Tag Archives: book design

Behind the Scenes: Designing a Children’s Book {Julie Chen Design for Tyndale House Publishers}

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My last post introduced one of the cutest children’s books I have had the joy of designing. I had the honor of working on My Time With Grandma Bible Storybook for Tyndale House Publishers & I thought it would be fun to show some of the behind the scenes of book design. Over the last 17 years of book design I have found that the general public does not at all understand what a book designer “does”… & I have gotten comments such as “don’t you just put it all together like a puzzle?” {ie: they thought I was given the image, typography & color elements & I simply arranged them in Word!} Ha! Not so much … it is a process {SO MUCH FUN!} & starts with a manuscript & blank page in a sketchbook where I can begin to dream.

 

When designing children’s books specifically one of the first things the designer will do is choose an illustrator. In this case, my art director had already chosen the illustrator, the one and only FABULOUS artist Ela Jarzabek. Ela lives in a village in Poland, so another interesting thing in developing children’s books is working with artists internationally, such as what I did with Jago when I designed The Jesus Storybook Bible. {OH, how I dream of meeting these artists!}

 

Maybe it’s because I studied illustration in college, or maybe it’s purely because of my love of art, but to me the illustrations carry so much of the success of a children’s book. Sure, you can have a great 32 page story, but without marrying those words to art that compliments the writing style & brings the words to life before a child’s eyes, your book will not shine. It is the ART that makes a picture book come to LIFE! And we were looking for a whimsical artist who could bring these Bible stories to life for children ages 3-6.

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The above sketches show my thumbnails of possible cover directions. The product developer wanted to make the grandma & children bears so that they were not limited to race or real age, but rather make an imaginary sweet family to appeal to everyone. Since the book is to be read by a grandma to her grandkids, it also had to appeal to both boys & girls. My thought pattern took me to what would a grandma bear like to do with her grandbears? Obviously they would be outdoors, in a forest, so what activities would both boys & girls take part of?

 

Some ideas you see include fishing, snuggling in a hammock, sitting on a log enjoying the other animals around them, or laying in the grass reading the bible. I involved my own kids every step of this process {come back another day & I will show you the process of the interior!}

 

You also will note a variety of fonts {typefaces} I played with, as well as emphasizing “My Time with Grandma” versus “Bible Storybook”. {I personally liked emphasizing “Bible Storybook” as I thought it was a quicker read of the importance of the book, but you will see my opinion did not win out & the publisher felt it was more important to emphasize “My Time with Grandma” to the market.}

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The above is the cover direction that won! Grandma reading to her grandbears as the boy playfully lays in the tree while the girl snuggles into grandma after a sweet little picnic. I thumbnail both the cover & back cover so the illustrator can see my vision as well as where typography will interact with the art. I also verbally do a write up to describe anything that is important to me: the squirrel peeking out of the tree, another family of birds, yummy food in the picnic basket, etc… it’s all in my head & my concept. I even reference Ela’s own work to begin to describe the personality of bears she’s done that I want ours to look like, as well as color palette, etc…

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The above sketch is what Ela sent back to me… OH MY GOODNESS!!!! There is nothing like seeing your little stick figures & sketches come to life by an artist you admire so much! I think I did the happy dance when I opened my email that morning & downloaded the above sketch!

It is then my turn to place her sketch into my design with typography finalized to present to the publishing committee. {If anyone out there cares, I design books in Adobe InDesign & do any art work in Photoshop} As a team, we discuss any necessary changes & then I give feedback to the artist of what needs to change. In this case, I did not feel like Grandma’s eyes were connecting with the children nor did she look too excited, so I asked Ela to have the grandma make eye contact with her granddaughter. At this stage we also discuss any further color issues if need be.

 

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And, TA-DA!!!! The final cover!!! I could not be happier with this project. Thank you Ela for making my dreams come true. You added more of your heart to this book & went above & beyond in every illustration! I cannot wait to show you all more of the interior process.

 

So, the next time all of you are book shopping & you think those covers “just happened” … well, think again!

 

Grace & Peace,

JulieFreeSHIPPING

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FREE Scripture Art Download {Romans 8:31-32 Ann Voskamp’s Life Verse}

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{Art Available HERE}

Yesterday I wrote about the behind the scenes cover design of Ann Voskamp’s latest book, The Greatest Gift. In my post, I mentioned that I would be giving away a FREE 4×6 Scripture art download of HER life verse. If you studied her best selling book 1,000 Gifts, you know her life verse is Romans 8:31-32. I was so thankful I had previously created that Scripture and Tyndale allowed me to gift it to her along with this print. {And a gushing letter of how much her book has meant in my life}

 

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{GO HERE TO GET THE DOWNLOAD}

CONDITIONS OF USE

All photos and artwork are ©Julie Chen of Life Verse Design. Artwork in the downloadable 4×6 jpeg is free strictly for personal use, not for commercial use. Sharing these photos via Facebook, Pinterest, or your blog is welcome only if you agree provide credit to me as the artist {artwork are ©Julie Chen of www.lifeversedesign.com} and link back to juliechenphotography.com. Please be respectful and have integrity when choosing to download the free art. By downloading the art, it does not give you the right to sell it digitally nor on print nor in any other format. Thank you for furthering God’s Word in new & fresh ways.

