HarperCollins Design

And Then There Were None - The BBC drama that had us locked to our screens over Christmas, yet another example of how well Christie’s stories can be adapted for TV. Our very talented freelancer Mike Topping gives us a look into how he adapted Christie’s book covers for the TV tie-ins. 

Often the job of creating a film or TV tie-in edition comes down to taking the marketing artwork supplied by the production company and deciding how best to fit it into book cover format. It was a delight therefore to have some creative freedom with the tie-in editions for the BBCs two recent Agatha Christie adaptations. For the Tommy and Tuppence books, editor David Brawn suggested we draw inspiration from the classic movie posters of the forties and fifties, a genre I love and was eager to explore. Working with stills of the stars I set out to emulate the hand-painted style and bold combination of images and typography that evoke the era.

As an ensemble piece, And Then There Were None posed a unique challenge. David explains: ‘When we first saw the cast list for the new BBC production of And Then There Were None, we knew we wanted to feature them on the book cover. But the characters have equal status in the book, so if you show one, you have to show them all. Because of the way films are made, very little of the unit photography actually showed all the cast together, so the challenge for our designer was to come up with a cover using only pre-approved actor photos while still getting across a flavour of the story.’ 

After trying a couple of different solutions, we settled on a grid format that allowed for equal billing, and a sense of the ‘ten little soldiers’ destined to be dispatched one by one. In a rare and gratifying reversal of the norm, the production company opted to adapt the book design for the DVD release.

As the year is coming to an end and everyone is getting in the Christmas mood, we have a special treat for you all. Here are our Christmas covers for this year. Have a lovely holiday and a good new year! See you in 2016.

As the Halloween weekend approaches, we have a special treat (or trick) for you. Our ‘Photoshop Wizard’ Cliff Webb explains the art working process involved in resurrecting the classic Collins’ Detective Club series, restoring their vintage artwork so they can be re-enjoyed today. 

‘A chance discovery at the end of 2014 that a book called The Skeleton Key was Collins’ first ever crime novel, and a subsequent rummage around our archive in Glasgow to try to find a copy, led to our unearthing a whole series of detective novels published between 1929 and 1934. The series included some great books, and as we formulated the idea of reissuing some of them, what we really wanted was to retain the amazing rare vintage cover designs. But it was clear that some serious restoration would be necessary…’ David Brawn, Publisher of Estates

Cliff says:

Publisher David Brawn wanted to republish The Detective Club hardbacks originally printed from 1929, featuring the best crime stories of the era. In true detective style David did an amazing job obtaining good copies of the books with their original dust jackets. However as you can imagine, 80+ year old jackets are a little fragile and have sustained some damage.

Here is the scan of the original jacket for The Mystery at Stowe. As you can see there are signs of wear and tear with parts missing, creases and a stained edge at the spine – although still in remarkable condition for its age!

       Because they are reproduced in a slightly larger format and require retouching, jackets are scanned at 500ppi to maintain all the detail.

The old printed illustrations have a wonderful hand crafted feel with a prominent screen and for this reason my preferred tool is Photoshop’s Clone Stamp Tool. The Spot Healing and patch tools can be quicker but they can result in colours bleeding where the software samples surrounding areas and overuse can result in loss of detail. I was going to add filters at the end to ‘descreen’ and avoid any moiré pattern but didn’t want to start with a background which was too patchy and uneven. The Cloning tool allows more control when repairing the image – sampling parts of the image and painting these into new areas to remove scratches and holes etc.

Backgrounds needing repairing / extending are created using an existing piece of background, carefully extended, to prevent it looking too mechanical. It’s too easy to sample a colour and apply a Noise filter to add grain and break up a flat colour but it would never have the same feel as the original background.

Colours are enhanced and boosted to overcome the ageing process and help when printed on uncoated stock.

     Some jackets share the same image on the back and front cover, so repairing missing sections can be straight forward. However, in The Mystery at Stowe the title had to be patched and recreated from what was available.

Where original jackets have the same image repeated on both front and back covers, David has sourced alternative editions which use different images. This works especially well on The House Opposite where the paperback version (Ben on the Job), featuring Ben the tramp, is used on the back cover. Text has been removed and image integrated into the back of the jacket by using the foliage shapes – using two shades of blue to give a sense of depth.

