“Discover who and what make up the literary

landscape of England ’s South West”

- Catie Gilhooly, author of Nothing in Particular

PUBLISHING AND LITERARY NETWORKS IN THE SOUTH WEST

The south west region of England is known for its mountainous
coastlines and rural charm, but there is more literary life there
than meets the eye. From Bristol and Bath to Plymouth and
Penzance, this magazine reaches all corners of the south west,
featuring local authors, publishers, artists, literary festivals,
independent bookstores and more. Exploring these networks
through some of the publishing industry’s brightest new
members means that there is a more diverse and full insight
on this experience than ever before. Any literature lover
local to the area of the South West or wanting to explore
more of England outside of London will find this publication
a great first step towards further knowledge and insight.
c
To learn more about the Master of Arts in Publishing
course at the University of Exeter, please find us on our
website or social media pages below. Happy reading!

Instagram: @mapublishing.exeter
Facebook: Masters in Publishing at University of Exeter
Twitter (X): @mapublishing.exeter

Created and curated by the 2023-24

Master of Arts in Publishing cohort
at the University of Exeter
2023-24
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Catie Gilhooly

Dr. D-M Withers

EASM 193: Publishing and Production

6 November 2023

Creating a Book by its Cover: A Critical Reflection on the Cover Design Process and

Production

Though Publishing and Literary Networks publication is not my first personal

experience with an inaugural work from scratch, it is my first time working on a cover

design in the midst of discovering a publication’s identity. As we are creating the content

of the publication and designing the look of the book at the same time, these two

processes weaved together and have built off each other to create a definite answer of

what this publication is.

In the case of my final cover design work, I really focused on creating a cover that

showed the consumer what was to come in the content, since it is such a unique concept

that walks the line between an academic and social publication. I focused heavily on

inspiration I found and made creative decisions in terms of color, font, and images to

tell the story of our course publication, Publishing and Literary Networks in the South

West.

Inspiration

When scrolling through “The 103 Best Book Covers of 2022” Literary Hub article

(Temple) in preparation for our discussion with Rafi Romaya, I made note of many

covers that jumped out for me personally. However, there was only one that stuck out
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for me to be a great inspiration for this publication specifically:

The Come Up: An Oral History of Hip-Hop by Jonathan

Abrams, designed by Chris Allen (Figure 1). Firstly, the paper

texture of the cover would be very fitting, since our publication

has a literary focus which is bound by physical paper books.

Secondly, the collage aspect of the cover would be perfect for

our publication, since it is itself a collage of different people,

publishers, and places within the south west. This was one of Figure 1: Cover design
created by Chris Allen for
the most challenging aspects of the design, but ultimately, it Jonathan Abrams and
Crown Publishing, 2022
(Allen).
helps to visually tell the story of our publication.

In addition to this visual inspiration for the cover, I was also inspired by the fact

that the cover and overall publication we are creating this term is very much a snapshot

of what these literary networks look like at this point in 2023; these are likely to change

in coming years. As we learned from our discussion with Dr. Vike Plock in the

university’s Special Collections viewing covers of Agatha Christie, William Golding, and

Elizabeth Bowen’s works, the covers that are created for books are not only a tool for

marketing but also describe a specific moment in time that people will be able to look at

in the future (Plock). For this reason, I was specifically focused on creating a cover that

represents the current period.

Design Choices and Processes

Most of this inspiration came across most clearly in the front cover. The collage

was created from a collection of different events, articles, and interviews we are

including in the publication, with the addition of a few photos that are inspired by the

nature of the area. These include photos of artist Becky Bettsworth with her art behind
 Gilhooly 3

her, a snapshot from a performance at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival, a photo

from the Lyra Poetry Festival, and more. Additionally, there are a few stock images of

Agatha Christie’s work, a shot from the Dorset countryside, and signposts from the

coastline walk. I felt that these images had a good balance of people, places, things, and

nature all representing the content within the publication and the south west.

Per the suggestion of Eva Megias in our InDesign workshop, I also considered

how this publication and its cover would stand out among others on a bookshelf or in a

collection (Megias). I felt that this collage would stand out among other similar

publications, whether they be travel and nature books of the south west or other

academic publications. Thus, I wanted to mix in photos of real people so as to

“humanize” the publication and add some life to it and to balance it with the more

serious nature of academic publishing.

