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
A Hanging at Cinder Bottom by Glenn Taylor will be published in 2nd July 2015 (The Borough Press).
