It is rare to hear from cover designers in children’s literature, especially on blogs, and even less usual for an author to interview the cover designer. Yet this Q&A session by author Tamsin Mori and cover designer David Dean makes for fascinating reading. It provides an insight into the creative and collaborative process of turning a story into a book.
Gargoyles, Guardians Of The Source cover blurb:
A crumbling mansion
A magical source
A living gargoyle
Callen’s Dad has always been secretive of his past but when the family have to move into his childhood home, the last thing Callen expects is a boarded-up mansion covered in gargoyles. It’s enormous, the doors are nailed shut, the gardens are overgrown… and long-forgotten magic is returning. When a disgruntled gargoyle wakes up in his presence, Callen must befriend Zariel and earn her trust before it’s too late. A dark threat is growing in the shadows and only a Gargoyle Guardian can stop it.
“Magic is neither good, nor bad – it simply multiplies the dreams you feed it. Be careful what you wish for…”
Q. I love the colours you’ve used for the cover of Gargoyles, Guardians of the Source – it’s an eye catching combination.
Tell us about the decision to use hot pink on the cover of Guardians of the Source.
A: Sometimes I’ll have a specific reason (usually relating to the story or the title) for picking a
particular colour, but more often than not it is just a case of seeing what works. In the case of
Gargoyles I wanted a palette that would make the book distinct from your three Weather Weaver
books. When Callen first encounters Zariel and the other Gargoyles it is night time so I wanted to go
with a night scene (which also felt more gothic). Purple seemed a bit less predictable than blue, and
the hot pink was a good accent colour to go with that.
Q. Once upon a time, pink only appeared on books aimed at girls. Do you think this is changing?
A: I wouldn’t say it was ‘once upon a time’ – it’s still a prevalent attitude amongst publishers, even as
they make great strides in terms of diversity and inclusion, and it’s a real pet peeve of mine. Mostly
because I find pink a really useful colour! Like a bright red or an orange, it can really make things pop.
But going beyond that I really dislike the gendering of colours and wish we could get away from it.
It’s odd, because I remember in the 80s, when fluorescent colours were all the rage having bright
pink socks and a pink t-shirt, and lads wearing tracksuits with pink bits and none of us thinking it was
‘girly’. And every few years you’ll see fashion brands trying to make pink an acceptable colour in
menswear, but toy manufacturers and book publishers keep on reinforcing these (largely Western)
stereotypes for children.
Q. Do publishers ever tell you which colours to use or not to use, and if so, why?
A: Not very often. Again, if the book is part of an ongoing series it might be suggested that the new
cover be a particular colour to differentiate it, but usually the palette is entirely up to me. In general
the no-no colours are pink (if the book is aimed at both boys and girls); brown (it doesn’t sell
apparently) and grey.
Q. One of the things I love about your cover designs is that they contain lots of key details from the
story, giving readers an immediate impression of the story inside. Do you read all the books that you design covers for?
A: If a manuscript is available, yes. I absolutely think reading the text is the essential first step. The
cover is a glimpse into the story – I don’t know how you can do that if you don’t know the story and
characters and tone. I’m very lucky to work on some amazing books so they’re mostly a joy to read
but I have my tastes and there’ve been a handful that just haven’t been my cup of tea and I’ll admit I
may only read far enough to get what I need for the cover, but that will still probably be half the
book and I very rarely do that (I should say I’ve read all of yours straight through!).
Q. What’s your favourite kind of story to create a cover for?
A: Anything with a bit of mystery and adventure always lends itself to a fun time working on the
cover. And I also love anything historical because it involves research into what places looked like and
what people wore and that’s my happy place. But, just to be contrary, I also enjoy things that are a
bit more fantastical where I can let my imagination roam.
Q: At school visits, I often get asked questions about the covers you designed for The Weather
Weaver series and I promised I’d pass them on. Do you design the lettering and fonts as well as make the artwork?
A: Yes. I do the lettering on nearly all my covers. For me it is an integral part of the design and I like to
know right from the start how it will occupy space, how it interacts with the figurative elements, how
the colour of the lettering affects the overall balance of the composition. The lettering and the
illustration are in constant conversation – “ooh, if I make this W really big and jagged then I can move
this horse over here and maybe the plane could be overlapping the R” – and it allows me to make
compositional decisions that I just couldn’t do if I didn’t have control of both things.
Q. Did you always want to be a cover designer?
A: Well, technically I’m not – I’m a cover illustrator. I work for designers, though I do think of what I
do as at least partly design. My earliest ‘what do you want to be when you grow up’ answer was
‘astronaut’. Then from about 10 I wanted to draw comics. I first realised that book cover illustration
was a job at around 14 and though I more broadly decided I wanted to be an illustrator, cover
illustration was always the one area I was most passionate about because it marries the two things I
love most: books and creating art.
Q. Do you ever have exhibitions of your artwork? If not, you should.
A: No! I don’t think anyone would be interested and it would require the kind of ego or hubris that I
simply don’t possess.
- Gargoyles, Guardians Of The Source is available now from UCLan Publishing. RRP. £8.99 (A copy of the book was provided as part of this promotional blog tour).
- Many thanks to Tamsin Mori and David Dean for the fantastic Q&A
