Designing Principle

Most every publication that SLG Publishing puts out lists me as "Art Director." In reality, it would be more accurate to refer to me a "Graphic Design Handyman." When Dan (Vado -- Supreme Commander of SLG) thinks I can be of some use I swoop in and do what needs doin' and then swoop back out again (kind of like an owl but with Photoshop skills). Generally, SLG lets the creative talent working on a project make their own design choices and I stay out of the way unless my help is requested. But occasionally I see something that doesn't quite look right to me as either a consumer or a design guy and I speak up. The original cover design for SLG's recently released original graphic novel, The Clarence Principle, is an example of such a situation. And in this particular instance my input sparked a rethinking of the cover design with the final product ending up as a collaborative, and ultimately successful I think, effort.



Pictured above is Shari Chankhamma's (the artist) and Fehed Said's (the writer) original "final" cover for The Clarence Principle. According to their blog getting to this stage was a bit of a trial but they felt victory was at hand. And then I came along and pulled the rug out from under them. Nice guy.

It wasn't until I was working on promotional material for The Clarence Principle that I even saw the cover art -- months and months after Shari and Fehed had "finalized" it. I found myself staring at the cover as I worked and something about it bothered me. After a bit I realized that my eyes kept being pulled to the empty center of the cover and away from the important elements all around. I felt that there was a strong cover in those elements, it just needed to be teased out. It seemed to me that the two most important elements were the flying heart and the reaching hand (since I hadn't read the book yet this was purely a gut reaction on my part). I didn't like the fact that the flying heart appeared anchored to the right edge of the cover so I set it free. And I made the reaching hand more central because I felt that attention needed to be drawn to the scars on the wrist. I removed the head as it was an unhelpful distraction.

I created a couple of concepts to run past Dan.






Dan sent Shari and Fehed the first concept with the red background (I liked the colors and the size of the hand better in the second design but the order of the elements was wrong). They took my suggestions with quite a bit of grace and openness. With input from SLG's Editor-in-Chief Jennifer de Guzman, Shari, Fehed, and an unnamed friend of Shari and/or Fehed a truly final version of the cover for The Clarence Principle emerged:



Sure, this a completely insane, backward way to produce a cover design but we're all crazy here. That's just how it is.

If you'd like to sample the inside of The Clarence Principle you may do so here.