      Another example is The Ponson Case. The front of the original jacket was covered by a large sticker but we were able to use the repeated image from the back. David then sourced a replacement for the back cover image which was adjusted to match the jacket’s colour and contrast.

    Once all the cleaning, patching and retouching is completed a final flattened image has a series of Photoshop filters applied (Gaussian Blur, Median and Unsharp mask) to reduce any visible halftone screen in the image. However this is applied selectively by converting the image to a Photoshop Smart Object which allows a mask to be added to control where, and to what degree, filters are applied. This way some areas (such as type edges and details where the screen isn't an issue) can be left without the softening / blurring effect of descreening. The final grid is constructed, flap text formatted and sections from the images repeated on the flaps to give a little more interest.

Here are some of the other jacket in the series. The artwork is wonderful and very much of the era:

             Footnote

What’s a moiré? Here’s an extreme example. Two halftone (dot) screens with different frequencies have been overlaid. You can see a pattern appearing in what was initially a flat grey shape. This is the type of result when trying to reproduce previously printed images with visible screen – a pattern can appear throughout the final printed image although not as strong as this example!

... As we have some wonderful successes to share with you all.

Over the last few months, Harper Fiction has had some wonderful books storming up the UK charts. These are the 15 titles that we are particularly proud of and the designers behind them.

                      For all of you who like figures, here are the details: 

Stuart MacBride’s The Missing and the Dead reached No.3 in the Sunday Times PB chart. This was the first outing for MacBride’s new branding.

Patricia Cornwell’s Flesh and Blood PB reached Top 5 in the Sunday Times PB chart and No.1 Kindle bestseller. 

Sophie Hannah’s The Monogram Murders PB once again was a Sunday Times bestseller after a great performance from the HB.

S.K. Tremayne’s Ice Twins not only secured a spot in the R&J Book Club but also No.1 in the Sunday Times PB chart.

HC’s newest imprint Killer Reads got their first No.1 eBook bestseller with debut author Alex Lake’s After Anna. Also Catherine Hunt’s Someone Out There, was another success for Killer Reads, climbing to the top 20 in the Kindle bestsellers chart.

George R.R Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reached No.3 in the Sunday Times HB chart in the first 3 days.

Bernard Cornwell’s Warriors of the Storm is Bernard’s first No.1 HB since 2008, after reaching the top 5 successes with recent HBs.

Wilbur Smith’s Golden Lion once again No.1 in the Sunday Times HB chart.

Women’s fiction had a great few months with Freya North’s The Way Back Home, Cecelia Ahern’s The Year I Met You and Fern Britton’s A Seaside Affair, all reaching Top 10 on the Sunday Times PB chart. Both Fern’s and Freya’s books made it into the Sun Book Club. 

Jo Cox’s Lonely Girl PB reached No.3 in the Sunday Times PB chart in the first 3 days. 

Debbie Johnson (Harper Impulse) went from her No.7  Kindle bestseller Cold Feet at Christmas to getting into the top 20 Kindle bestsellers chart with Pippa’s Cornish Dream. Both books making it to No.1 in the Kindle holiday chart. 

It’s a rare privilege when the whole team gets to contribute to a project. With the final covers for the 15 Voyager digital firsts completed, Cherie Chapman, our brilliant junior designer talks about the series.

Back in October 2012, HarperVoyager began their search for new talent. For one month only, they opened their arms to submissions from aspiring authors. The response was overwhelmingly amazing and Voyager received over 5000 manuscripts, from all over the world! From this massive pool of writers, 15 titles were selected to become Voyager’s first digital authors. Each book has been produced primarily as an ebook, with a print on demand version to follow.

Once the covers were briefed, they were shared between eight designers within the HarperFiction Art Department. Our biggest challenge was to ensure that the designs portrayed the genre clearly and that they stood out at a thumbnail size, so the titles can compete within the ever-growing industry of digital publishing.

The covers below display the diverse range of work, spanning from epic and urban fantasy to science fiction. Each designer went all out and produced high-quality, unique covers. I believe that each cover captures just the right amount of the story to give you a glimpse of what the book holds. In doing all of this we made all the authors very happy.

