Book as Art--Professional Spotlight

I'm very pleased to present our first Professional Spotlight, which will be a theme for Thursday posts. As an editor at HarperCollins (some years ago now), I had the distinct privilege to work with one of the most talented designers in the business, Laura Klynstra. She's created some of the most recognizable covers on the market, giving books a visual identity that are in my humble opinion the holy grail of the marriage of art and commerce, in a business where art often loses out to commerce, as Laura will explain. Still Laura has been able to give books an identity that do the best of what covers are meant to do--making a book and thus the words therein feel precious and special, which then in turn sells the book to the consumer. It's often a good cover that will make or break a buying decision, so you want a good one, and Laura Klynstra gets you there. I'm so thrilled to have her with us today to answer a few questions about design.

Hi Laura,

Welcome to EditingGenius.com. And thanks for stopping by to answer a few questions. Let's start with a basic description of your job:

A freelance cover designer works with in-house art directors or project managers to create covers. This includes collaborating on concepts, reading manuscripts, image research, type design, revising, and final mechanical prep. I worked in-house at HarperCollins and Hyperion directing designers; now I'm a full-time freelance designer. In addition to covers I also work on illustrated book interiors. Interior work is more detail oriented and requires more technical application knowledge.

What are some of your favorite projects to work on?

I did a double major in my undergrad in studio art and English. For my masters I decided that I really needed to choose one or the other; I chose English, receiving my Masters in writing and publishing. I fully expected to be working in editorial after graduation, but circumstances landed me in design. I don¹t design covers because I love graphic design; I do it because I love books. My favorite projects are literary novels‹the kind that I read. I love to design in layers and collage and flourish. I can do simple, stark, and modern when needed but it's definitely not my favorite style. I consider it a great fortune to be a footnote in some amazing contemporary works of literature.

What makes you decide to take on a project in your freelance life?

I will take on almost any cover design. Luckily an art director won't contact me unless he or she thinks it's up my alley. I want to work on projects that I'll be good at. I tend to shy away from advertising and web
design because I know it's not my strength.

What something that might surprise someone about cover design?

I don't think many people know how many cooks are in the cover-design kitchen. (editor, publisher, sales, marketing, author, agent, author's friends, Target, Barnes & Noble, author's dentist, etc.) Sometimes a cover
will take months and more than one hundred versions to get to its final state. Designing covers requires a thick skin because there will always be someone who hates your design and will not be afraid to tell you so. There's also the added bonus of taking the blame if the book doesn't sell, because the cover inevitably gets the blame if that happens. All that said it's still the best job I could have ever imagined for myself. I get to read great books, and play with art and type all day.

What advice would you give authors about what to expect for their covers, whether self-publishing or publishing with a house?


If you're publishing with a house you can expect to get great design, but your opinion will only be one of many and it may not even be the most important voice in the room. Cover design within a publishing house is
frequently a compromise between the many parties involved.

If you're self-publishing, you get the final say in what's on the cover. However the downside is that you also

have to pay the bill which can be considerable. Authors sometimes don't know that design is not the only thing that has to be budgeted into a great cover. The best photos and art can also be pricey.

How do you balance art and commerce in your cover designs?

I don't consider myself an artist. Commerce wins hands down in this profession. The first round has a lot of art to it, and I think these designs are usually the best. But there are always changes and compromise.


If changes are wanted and are possible I do them, because I know what I am working on is commercial and serves a purpose. It's that purpose that keeps design from being an art. Oscar Wilde said "We can forgive a man for making a useful thing as long as he does not admire it. The only excuse for making a useless thing is that one admires it intensely. All art is quite useless."


Maybe not, Laura, maybe not, but point taken. Thanks for all the great information and insight and thanks so much for joining us today. Check out the sample of Laura's great covers all throughout this posting as well as a snippet of her interior designs below.

Stacey