Hello! Welcome to How to Design a Book Cover, a series from A Book Designer’s Notebook in which I share my cover design process from start to finish. This is a bonus series for paid-tier subscribers.
When I work with publishers, I receive a creative brief that usually shares a description of the book, technical specifications, potential art direction from the author, and art direction from the press itself. Here’s the official synopsis for this book:
Recounting a life—and language—by an esteemed scholar of African American rhetoric.
In this powerful coming-of-age memoir, author, scholar, and linguist Keith Gilyard presents a testament to the transformative power of language. From his earliest days in the segregated New York City public schools of the 1950s and ’60s through his ascent in academia, the rhythm of Black America's vernacular and music provides the backdrop to Gilyard's intellectual awakening. He absorbed language through music, television, and radio, recognizing early on that his mother was a “language chameleon,” a woman from Georgia who never sounded Black southern. His journey intertwines personal growth with the multiplicity of language and the sociopolitical upheavals of the Cold War era and the Civil Rights, Black Power, and Black Arts movements. Through vibrant anecdotes and introspection, Gilyard brings his experiences and realizations to life from memories of barbershops, churches, and schools, to lessons from mentors and influencers like Ed Bullins, Sonia Sanchez, Don L. Lee (later Haki Madhubuti), Toni Morrison, and Paule Marshall. Each encounter brings clarity and a new lens through which to understand the world, revealing how language shapes our lives and how our lives shape language.
Notes: This memoir by one the most well-respected scholars of Black rhetoric is in many ways a follow-up to his award-winning Voices of the Self: A Study of Language Competence.
Audience: General readers, as well as students and scholars in Black rhetoric, English language and composition, and cultural studies.
Art Direction: Gilyard did not provide suggested cover art or any specifics about what he’d like to see on the cover—only that he’s leaving this in our expert hands! He did mention liking the cover image and font of Farah Jasmine Griffin’s memoir, Read Until You Understand, and he did not specify any colors he would prefer we use or avoid.
Notes & Sketches
I begin every book cover design inside my notebook. It’s important to note that for me, this stage begins with what is essentially a brain dump. There are a lot of bad ideas and basic connections that simply must come out of my head in order to make progress.
