THE FINANCIAL LIVES OF THE POETS
Author: JESS WALTER
Designer: RICHARD LJOENES
Publisher: HARPER COLLINS
Genre: FICTION

Love it! Thanks Richard! Also, I believe that the paperbacks have been released in several different colors.
—Jason Gabbert

How did you become a book cover designer?
I started out as an art director assistant in advertising back home in Norway. I entered the field based on a life-long interest in drawing and spent most of my first year at the agency equipped with pens and markers only. I didn't even have a computer at first. Once I finally got one however, my passion for drawing soon took 2nd place to design and typography. During my years here I had the opportunity to work on print, packaging, and corporate identity, but never felt like I had quite found my niche. Eventually I decided to go back to school and packed my bags for San Francisco's Academy of Art. Three sleep-deprived years and a bank-breaking student loan later I moved to NYC where I landed an interview with HarperCollins after attending a portfolio show at the Art Director's Club. I had never seriously considered book design and the closest thing to a "book" in my portfolio was a software manual redesign, but I got the job and have loved designing book jackets since.

What do you enjoy about your job?
Pretty much everything. On days I feel otherwise I reminisce various glorious summer-jobs I've had growing up. Garbage man and strawberry-picker among others. I'm not kidding.

Summer-jobs aside, book jackets seem to be the best fit for me as far as graphic design goes. I'm a bit of a perfectionist and tend to tinker with details endlessly. A book cover allows (and demands) a certain amount of this. This is not to say that other areas of design aren't as involved of course, but for me personally a 200-page annual report, for example, would get overwhelming and probably not very cost-efficient. I also enjoy the reading that comes with the job.

What is the genre/audience?
Fans of sharp, funny, yet literary fiction

What is the book about?
One man’s attempt to save his family from economic disaster by putting his entrepreneurial leanings toward a life of petty crime.

Was there a clear working process that led to the final?
No, not beyond reading it. Timing was extremely tight on this title, so my normal process went out the window and panic ensued from day one.

Were there any known influences that led to your solution?
Not really any direct influences that I can think of. I tried to go for a screen-printed feel. Not sure if I achieved that fully, but we went with an uncoated stock which helped create that effect to some degree.
Some have pointed out that it reminds them of the Mad Men opener with the falling dude. I was into Mad Men at the time so even if I didn't know it, it's possible Don Draper had his fingers in this.

Did the project have any unique struggles?
Finding the right visual tone of voice to match the author's writing style was challenging I thought. Of course that's always the challenge, but for me this one particularly so.

Were there any solutions outside the final you’d like to share?
I more or less only worked with this particular direction, but I did a zillion color variations. I'll share some of the more promising ones. The final wasn't my first pick at the time. It may be now however.



What’s something unique you learned while working on this project?
That having limited time isn't always a terrible thing.

10.01.10 // Christopher Tobias said:

Beautiful work, Richard. Love it.