Thursday, June 07, 2007

Something to Blog About

A little while ago I mentioned that I was designing a novel based on a Blog. The title of this book is now "Something to Blog About." This has not been an easy one to work on. Mainly because as a designer it is very easy to go down the road that has been travel so much—cut off faces, bad stock images to make it look literary or like some sort of angsty character on the cover, but not this book we won't let it happen. I have always wanted to keep it graphic. So of course I took suggestions and checked out other blog designs. Only for a jacket it wasn't enough. I needed an image to hold it together. Two scenes played over and over in discussions of the jacket; one in which Libby burns her hair in chemistry class in front of a boy she is crushing on and the other where she trips in front of the boy crush Seth Jacobs. I was thinking of showing this in some graphic silhouettes with other graphic elements to fancy it up a bit. And then I realized I had a chance to use some artist that I have always wanted to work with.

Stay tuned to see what happens next.

Monday, June 04, 2007

Upcoming Interview idea

I have decided to take lead from other Blogs and begin an interview section to Mishaps and Adventures. The idea would be to interview other designers, Art Directors, Publishers and Artist. My hope is to start with delving into the processes of making a book and what publishers are looking for in hopes of making it a teaching tool for others ...ambitious I know.

So class now is the time if you have any questions you might like to ask about anything publishing related. I will take them very seriously an use them as possible questions in these interviews. I figure this will help me ask questions that you want answers to.

Possible interviews include Howard Reeves ( Publisher of Abrams Books for Young Readers and Amulet Books), David McPhail (Illustrator), Jeff Kinney (Author and Illustrator of Diary of a Wimpy Kid), Kelly Murphy (Illustrator), and Neil Swaab ( Designer and author of Rehabilitating Mr. Wiggles) to name a few..


And since I like to include an image everytime I post, here is a drawing I did of a couple of birds.