Jackets Required: December
By Fwis -- Publishers Weekly, 9/16/2008 12:06:00 PM
This is the latest installment in a weekly column by Fwis, a graphic design group that blogs on book jacket design. The Fwis designers judge a recent book by its cover each week on PublishersWeekly.com.
Title: December
Designer: Barbara de Wilde
Author: Elizabeth Hartley Winthrop
Publisher: Knopf
This novel is about an 11-year old girl who for many months, refuses to speak. It’s told form the viewpoint of the parents and as they narrate the imagined viewpoint of the child. The jacket features a mysterious, quiet and a perfect, perfect photo. Youth, hesitancy, humor and silence are all captured by the correct type treatment, anonymous cropping of the photo and entirely delicate colors.
We’re always curious how these photos are found; either through a photo editor, a perusal of the family album or just pure serendipity. The art director or designer who can call forth great volumes of memory to find the most perfect photo has an amazing and mysterious force. Sometimes the creative touch is just having that rare and perfect photographic memory.
