Teen Writing Week: Day Four
Day four and we're into the home stretch with all our budding authors!
There was plenty of easter eggs to keep us all focused on today's guest speaker. Tony Palmer is a cover designer for Penguin.
Cover design, sounds fun, right? Well Tony thinks so! Although sometimes (as his picture above suggests), he has a lot of people talking to him about what they think will be 'the best cover'. So it can get a little loud and confusing at Tony's desk.
When designing a book cover, Tony is given a brief by the editor, outlining the mood and genre of the book.
He then starts developing ideas for the cover, experimenting with font, colour and images.
Then comes crash! Tony says the crash part is a little scary (lots of important people in a meeting discussing whether this is the right cover for the book).
So Tony goes back to the drawing board and redevelops the book cover. Sometimes it's just a little tweak here and there, other times its a completely new idea.
Once the book cover is exactly right every one commits to the design and production can start.
Phew!
Tony's words of wisdom for any new book designers:
'When you don't love your baby it's kind of a travesty'
'I love books. The feel of a book. The smell of a book. The touch of a book - rubbing it against your face. You can't do that with a website!'
'Book designers are the biggest manipulators in the world.'
Thank you to everyone who participated in Teen Writing Week. Especially our teen writers!
O Tony Palmer, to think someone else loves books as much as me! You are a delight! Thanks for your insight.
