The Hundred Hearts

Is there such a thing as obliquely literal? In this book by William Kowalski, the protagonist’s grandmother crafted cute, hand painted red balsawood hearts that she gave away. If you count the hearts on this cover, there certainly are a hundred. The stencilled, spray painted treatment is meant to evoke the main character’s military stint, and the five black hearts represent the five ‘kills’ he had during active duty.

Thomas Allen Publishers

I’ll Seize the Day Tomorrow

Having moved to Toronto from Montreal around this time last year, it was a double pleasure to work on this cover for Montreal writer and radio personality Jonathan Goldstein’s collection of dry essays. End papers match in Pantone process cheese colour. Spot gloss on the wrapper.

Art director: Lisa Jager
Penguin Canada 

Siege 13

Tamas Dobozy’s book about the Red Army siege of Bucharest is packed with powerful short stories. One that really resonated with me is about zookeepers struggling to feed the starving animals during the siege.While I worked on comps trying to pin down the cover, an old friend got in touch out of the blue. I found just the right cover image in his portfolio. Serendipity.

Illustration: Allan Kausch
Thomas Allen Publishers

1982

The comps for Jian Ghomeshi’s charming 80s memoir began with an Adidas bag, and finished with this smashed cassette. I slipped in the comp with a late round of other options, and it ended up being ‘the one’. Most of the work at the end was painstakingly tidying up the rather noisy stock photo—easier though then trying to replicate the breaking pattern of the original.

Art director: Mary Opper
Viking Canada

Understanding the Essay

The first comps felt to the authors to be more about writing rather than understanding, and they wanted something that conveyed the range of topics and cleverness of the essay. The text on the origami animals is from Swift’s ‘A Modest Proposal’.

The Slumbering Masses

For this cover about ‘sleep, medicine, and modern american life’, the pillow case was printed with the title and photographed. The editor liked the case so much she wanted to keep it once the job was done.

Rachel Moeller, Art Director
University of Minnesota Press 

More in Anger

A novel about anger, and how it passes down from mother to daughter over three generations. The hornet with its multiple stings serves as a symbol of anger; and the wallpaper evokes the house that is the setting for much of the story.

Thomas Allen Publishers

Half Blood Blues

The first chapter of this gripping novel—about a black German jazz musician who is arrested in occupied Paris and never heard from again—featured the recording of a wax master. I wanted something iconic and visceral, and the label as title suits the story well. Giller Prize-winner for 2011.

Thomas Allen Publishers 

Death Sentences

A Japanese sci-fi/horror novel about a mysterious poem that kills its readers. The story begins with a Tokyo police investigation into the illegal copying and circulation of the poem, and ends in the distant future with an insurrection on Mars. Philip K. Dick would have loved this book.

University of Minnesota Press

This Will Be Difficult to Explain, and other stories

For this collection of short stories by Johanna Skibsrud, the original mandate was to have something that would echo her 2010 Giller-prize winning novel, The Sentimentalists. Many comps later, art director Mary Opper asked me to go off brief, and this is the cover that marketing called ‘beautifully weird’. I like that.

Art Director: Mary Opper
Hamish Hamilton Canada

The Perfect Order of Things

David Gilmour’s new ‘fictional autobiography’. Neighbours looked upon amusedly as I dragged the card catalog outside and pushed a hose in through a broken back panel for this photo shoot.

Thomas Allen Publishers