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Grace & Peace,

Julie

 

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Behind the Scenes Cover Design of “The Greatest Gift” by Ann Voskamp {on my shelf}

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Last spring I received a phone call from my bestie at Tyndale House Publishers that went something like this:

art director: “Julie, we need you to step in & design the cover for Ann Voskamp’s upcoming Christmas book called The Greatest Gift. The thing is, we need a cover APPROVED by next Wednesday as Ann is leaving for Africa & she needs to see it before she goes.”

{now, mind you, this was the Thursday before Memorial Day & we are designing a CHRISTMAS book with winter items & everything is closed on Monday for the holiday & to have a cover APPROVED by Wednesday means you need to do a photoshoot before then & design the cover options & ahhhh!}

me: “WHAT??!!!????!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? I just finished leading a study of Ann’s One Thousand Gifts & it’s changed my life! OF COURSE I will design this cover!!!!”

I hang up the phone and panic a bit. The good news was Ann had very specific cover direction: pure, simple, clean, white, elegant. Hands outstretched wearing white mittens holding a gorgeous paper ornament from the interior of the book {there are 25 of the most beautiful paper cut sculpted ornaments you will ever feast your eyes on!} The bad news was all of the stores were now full of summer goods: swimsuits & sundresses & I do not have a pair of white wool mittens!

 

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So, I call my good friend Sugar Cookie Lady {aka the real, live Martha Stewart in my world} & ask her, “GIRL! Can you make a pair of white wool mittens for me? Where can I find sweaters to cut apart at this time of year?!” {“Oh & by the way, I need them by Monday 🙂 thanks!”} Her advice {as usual} was right on: “Go to the local Salvation Army. You will find plenty of goodies there.” She was so right. I found 5 sweaters & 2 scarves, all for $20!

 

In the meantime, I also searched ETSY for a pair of cream cashmere mittens, as we wanted to have an option of a more elegant pair versus a more organic & down to earth pair. {The down to earth pair won… it is so “Ann” as she lives on a farm}

 

On Tuesday we did a photoshoot in house. I somehow became the hand model. Not sure how that happened, but I’ve done it before. It was hilarious. The fabulous Stephen Vosloo {Tyndale’s photographer} had ordered fake snow. Just add water & POOF! Snow grows. We wanted a magical feeling of light snow falling on the pure white cover. I stood there for over an hour holding out that ornament as 2-3 people stood above me, to the side & in front of me throwing handfuls of snow at me. I wish we had a behind the scenes shot of that to show you! In the end, about 300 + images were shot & my forearms were aching! {Oh, the work of a hand model!}2013-11-19_0003

We then narrowed down the images & I went home to create the cover. Now, a lot of people ask me, “What does it mean to be a book designer? What do you do?” Well, let me tell you: a book cover starts as a blank page & we are given the title, sales copy, byline & marketing direction for the “feel” of the book. From there it is the designer’s job to create the look of the book, both inside & out. As I looked through the images, the white on white as Ann desired started to look very abstract to me, so the cover above I found a shot Stephen had done which showed just a touch of my hair falling over my shoulders. I thought it was so necessary to give the image context as one quickly walks by at the bookstore & glances at the image. It was the chosen one.

 

Then onto the rest of the book: I wanted to pick up on the icy blue of the title for the spine as it was such a beautiful, wintery color. As a designer, you also create the entire jacket {cover, spine, back cover, & flaps}. A fun thing about hardcover book design is that you get to pick out the “headband” which is the cloth material on the top of the spine which helps bind the pages together, as well as the endsheets! My art director had designed the interior of the book & worked with the paper illustrator & I had loved the snowflake pattern she used on chapter openers, so I chose to use those for the endsheets & again contrast the blue with the white.

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I also created this 8×10 fine art print for Ann as a gift, using some of her quotes from the book! Love!

Come back later this week & I will be giving away a FREE download of Ann Voskamp’s life verse {which if you have studied the 1,000 Gifts book, you already know what that is!}

Oh & please go to her live webcast Christmas on the Farm this coming Thursday!

 

I hope you’ve liked learning a bit about the behind the scenes of book design! I plan on blogging about some of my other covers soon. Enjoy FREE shipping in the shop to kick start your holiday shopping.2013-11-19_0005

Grace & Peace,

Julie

admin - Jean, You can buy the book on Tyndale.com or Amazon or any local Christian bookstore. Enjoy!

Jean McCormick - Where can you purchase this book? Thanks.

Christal - It is a beautiful book, with the written word, the text, the cover, all of it. I have loved having it on my nightstand since September, waiting for December 1 to arrive. I have enjoyed these last days carrying it around and sharing it with people. I have found myself more than once running my fingers over the blue raised text on the front cover and appreciating the feel and the peace I have found inside, as I and my family have focused on Christ this Christmas. Thanks for sharing this story.

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