Cover designs, et al

I'm in my office on campus, my dog's in my lap (M and A are having a playdate at our apartment this morning, and the dog's just too much of a pain to handle with all those people, so she's with me this morning), I'm annotating student poems and writing about Linda Gregg and reading a bit of Deborah Bogen's new book, Let Me Open You a Swan, from Elixir Press, but I can't stop thinking about cover design, cover art, etc. Perhaps it's because I find Bogen's cover to be particularly beautiful--I like the way the text and art combine to create the book's look.

The cover matters. To me, anyway. It's not that I won't/haven't read/read a book with a lame cover design, because I have and I will continue to do so, but there's something about holding an entire piece of art in your hands that rings true to me. If the poems inside strike me and move me, then it matters little what the book looks like, but I'm certainly more likely to display the book in my home, or leave it on my desk for long periods of time, or tell someone about the book for another reason than that the poems are wonderful IF the book's design is catchy.

For example, F. Daniel Rzicznek, my good friend and co-editor, is a fantastic poet, and I recommend his work to people all the time, but his second book, Divination Machine, from Parlor Press not only makes a great read, it also possesses some of my favorite cover design elements. Such as,

1) It makes sense. The cover addresses artistically, visually, some of the ideas/themes/images presented in the poems. Duh!? But so often that isn't the case. Of course, in the instance of a collection that's exactly that, a collection of random poems, the "sensical" cover design/art might not be as easy to produce. Still, most books have a set of common images or common themes or obsessions that could lend themselves to some sort of design concept, no?

2) It's bright, and it's not too busy. Nothing worse than a dark cover (at least when there's no contrasting brightness to make it "pop," to use a term I've heard thrown around in design circles...though clearly I have no authority here, haha)...well, except a cover that's too busy, too bright. Divination Machine's cover is bright, poignant, and succinct, and it's never busy.

3) You can look at it a few times, get it, and move on to the poems. Sometimes a cover can be so overwhelmingly shocking (take the cover of Ted Genoways's Anna, Washing. Holy beautiful photo!) that it's hard for me to tear away from it long enough to enjoy the poems. Thank goodness I did in the instance of Genoways book, because that's a fantastic book, in my opinion, but I could easily have disliked that book a great deal and still kept it on my shelf due to its pure visual aesthetic beauty.

I'm sure there are more reasons to like/dislike cover design/art. It basically comes down, for me anyway, to whether or not the art and design make sense, whether or not the cover bursts with energy without detracting from its real purpose (to sheath the poems), and whether or not the cover can peacefully co-exist with the poems.

At any rate, I was such a huge fan of the cover of Divination Machine that I asked Dan if he'd put me in touch with his designer, Frank Cucciarre, the graphic mastermind behind titles from Cleveland State University Poetry Center and owner of Blink Concept & Design, Inc. So I wrote Frank an email, and he's agreed to design and produce the cover for American Amen. Bear, over at Dream Horse Press, was kind enough to extend me the opportunity to seek outside design for the cover, and I couldn't be happier with the situation. I mean, DHP makes some beautiful books, so it wasn't like I had to go outside, but I'm very grateful for the opportunity to work with Frank.

So just last week I sent Frank a synopsis of the book, of its themes, ideas, recurring images, obsessions, etc, and also an explanation of the title, and 10-12 pages of poems from the book so that he can start his sketches, etc. I look forward to this partnership, and I can't wait to see how it all turns out.

On another note, I am excited to be starting a new blog, just for American Amen. I've secured the space and will get it prepped, but I won't open it until much closer to release time...sometime in the fall, perhaps. I thought about getting a website, paying for hosting, etc, but at this point, I'm not quite ready. Maybe in the fall, I will. With the anthology, the book, the chapbook, the job search, finishing my degree...it might be a good idea. I'll ask around, see what's up, anyway.

Okay, back to grading.