WNA #17: Accelerating
Wednesday, the publisher and I finally decided on the title and subtitle — yes, we were still going back and forth about it:
Designer Rehab
Unexpected Skills and Concepts for Success in The Creative Industry
The reason it took so long is, well, I’m not sure. I guess the title is the single most important attribute of the book, as it is the entry point for the audience — or the barrier.
The publisher had an opinion. I had an opinion. Their sales team had an opinion. We went through roughly 50 alternatives — all in good spirits, no worries — and eventually we settled on this title. It combines clarity (speaking directly to designers) with a bit of intrigue: why the hell would designers have to go to rehab?
So there it is.
Cover
Next, I will start designing the cover from scratch. There’s no point in trying to reattach the severed limb that is the previous design, based on the previous title. Dead and buried.
Rehab, or rehabilitation, is about change. Abrupt change, akin to an intervention, but also subtle, granular change over time; growth.
Designers, on the other hand, are about, errr, aesthetics? I went through a bunch (100+) of cover designs targeted specifically at designers, and what stands out is that they are mostly quite simple, clean, and look nice on a desk or book shelf.
I’m not after aesthetics. The problem with using how something looks as an entry point is that it won’t age well and it conveys little to no meaning. It’s just the shell; the facade. The entire premise of the book goes against that idea.
Instead, I will explore the concepts of change, intervention, detachment and reattachment as visual foundations for the cover design. I have no idea what that will look like, and that is exactly the point. Ideas before aesthetics.
The proof is in the comments
This week, 4 or 5 proofreaders begin their journey though my first draft. This is exciting and a little scary. It’s the first time people get to see the entirety of my work.
Last week, I read through all of it from start to finish myself — something I hadn’t done before. While writing, you constantly fly through the work in no particular order. Because of that, I expected it to be much more disjointed than it turned out to be. That’s a win. Now, let’s hope the proofreaders feel the same.
Japan
To make this whole endeavor a little more interesting, most of the upcoming design work will be done on an airplane to Japan, or on a Shinkansen.
So, for now, さようなら!