If one of the covers intrigues you or catches your eye, why not give it a read? You never know, you might discover your next favourite author! Having read one of the manuscripts for inspiration on how to tackle the design for this new trilogy, I am extremely excited to read and design the next book! 

When the new three-part series by Lucy Holliday arrived with the design team, the direction was clear. It needed to be a branded series that would really stand out within the women’s fiction market. Jane Harwood, who works primarily as a branding designer and has a talent with vibrant vector illustration, seemed a perfect fit for the mission at hand. We asked Jane to tell us how she designed the first instalment, A Night In With Audrey Hepburn, and the rest of this striking series.

The cover brief for A Night In With Audrey Hepburn, given to me by Alex Allden at HarperCollins, outlined that the aesthetic should be simply graphic and the concept should work across the entire collection. Alex described the narrative of Libby Lomax, an unlucky in love, failed actress who retreats into the world of classic movies. While watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s she imagines Audrey Hepburn sitting beside her, wearing her little black dress and her trademark sunglasses. Audrey then becomes Libby’s personal agony aunt, guiding her life back on track.

I knew exactly where to start; when I think of Audrey Hepburn, I think of Holly Golightly lounging on the roll top bath sofa in her apartment. I began there, depicting the night mask with eyelashes and chandelier-esque ear plugs: objects that fans of Breakfast at Tiffany’s would surely recognise from the film. For a second option, I illustrated Audrey sat down on her sofa, black dress on and cigarette in hand, placed on a Tiffany teal background, and for the third I drew Audrey in front of a starry sky. The typography used across all the options had been inspired by vintage film posters, intended to hark back to Audrey’s era but while still keeping it contemporary.

The feedback was unanimous – the team at HC all felt the night mask concept had so much breadth that it could run across all books in the series; however, the concept had to be clear not just to avid fans of Audrey but to a wider audience as well. From there I pared down the mask to a simple shape and placed the title and Lucy’s name within it, and began exploring how the final presentation of Audrey should look. The challenge was how to cover Audrey's eyes with the mask whilst still displaying enough of her character through her face shape, lips and hair (which was a hard task without showing her iconic eyebrows). Once we were happy with the front cover we then talked about how the full layout of Audrey should look. Alex had mentioned how much she loved the roll top bath illustration I had done during the first round of designs, so I began to work that into the back cover: Libby can be seen in her pyjamas with tousled bed hair, sat next to a rather more well-kempt Audrey. The blurb is framed by a puff of smoke from Audrey's cigarette.

Whilst designing the first book, I tested the concept on the subjects of the next books in the series, Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. I feel we have three book covers that work well together, yet still highlight the iconic characteristics of each film star. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with Alex and the HarperCollins team, and I appreciate the creative scope they let me have – it has been a dream project. I can’t wait to see the printed books too!

In honour of Cecelia Ahern’s new paperback The Year I Met You, taking it’s first steps in the publishing world today. Our own Heike Schüssler shows us, through a visual step by step, how she went about crafting this unique cover.

We think we can speak for many in-house designers when we say there's a bank of freelance designers we would love to commission,just waiting on the right brief. So when A Hanging at Cinder Bottom landed, it was clear that it had the talented Mark Ecob written all over it. We approached Mark and asked him to explain his process for this brilliant cover ...

A Hanging at Cinder Bottom, and the white whale ...  

Authors like Ron Rash and Tim Gautreaux write so vividly about the US in the 19th century, you feel like you're there. Glenn Taylor is no exception.

Reminiscent of a Coen Brothers' movie, A Hanging at Cinder Bottom takes you to the railroad town of Keystone, Virginia at the turn of the century. You feel like you’re really there in a late-night card game, or watching the crowd gather for a hanging. Extraordinarily vivid, with dense colloquial language, it's a read that leaves you nicely fatigued. It's a story of family, gambling, love and revenge, centered around Abe Baach, aka The Keystone Kid, who fled town with a bad debt seven years ago, and returns to the woman he loves and to right some wrongs done to him and his family.

The cover brief from Alex Allden at HarperCollins was simple: communicate authentic American, old-fashioned storytelling to sit alongside Annie Proulx/John Irving, looking toward a textural, perhaps photographic cover with a hint of period type. Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck was an excellent steer. Crucially, Alex also made me feel free to experiment, characteristic of the Borough imprint. The timing also worked very nicely indeed, the brief straddled Christmas 2014, so I had time to read and speak to Alex about my ideas before putting pen to paper (or stylus to Wacom).

