Hello, Author, and welcome to this month's issue of Process Highlights! Every issuecovers just one part of the bookmaking process. From developmental editorial meetings to proofreading to interior design to cover design to global distribution and promotion...well, there's a lot to talk about.
In this month's issue of Process Highlights, we're pumped to talk about one of the most exciting parts of the bookmaking endeavor: cover design!
Thanks so much for reading this newsletter, and learning just a little more about how we make books happen. Learn more about Atmosphere at atmospherepress.com, submit your own book manuscript here, and contact us at reading@atmospherepress.com if you have any questions!
Who is Atmosphere's Art Director?
Ronaldo Alves is literally one of the best people on the planet. Born and raised in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Ronaldo is a multi-disciplinary Graphic Designer who has been professionally creating visual experiences for nearly twenty years. Passionate about helping a book achieve its potential, not surprisingly, Ronaldo does believe a book can be judged by its cover.
With Atmosphere, Ronaldo leads a dedicated and longstanding team of five diversely-talented cover designers, and this range of skills allows us to match each book project with the specific designer of ours whose aesthetic and design approach most aligns with the author's own vision for the cover. This is why our cover designs display such range: we have a team that always tries to deliver what will most appeal to any given author.
We believe a big part of our job is diagnosing exactly what an author wants.With that in mind, we always begin by asking an author to send in the images of 8-10 book covers they really like. That gives Ronaldo key information regarding potential composition, font design, color, and myriad other elements that are difficult to display with just words. We also ask the author to send in any thoughts on what they'd like depicted on the cover, and even a list of concrete nouns or specific passages from the book that might be useful.
Then, once developmental editorial is finished--an important waiting period, just in case the author's ideas (or even book title!) change--the project is assigned to a designer who builds options for the author to look at. From a number of cover options, you pick a favorite, suggest your refinements, and slowly but surely we work towards a final front cover. It's crazy exciting when the final picture starts to emerge!
We always have to wait until the interior design of the book is finished to do the spine and back cover, as by then you'll have the back cover text composed and we'll know how thick the book is. Then you see the whole cover spread in all its glory, and we're ready to send the book off to the printer!
Who are the cover designers?
Kevin Stone has spent the entirety of his career (outside of one year at Tower Records) as a visual artist. Besides book covers, he’s designed logos and campaigns, posters, and even illustrated and published a comic book series. He relishes the challenge of finding the right image to convey the nuance and complexity of a book.
Matthew Fielder is a graphic designer, illustrator, reader, and a cinephile. Given the number of unfinished, but beautifully bound books on his shelf, he understands the captivating power of a strong book cover design. Besides his work for Atmosphere Press, he also creates posters and other marketing materials for documentaries and other media.
Beste Miray Dogen is a graphic designer who loves to design books, and who has designed more than fifty books for Atmosphere Press. She specializes in a clean, modern style. Beste lives in Brooklyn, loves paper, makes up projects, trains WT Kung Fu, and watches birds in Prospect Park.
An expert in the skillful discovery of archival images, Josep Lledó has studied Fine Arts and worked in television as a video editor. Over the years he hasn’t lost his penchant for media as a means of telling stories, and this is revealed in his book cover designs. A collaborator in independent film, he also freelances as an illustrator and poster-designer.
Since his childhood, Senhor Tocas’s father taught him that money was only well spent on Books and Travels and that’s probably why he followed that wise advice and became a proud book cover designer and also a digital nomad. Senhor’s professional life outside the Books World was as an art director, having worked for many of multinational advertising agencies.
Let's Work Together!
Now that you've learned a bit more about this one part of our book-making process, we'd love to take you through the whole journey.