To create the collage, I brought the images into Photoshop and situated them on

the board focusing especially on balance between the size of the images. Once they were

placed, I converted each individual photo to black and white, finding the right balance of

saturation, brightness, and contrast for each. Putting them all in black and white meant

that they all looked more cohesive and resembled a singular collage rather than a mix of

all different colors. I brought that file from Photoshop to InDesign and placed it on the

front cover, which I had already covered with a general dark sage green color. I lowered

the opacity of the collage so that the green came through from behind it, which created a

tinted appearance.
 Gilhooly 4

I chose to keep the color palette for this final cover

design to be more minimal and more professional than

my mock-up cover (Figure 2). My original mock-up had a

very different color palette which lacked contrast, which

Rafi Romaya specifically mentioned in her feedback on

my design. I decided to keep the off-white, cream color

(HEX code F7EDE2) and complement it with the sage

green and make that the central color instead (HEX code

84A59D). I thought that this combination with a regular Figure 2: Original mock-up for
cover design on 12 October 2023.
black and white made for a more serious and academic Image created by author.

color palette.

For the font choices, I decided to pick The Seasons as the title font, as it is a

modern take on a classic serif font with lots of variation within the same family. The

italic typeface is stylistically different from the regular typeface, which makes them feel

like two separate fonts which complement each other well. I used the Bold and Bold

Italic typefaces for the main title on the front cover. I also used Brandon Grotesque for

the subheading on the front cover and the body text for the back cover. It is a sans-serif

font that was modern and simple to work well with The Seasons, which is more

embellished and aligned with current style trends. I also put the title text in a box to

help create even more visual distinction from the boxes of the collage, including a solid

black 6-point border and an inner shadow to add some depth to the cover as a whole.

Overall, this collage and title work together to create an academic cover with a bit of

personality to preview the content of the publication itself.

 Gilhooly 5

I wanted the spine to feel connected to both the front and back covers, so the

small box from the front cover bleeds into the spine, as well as the quote box from the

back cover. I also thought this created a nice effect on the spine to box in the title, which

I put in all uppercase The Seasons Bold to carry over from the title. I increased the

kerning of the title on the spine, which made it more legible. I also decided to include

the year of the publication, so that if another cohort creates a publication similar to this

idea there would be a clear distinction from the spines when they are lined up together.

For the back cover, I wanted to especially bring in that paper texture that inspired

me from The Come Up’s cover. I used a combination of Photoshop and InDesign again

for this aspect, as I put a photo of a ripped sheet with tape on it into Photoshop and

made it into a frame for usage in InDesign. This back cover overall is less formal and

academic-looking than the front but fits well with the overall theme of literature. Since

the publication is in a constant balance between academic and creative, this also felt like

a way to balance those two things visually. The tape on the paper also created a less

formal, handmade aspect. The off-white box on top held the hypothetical endorsement

quote for the publication and added to the more formal side of that balance as well as

connecting both the front cover and the spine. The back copy also helped market the

book and provide a preview for readers while directing them to learn more about the

MA in Publishing through our website and (hypothetical) social media pages. The back

copy contributes an informative yet entertaining preview of the publication, which

would engage any literature lover or academic reader that picked it up.

Conclusion

Overall, I feel that my final cover design is a culmination of the readings,

workshops, and discussions had in both EASM 193 and EASM 176 meetings. It provides
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a balance between the academic nature of our publication’s content and the creative

world of literature and publishing through the collage, font, and color choices. My idea

of what the cover should be changed drastically from original mock-ups to this final

iteration, but I believe that my InDesign and Photoshop skills have been strengthened in

the process of exploring these ideas and making new choices. Additionally, my idea of

what the publication should be has evolved and solidified, as can be seen through my

iteration process.
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Works Cited

Allen, Chris. Cover collage of hip-hop history in New York City. Designed by Chris Allen.

The Come Up: An Oral History of the Rise of Hip-Hop, Jonathan Abrams, Crown

Publishing Group, 2022.

Megias, Eva. “InDesign Workshop.” EASM 193: Publishing and Production, 5 October

2023, University of Exeter. Class lecture.

Temple, Emily. “The 103 Best Book Covers of 2022: As Chosen by Our Favorite Book

Cover Designers.” Literary Hub, 13 December 2022, https://lithub.com/the-103-

best-book-covers-of-2022/

Plock, Vike Martina. “Cover Design - Historical Approaches.” EASM 193: Publishing and

Production, 19 October 2023, University of Exeter. Class lecture.