A Book Cover Story: The Design Process of Mastering Modern Calligraphy
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I didn’t have much say over the cover of my first calligraphy book, Modern Calligraphy.
I understand why, too: I was a first-time author and my publisher was taking a gamble on me. The cover design and interior layout of my first book were left almost entirely to my publisher’s special marketing and design departments, whose job is to know what sells. They did ask my opinion, though, and sought my feedback on a number of cover options. But contractually, they didn’t have to involve me in the process at all, which makes me very grateful that they did. Ultimately, however, the final design of the cover and the interior was entirely theirs.
Publishing a book with a publisher is, by definition, a collaboration.
I’m not going to lie. As a graphic designer, it was really hard for me to give up any control over this massive creative endeavor. I’m a perfectionist and a control freak, so to not have a hand in every single aspect of a design project that bore my name was a difficult but important exercise for me. For my first book, I had worked for a year on every detail of the text, calligraphy, illustrations, and photos. Writing a book is an all-consuming process, and when it’s finally done and you hand over all the material to the publisher, you have the weird sense of not knowing what to do with yourself. (I stood in the shower and bawled for 20 minutes after hitting send on that final submission email. True story.)
Since Modern Calligraphy’s release in 2013, the book has done better than I ever imagined in my wildest dreams.
An Amazon Favorite Craft Book in its first month. Translations into Spanish and Complex Chinese shortly thereafter. A re-issuance by a U.K. publisher for the British Commonwealth. On its sixth edition and growing…. I pinch myself, even to this day. So in 2017 when I hatched the idea for Mastering Modern Calligraphy (my third book, having released The Calligrapher’s Business Handbook in 2016), I knew that I wanted to ask my publisher for more design control this time. I also knew I’d have more sway, since they were no longer taking a gamble on an unproven, first-time author.
Don’t get me wrong – I wasn’t unhappy with my first calligraphy book! But I knew that this next one was going to be bigger, fancier, and more time-consuming than Modern Calligraphy, and that perfectionist side of me wanted to oversee every detail from start to finish. My publisher immediately agreed to give me full creative license, and I was over the moon. The only caveat was that the cover design would have to be approved by their special marketing department, which I was more than happy about since I knew their team would be able to provide valuable feedback.
I was also thrilled that my request for lay-flat spiral binding with a wrap-around cover was approved in Mastering Modern Calligraphy’s initial proposal, too. That meant I knew the format and page size up front – another big difference from my first book. Since I designed the entire interior layout, this was essential. I was able to take every photo and draw every calligraphy composition according to pre-set parameters. But I digress….
The cover of my first book, Modern Calligraphy, was designed by my publisher.
I designed the cover of Mastering Modern Calligraphy – my latest book – as well as the interior layout.
The book cover is the last thing that gets designed. And it’s no easy task.
I’m not even going to dive into the issue of naming this book, because that would be a post unto itself. (If I had to guess, I’d say my agent and I exchanged 40+ emails about the title and subtitle, and toyed with at least 60 options over the course of many months.)
But the cover was no different.
I spent a full year writing, researching, calligraphing, illustrating, and photographing Mastering Modern Calligraphy. By the time it was submitted to the publisher and we’d passed through edit rounds one and two, it was time to turn my full attention to the front cover. The marketing team told me that red-orange was “the color of the season” and that I should try to incorporate that. It could increase the chance of the book appearing in merchandise displays, they said. This is a great example of something I would never have known without their insight, and a way that collaboration can make for a much stronger end product.
I remember feeling pretty confident about my initial concepts. I had a lot of great photography to choose from, and with the title nearly finalized, I felt it was just a matter of pairing a photo with a font. I look back on that and laugh.
The first surprise I encountered was that my publisher’s marketing team and I were not on the same page about what the cover should convey.
For me, the book’s #1 selling point is that it’s all about practicing calligraphy; about lettering exercises and letterform drills; about style critiquing and alphabet evolution. It’s a deep dive into thousands (literally) of modern calligraphy styles, shapes, and lettering techniques. As such, I wanted the cover image to be practice sheets! Beautiful ones, but unfinished work nonetheless.
My publisher was not keen on this. And I get it. To non-calligraphers, and marketing experts at that, I can completely understand that a picture of imperfect calligraphy practice papers isn’t as inspiring as an image of a polished, finished wedding invitation suite or calligraphy manuscript. Will practice sheets really entice the target audience? My publisher wasn’t as sure as I was.
I ended up making over 90 versions of the cover.
I designed versions with messy calligraphy practice sheets and with “cleaner,” fancier ones. I designed versions with multiple photographs, offering a greater peek at what’s inside. I made some showing finished products, like calligraphic envelope addressing, but then retracted them because I knew they just weren’t the right fit.
Ultimately, the process took about two months, but it was very enlightening.
It really showed me just how varied the interpretation of a single image can be, and how important it is to consider these perspectives when marketing my work. There was never a question from any of us that the book’s target audience were people who want to learn more modern calligraphy styles, master principles of hand lettering, and take their designs to the next level. The question was which single image could best convey all these things.
Here is just a sampling of the various cover images and layouts I explored:
As you can see, many of them are very similar, but even the smallest layout choices were scrutinized – by myself as much as by my publisher. (You can also see that More Modern Calligraphy is another title we explored right up until the end.) Should the title be left-justified or centered? The same font as Modern Calligraphy’s title, or a fresh, new one? Should we use a variety of photos or just one? And should it depict multiple lettering styles or would that be too busy? Does lots of negative space or full-bleed have maximum impact? Would a starburst or bookmark icon with more details about what’s inside distract or attract? How much orange is too much orange?
Ultimately, all the time spent agonizing over the details was 100% worth it. I love the cover we came up with. It was a true team effort, and I can safely say that had I gone with my first instinct – with no outside input – it would not be as successful as it turned out to be.
Curious about what’s inside the book? I made a video about that!
Look inside Mastering Modern Calligraphy ➺
With the interior layout complete, the back cover came together much faster than the front. It merges design elements from the interior with the same pop of orange from the front.
