Jacket Design: Judging a Book by Its Cover
Readers often wonder about the behind-the-scenes aspects of book publishing, and jacket design can seem especially mysterious. So today, Creative Director Anne Winslow explains how the gorgeous jacket for Krista Bremer’s profound and moving memoir, My Accidental Jihad, came about.
“The challenge with this jacket was to find a way to show a mix of cultures in keeping with Krista’s story of growing up as a typical ‘Southern California surfer girl’ who falls in love with and marries a Muslim man from Libya. We wanted to show both cultures melding. We’d seen several beautiful comps which were almost, but not quite right, and we were at a standstill. Jacket design at its best is a happy collaboration of ideas and talent, and the cover for My Accidental Jihad was collaborative in the best sense. Our marketing director suggested looking for a photo of a surfer. The talented designer we’d hired found the perfect surfer photograph, which actually isn’t Krista, but which looks so strikingly like her, even her husband thought it was her. When I saw the new comps with the surfer, I thought WOW! If we marry the Islamic starburst motif from one of the previous comps with the photograph of the surfer, we’ve got it. Our designer’s next round was the perfect cover.”
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Coincidentally I just finished this fascinating book earlier this week — and it really is a gorgeous cover. Thanks for sharing the story behind it!
Coincidentally I just finished this fascinating book earlier this week — and it really is a gorgeous cover. Thanks for sharing the story behind it!