When the Christmas break arrived, I prepared to get to know this book.  However before I had the chance to read it, to speak to Alex or even start picture researching, I woke up one night with the noose/tree rings idea. I didn't even sketch it out; I just let it sit there in my head until after Christmas. When I did start reading and noting down details that might help with my cover roughs, the tree-rings idea was always there. The more I read, the more it felt right – the logged wood used in the buildings of Keystone, Trent's Oak Slab table, Tilos's gallows, the passing of time and importance of family. 

But I had to meet the core of the brief, so I cast the net wide to find atmospheric photos with which to start a commercial cover, with period type to compliment it. I got started on my first visual, and it turned out to be the rings idea. Easy to produce with the right raw materials, I left it there and wasn't sure whether to include it.

Visuals of cards, saloons, streets and all John Wayne's boots came and went, all nice covers, but they just felt weaker than the rings. So I went for it, presented that at the head of my visuals to Alex, followed by stuff that was more commercial and genre-friendly, and crossed my fingers.

It sailed through the first meeting, and to author approval. First idea, first visual, immediate approval. 'YEE-HA!' would have been the appropriate response.

Now, as cover designers reading this will know, this doesn't happen often. They should really be called Moby Dick or something; they're that rare. All I had to do was add a quote, tweak the rope a bit, and we were done.

So it got me thinking about how instinctive all of this Cover Designer stuff is. How did the exact image I had in my head end up on the cover, before me reading the book? What was the prompt? What makes up this thing called 'instinct' anyway? All I do know is that sometimes, it just happens. The important lesson to learn is to listen to your instincts, go with your gut. It shows much more bravery to include something than not and that bravery might just pay off!

Huge thanks to Alex and Borough Press. I love that one of my best covers of the year so far has the word 'bottom' in the title. If only every cover job went so swimmingly...

Mark Ecob runs Mecob Design Ltd (ww.mecob.co.uk), Art Directs for Unbound and teaches at Bath Spa University. @mecobtweets

Tell us about yourself.

I'm the new Junior Designer for the Harper Fiction team. I enjoy going to the cinema, my next trip will be to see The Hobbit: The Battle of Five Armies. I like to discuss movies and TV shows. I love to read books especially fantasy, horror and crime novels.

How did you get into book design?

I've known since a young age that I wanted to have a creative job but could never decide what. Once I got my hands on a book design project at university I knew it was one of the areas I definitely wanted to work in. When I graduated in 2010, I narrowed career choices down to two areas: packaging design and publishing. After experiencing both industries I knew for sure that publishing, preferably fiction, was where I wanted to be. My first design job was designing eBooks covers for Hodder & Stoughton and now I'm looking forward to a new adventure with HarperCollins.

What are you working on at the moment?

I've just started work on a few Harper Impulse and Voyager eBooks, one of them called 'The Ark' and I shall look forward to many more.

What are your favourite kinds of projects to work on?

I enjoy working on briefs which allow me to be open with the design and to come up with a strong idea. I like the graphic illustrative approach as I find it can be very simple yet striking.

Can you describe your process for designing a book cover?

I first sketch out a few ideas and think of how I can bring them further. If possible I'd like to find out as much as I can about the book to help me come up with an original design. Once I've narrowed down the solutions, I'll mock them up on the computer to get a feel for the layout and start putting all the elements together.

Do you have a favourite book and book cover?

My recent favourite is Red Rising, which is the first book in a trilogy. I've read the proof for the second book Golden Son, which was also very good. And I love the A Song of Ice and Fire series and The Strain trilogy. The TV shows are also worth checking out!

Currently, my favourite book covers are Lagoon and Smiler's Fair - just stunning!

Who are some of your design heroes?

My design hero is Saul Bass. I just love his work!

What's currently on your to-read list?

I'm currently reading Stephen Kings Revival. Next on my list is David Nicholls' Us.

Website / Twitter etc 

The Fire Sermon cover revealed!

The Fire Sermon cover revealed!

LIONEL SHRIVER SERIES

We love a cover reveal here in the HarperFiction Design Department, so to satisfy our appetite (and yours) here are seven!

