For the launch of their new film, DROP, they wanted a site redesign, so we offered them this. Larger-than-life and ready to go.

If you’re a designer, you know the process. And if you’re not, keep reading and I’ll fill you in.

It goes something like this…

1. Publisher gives us an idea of what the book is about, including Table of Contents, Title, a small write-up, any creative direction they think would be helpful.
2. We mock-up between 3-5 book covers.
3. The publisher picks one of them and asks for revisions.
4. We tweak it and send it off to print.

So for all the book covers posted here in our portfolio (and most everything else on this site, as far as that goes), there are 3 or 4 other options that you never see. And that’s okay. Some ideas were probably just blah, but some were brilliant and still ended up on the cutting room floor.

So it goes.

We love some of the covers that have been chosen and we merely like others. And that’s part of the process. No big deal.

Anyway, why am I writing all this? Well, along the way we have mocked up a few covers that were simple bold text on white backgrounds that generally had a single strong image somewhere on the page. Tres minimalist and chic, if you ask me.

But these covers are never chosen. There often is comments about how white books show dirt from bookshelves and fingerprints. Or how it’s a waste of money to pay for a full-color job and only get black, white, and perhaps one other color.

Sure, sure. We know it can be unconventional, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t look great…grab the eye…or help sell books. In fact, the 4 books I’m reading right now prove my point that white is in! Simple, strong, and stark. And these are almost all Bestsellers.

So what do you do? Keep putting at least one comp of a white cover with bold text and a simple image each time. Surely, someone will choose it eventually.

We cut a lino block of a heart and paired it with bold text. An attempt to remind. An attempt to make a statement.

Instead of taking a hyper-textured approach (what we’ve done with a good deal of this magazine), we kept this issue clean, simply using smoke to illustrate prayers rising up.