Just like woodworking, publishing is a fractal. You can get lost in the tiniest of details inside of details. And when I say “lost,” I mean the good kind of lost. Like this.
Most of my career has been on the newspaper and magazine side of publishing, where the level of detail work isn’t (and cannot be) in the same league as a designer such as Wesley Tanner, who designed “To Make as Perfectly as Possible: Roubo on Marquetry.” But I’m coming around.
Today I flushed out some rough ideas for the cover of “Campaign Furniture.” These are rough. And did I mention they were not smooth? Rough. The idea is to make the cover look like the top of a traveling chest or trunk. Corner guards are placed at the corners and there is something in the center – either an Anglo-Indian pull or a plate with curved corners and the title of the book.
Yes, I might add screws to the pull or plate. Or I might not muck it up with too much detail. Everything is hand-drawn, which will work nicely with the dies that do the debossing on the cover.
I’ve also been sorting through all the color choices that are possible with this cover. Right now I’m leaning toward a cotton cover that will be a color called “mudpie” – it’s a brownish-red and looks like a lot of the 19th-century British woodworking books on my shelf. The stamp will likely be something coppery or gold-ish. Maybe. Or black.
Or I’ll put a giant smiling narwhal on the cover that’s pooping rainbows.
It could go either way.
— Christopher Schwarz
A rainbow-pooping narwhal?! You just blew my mind man.
Snort(e).
I like the narwhal idea. It says so much about you and your approach.
You never can have too many rainbows.
Love it! Narwhals are always good.
If, for some odd reason, you decide against the narwhal, I vote for the plate bearing the title.
“Everything is hand-drawn.” Well maybe, but the most glaringly obvious thing about the mock up is that not everything is drawn freehand. The small circles look like they were drawn with a template and the straight lines were drawn with a ruler. Hard to say about the 1/4 circles in the corners, but they look like they were drawn with an aid too. The text is obviously ruled and looks like a font that has been scaled by a computer rather than by eye.
I might be mistaken for a purist. I’m anything but. “Authenticity” has its place, as does fakery. The most interesting realm for me is actually the hybrid. A knowing hybrid though is a different thing than an accidental hybrid. That latter might more appropriately be called a bastard, which again is a thing that has it’s place, or so my momma always told me when I cried about my lot in life. Just sayin’.
Chris outlines his drawing technique in an earlier blog post…
https://blog.lostartpress.com/2013/11/08/i-heart-inlaid-brass-hardware/
“In other “Campaign Furniture” book news: I can’t draw for possum poo. Yet, I want all the drawings in this book to be hand-drawn by my hand. The solution: Photoshop, a light table and tracing paper. All week I’ve been experimenting with taking my SketchUp drawings, combining them with bits from photos and then tracing the results.”
I read that when he posted it. Has nothing to do with what I wrote.
What?
Pick a side, any side.
Right? Perhaps not judging a book by its cover apply s here
I’ll go with D.
Narwhals are people, too.
I just knew I wasn’t going to make it through the entire post without hearing potty talk.
The votes seem to favor the narwhal.
+1000 for the narwhale. Maybe a special edition.
I vote for the name plate with title, the pull looks a little cartony for me. I’m really hoping Lee Valley stocks this soon, the idea of collapsible furniture blows my mind.
Here I was going to be all helpful and suggest a practical idea for Chris and everyone has already voted for Rainbow Pooping Narwhal on the cover. Chris – I say put the title cover plate on the front cover (with a rainbow pooping narwhal holding it there instead of screws if you want – LOL) and put the Anglo-Indian pull on the back cover. Just my two cents but I think it would look good and give a sort of symmetry between the front and back covers.
I heard they used Elephants and Camels to carry campaign furniture, did they use Narwhals too? perhaps to get across the water? Of course, now everyone will be disappointed if the whale doesn’t make it onto the cover somehow – (clocked of course)
Any thoughts as to the tail speed of an unladen narwhal?
I vote for actual hardware screwed to the cover. 🙂
You should add to the narwal idea and have it riding a unicorn.
Bye Buddy – hope you find your dad!
(and I vote for the pull)
The cover should be made from teak with brass inlays, of course.
Would that be a European or an Asian Narwhal?
Narwhal please… as long as you clock the rainbows
The Narwhal comment definitely got a chuckle, giggle, snigger & titter!
Just make sure any screws are clocked.
That’s a handle? I see a guy with a big mustache smiling…..or a birdseye view of a well endowed woman playing NES. Is this a Rorschach test? I do terrible on those.
Pukka British Red with black print, brass nameplate. No narwhals, no Rorschach tests.
If the idea is to make the cover look like the top of a traveling chest or trunk then shouldn’t it follow that the back cover would be the bottom? Further if the book is to look like chest or trunk then a chest with one pull is rather hard to move around. Just something to think about..