Here's what Katie Espiner, Publisher of The Borough Press, had to say about the great new look:

‘Lionel Shriver is an exceptional writer and we are extremely proud to publish her at Borough. Her backlist is every bit as challenging, provocative, incisive and thoughtful as the work she is producing now. It is with real pleasure that we are bringing most of that backlist together, publishing in this fantastic new livery, and hopefully bringing these books the new readers they so richly deserve’

Tell us about yourself.                   

I'm an Everton supporting, Essex born, Kent based Senior Designer. Feel free to judge any or all of these things.

                           How did you get into book design?

In my teens I made the choice to become a professional photographer. Quite quickly I realised that while I had an eye for such things I wasn’t good enough to make a living from it. On my photography A-level (in 1996) I started manipulating my photography in Macromedia Xres (a cheap Photoshop) annoying my traditional tutors (and the exam board) with my not too traditional techniques… I stumbled (fell?) into a design course after that. My first Design job was at a small contract publisher in the Essex countryside and the rest is history.

  What are you working on at the moment?

I’m putting the finishing touches to Bernard Cornwell’s latest hardback The Empty Throne. It will soon be off for print and I will eagerly await the fully finished book. I love working on Bernard’s books. The viking and saxon imagery is so evocative and really give the briefs some teeth. I always look forward to the next one.

  I am also deeply ensconced in picture research for the latest London based thriller by Kimberley Chambers called The Wronged. A very different project.

  What are your favourite kinds of projects to work on?

I don’t really have a favourite kind of project, I just like to keep things as varied as possible. Perhaps I do tend to focus on the ‘boysey’ side of the fiction genre, I think that’s where my strengths lie. I’m not sure I’ll be getting a women’s fiction brief any time soon!

  Can you describe your process for designing a book cover?

The process really does depend on the brief and its requirements. I will always start by looking at the competition and then start playing around with ideas, whether it’s a bit of picture research, or appropriate type styles. Hopefully things will start to take shape. My first ideas tend to be fairly rough and I then tighten them and refine as I go, kicking options that aren’t working into touch at this stage before being presented to the fiction team.

  Do you have a favourite book and book cover?

I don’t think I’ve been more enthralled and unsettled than the first time I read The Wasp Factory by Iain Banks. It really is a dark and strange debut. One of the first covers to cement my desire to do everything I could to work on fiction books was A Million Little Pieces by James Frey designed by Lucy Bennett. It’s simple, clean and striking all at the same time.

  Who are some of your design heroes?

Through University it was the usual suspects Neville Brody, David Carson, the team at Emigre magazine and Jonathan Barnbrook. These days, it’s contemporary designers such as Jon Gray (gray318) and Jamie Keenan as well as the image makers I have the lucky privilege to commission for my projects.

  What’s currently on your to-read list?

  It’s far, far too long to detail here. My baby daughter is severely impacting on my reading time, I think the list will be increasing in size for the foreseeable!

It's publication day for the new Hercule Poirot novel – Agatha Christie's most beloved creation – The Monogram Murders. Written by the internationally bestselling author Sophie Hannah.

We asked Senior Designer Heike Schüssler to explain the process behind designing the beautiful book jacket:

Designing The Monogram Murders has been an exceptional experience.

For the first time, Agatha Christie's 'Hercule Poirot', has been resurrected by the internationally bestselling author Sophie Hannah.

  She sets her thrilling tale in 1920s London, the scene of the crime taking place in the fashionable Bloxham Hotel where Poirot finds himself embroiled in a diabolically clever puzzle.

  Every designer in the HCP studio was excited about the cover brief and we all came up with alternative visions and cover executions for this title. As a result we had around 60 cover visuals mounted on boards when presenting The Monogram Murders to the team.

  The abundance of cover directions eased the decision process significantly. After a few weeks of developing four potential routes the 'hotel room' concept was chosen. The cover below shows you my initial proposal. My intention was to communicate the eclectic Art Deco era and the dazzling hotel environment, whilst acknowledging the iconic and instantly recognisable figure of Hercule Poirot. 

  Following the concept approval, we focused on the process of reducing and refining the discussed cover elements.

