month: August

The cover of Dan Silva's Portrait of an Unknown Woman was designed by Will Staehle (pronounced stay-lee). I love the gold color and the peek at a canvas. Staehle's studio, in Seattle, is called the Unusual Corporation where he focuses on commercial design and original content creation.

He grew up reading comics and during summers he worked at his parents' design firm. You could say that art is in his blood. He has had jobs as the Art Director for HarperCollins Publishers and the Vice President of Design at JibJab in Venice. Staehle has received a prestigious award from Print Magazine which featured him in an article on the Top Twenty Under Thirty New Visual Artists. Staehle has designed book covers for well known writers such as Michael Crichton and Michael Chabon.

He got his start in the business when he was a senior in college and entered a national design contest. Staehle was awarded two second place awards in the design and illustration categories. Since the award ceremony for this contest was held at the Guggenheim Museum in NYC, he immediately received two job offers and accepted one at Harper Collins. He began there as a senior designer and worked his way up to the art director position.

In an interview on the Book Riot Blog, Staehle stated that he designs about fifty book covers each year and that it is difficult for him to design a cover for books that he does not enjoy. In order to obtain two perspectives on the cover, he will sketch cover designs after reading the quick cover brief and then prepare a second batch of designs after he has read the entire manuscript. 

50 book covers a year seems like alot to me but perhaps this isn't too much work for a professional artist.  In any event, I love what he has created for Portrait of an Unknown Woman.