NIN ANDREWS
First, I just want to thank you for all of your beautiful covers. They not only help sell CKP books but also complete them.
GREG SMITH
Thank you, Nin. CavanKerry’s mission is a great one. And I appreciate getting to work on books featuring such top-notch writing.
NA
How and when did you decide to become a book designer?
GS
The first book work I did, very briefly in the 1980s, was medical illustration—depictions of skeletal and muscular structures, how-to drawings of procedures, physical therapy instructions. I’d stumbled into that, and I wasn’t actually looking to be an illustrator, let alone a medical illustrator. What I wanted to do was book design, because I loved typography and old books, so I soon found my way into that, first with AP (now part of Elsevier), then with Harcourt’s trade department (now part of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), then on my own.
NA
What is your background in art?
GS
I got my bachelors degree in fine arts, in painting. But I was a boringly sane painting major, so sometime in my final year three nagging thoughts began to recur. The first was uh oh, the second was grad school, and the third was graphic design. The first and third thoughts won out, so then the question was: advertising or books? I preferred the idea of books, far and away. And over the years I’ve designed a range of printed items, but the books just matter a lot more.
NA
How long have you been with CavanKerry?
GS
The first CavanKerry book project I was involved with dates to 2009. I’m a poetry absorber, so helping to put these books together has been a great thing from the outset.
NA
How many book covers have you designed? Does it get easier with time?
GS
I’ve done design work for hundreds of books. I have given up estimating how many books it is where I’ve done the cover, how many where I’ve done both cover and interior text, how many where I’ve done just the text, and/or charts, graphs, endpaper maps, and/or photo section layouts. I do know that I’ve designed books in nearly every genre, with more than half of the books being academic/educational.
Software has made a lot of aspects of design far easier. The “cut” and “paste” commands on computers are of course concepts taken from what my fellow designers and I actually were doing for many years, physically—cutting up sections of type with x-acto knives and pasting them down with melted wax or rubber cement.
As far as ideas, I’m honestly not sure whether they come to me more easily over time. Coffee for me is probably a bigger factor than experience.
NA
Will you talk a little about the process of creating a book cover? What makes a cover work? And not work?
GS
The process can vary a lot. A cover design might call for the use of a photo that’s found through research, or it could involve a pre-selected photo, or maybe an illustration will be appropriate, or the design might be purely typographic. Probably the only thing that holds true for every book design is that the process is going to be collaborative. And for the CKP books I’ve designed, Joan and Florenz have done a great job directing me so we wind up with covers that work well, are right for the books.
I think a cover works when it intrigues people enough to get them to look inside the book. A cover is basically a mini-poster. But because it’s also going to be an actual part of the book a cover shouldn’t be too trendy, or feel like a desperate ad. You want a cover to wear well—its author will be living with it for a long time.
I suppose a cover doesn’t work if it doesn’t appeal to its intended audience at all.
NA
Do you sometimes want to comment on the books directly? Or make an editorial contribution?
GS
Years ago, I gave a talk about visual communication to a class of fifth-graders. I showed them slides of medieval manuscripts where bored monks had sneaked whimsical drawings—caricatures, animals, geometric doodles—into the margins of what they were transcribing. I think the only time I’ve done something similar was when I designed a collage for the cover of a New York Times engagement calendar. I slipped the name of my childhood hometown into the collage, which is a prank almost as wild and edgy as a medieval monk’s!
But to actually answer your question, Nin—I’m sure there have been times where I’d like to play editor, but I always snap out of that. I’m the visual guy, not the word guy.
NA
Does it ever help to talk to the writers directly about their work?
GS
That can help, absolutely. And because poetry can be so nuanced, I’d say with CavanKerry authors in particular it’s helpful to get input as to whether a design idea jives with the poems.
NA
Do you have other artistic projects that you are currently working on? Or that you have worked on in the past?
GS
I still play around with oil paint. Sometimes I think someone should pick up where John Singer Sargent left off—do a 21st century take on that style of portraiture. But I’ve read Sargent’s complaint to fellow artists that a portrait is a painting where there is “something wrong about the mouth.” So if even Sargent, one of your all-time virtuosos, was plagued by complaints from sitters, you’ve got to feel for all portrait painters. I don’t think I’ll try to pick up that particular mantle.
NA
What is the most challenging part of creating a book jacket? What is the most rewarding part of creating a book jacket?
GS
There are a few challenges. You’re trying to serve the author’s work. You’re hoping to come up with something that will help sell the book. A big additional challenge nowadays is trying to interest readers who are already barraged by visuals day and night.
I find it rewarding when I’m told I’ve gotten it right. I recently got a kick out of reading that when Steve Jobs asked Walter Isaacson to write his authorized biography, Jobs gave Isaacson free rein to interview anyone he wanted and to write anything he wanted, good or bad. However, for the book’s jacket design, Jobs insisted on retaining complete control. Book design is a pretty anonymous field, so I enjoy knowing that Steve Jobs, the supreme business genius of our era, not only noticed and valued book design, he designed his own bio’s jacket as his goodbye to the world. And no surprise, it’s a great jacket. That calligraphy class he took at Reed College finally paid off!
NA
Would you be willing to post a few of your covers below and/or provide links to them?
GS
The CavanKerry covers I’ve done since 2010 are of course viewable at this website. I also have some cover designs viewable at my ancient website, in a slide show I put up a while ago.
NA
Do you ever have exhibits of your work? Or are the books your ongoing exhibition?
GS
I guess the books are the ongoing exhibition, though I’ve had design work recognized here and there along the way. Probably the most conspicuous moment for any of my covers was when Jay Leno held up a book I’d designed—SPAM: A Biography—and made fun of it during his monologue. I wish it had been Johnny Carson.
I like Greg’s work so much–