  The cover then required the authorization of Christie's family and of course Sophie Hannah's approval too. 

We’re proud to present the final editions in our Hobbit film tie-in books, which have followed the award-winning trilogy to its epic conclusion: The Battle of Five Armies.

We have a dedicated team of designers who work on the internals and covers: Terence Caven and Ben Gardiner work tirelessly creating layouts and sourcing imagery, Stuart Bache designs the covers.

  We asked Stuart to tell us about the process behind each cover:

  Back in March Team Tolkien and I sat down to discuss how we would approach the final jackets. The paperback uses adapted promotional artwork from the movie, which means we have to wait until it’s available, but the Visual Companion and the Official Movie Guide are ours to create from scratch.

  Though both books approach the same subject they each have different propositions: the Visual Companion, for example, accompanies the story of the movie with layouts created by Ben that give an ‘in-world’ feel. Whereas, the Movie Guide created by Terence gives you a peek into the process behind the making of the movie.

  We never really know what Peter Jackson’s vision for the films will be until the images begin to arrive, so our initial brief was based on what we knew would happen in the story. With Smaug’s impending desolation of Lake-town and the final battle between the Five Armies (see what I did there?), we at least knew there would be fire and the iron and steel of war – which gave us a starting point and a way to create two distinct looks.

  With that in mind, here’s the process behind each jacket.

The Visual Companion:

I started with Lake-town and, as we had no screen shots showing this, I set it aflame. Then I moved the jacket on from the static poses of last year by applying some movement and depth; there are scenes of battle behind the characters along the top and the flames engulf the book along the bottom, licking the title.

  In terms of finishes, we wanted strength of colour so we kept it gloss and added impact by embossing ‘The Hobbit’.

The Official Movie Guide:

This jacket reflects the battle, silver and grey with hints of blue. We talked about having a close-up of a weapon or armour and tried battle-axes and war-hammers, but the helmet, perhaps because of it’s resemblance to a face, won out. It also allowed us to have an intricate emboss to bring out the detail along the ridges of the eyes and markings.

The Official Movie Guide, Signed Limited Edition:

There is also a signed limited edition hardback of this book, which reflects the title of this film and includes weapons from dwarves, humans, elves and orcs (the fifth army are the eagles, I guess I could have added a talon!). This jacket has many more finishes, including a detailed foil, a deboss to allow the weapons to stand out and a spot UV along the metal to give a gleam.

The Hobbit, film tie-in paperback:

At the end of the week I will be leaving the HarperStudio to move back to Little, Brown Book Group as a Senior Designer.

  As I attempt to organise the past two years work I thought it best to sum up my experiences by sharing a selection of covers that have kept me busy over the past two years.

    Tracy Chevalier's backlist:

The 'what could have been' false start. Individual pieces by Neil Gower, Maricor/Moricar, David Pearson and Jordan Metcalf that so nearly made it on to press.

  The refined, finished books – all thanks to Neil Gower and his eternal patience.

    The Tower:

Whereas some projects are shackled to you for months, some deadlines mean that other pass by faster than a hurricane. Here, The Tower was designed and approved in little over a week.

    Infographic History of The World:

 A true design indulgence and a classic case that sometimes the solution has been right in front of your since the beginning.

    Consumed:

My first HarperCollins job for the Collins imprint. 

    The Machine:

A situation where a rough appears so unanimously 'right' for the content that there's no other option.

    The Road to Reckoning:

The ideal process: a fine manuscript to read, time to develop ideas and a supportive editor.

    I could go on but I'm already distracted by the work going on around me as more exciting things develop in the HarperStudio: a mammoth George R R Martin cover, the new Cecelia Ahern, the whizz of HarperImpulse covers being produced and the sigh of relief as a whole load of Hobbit film books get approved. 

  Until next time…

A selection of Harper Fiction covers published in May, June (and a few from July) 2014

Title and designer (starting top left):

The Way Back Home: Heike Schuessler

The Darkest Hour: Emma Rogers

Prince of Fools: illustration by Jason Chan

Half a King: Dominic Forbes (sword flake motif by Mike Bryan)

River of Stars: Charlotte Abrams-Hall

Bitter Sweet: Kate Gaugran

The Memory Killer: Black Sheep

The Second Life of Sally Motram: Alice Laurent