What was your path to becoming a cover designer?
I took book design classes when I was in school and that gave me the gist of designing books. Then in the last semester of my senior year, I took a class which was devoted to designing covers and found that I really liked doing cover designs. I was building my portfolio on motion graphics and animation but after that class I changed my portfolio to book cover design. My professor (who was an Art Director at Farrar Straus Giroux) took me on as a design intern which gave me more opportunities to build my portfolio on book cover design.
Where was your first full time position?
At Bloomsbury. I really enjoy working here. The people are really great. And I get to work on a diverse range of both fiction and nonfiction books.
Can you talk me through your general approach and creative process when you're given a book cover design brief?
I read the manuscript or any type of reading material that’s given so I get the vibe of the book. For fiction, I try to find a theme or symbols that I can base upon my design. For non-fiction, it’s more straightforward. Sometimes I get a good idea of what I want when I’ve read the first good chunk of the book - I get a visual of the cover right away but sometimes I don't.
What part does using Bridgeman Images play in the creative process?
If I want to use a historical image or paintings or a vintage illustration with a refined and classical look, I use Bridgeman - It’s my first source for those kind of things.
That’s great to hear! I think with your designs there is often an interesting juxtaposition of classic, vintage imagery but you've put your own spin on it -sometimes that might be by doing details and montages and playing with different elements of the artwork. Let's discuss some specific cover designs of yours:
Wild Souls
For this cover, I wanted to show different wild animals because the book is about them. But I didn’t want to make it too literal so I cropped the images and collaged them this way so that it’s not too obvious about what you’re looking at unless you have a closer look. I didn't know that Bridgeman had various range of animal illustrations from different countries - the fish illustration is from Japan and the other ones are European. I like to have many image options to choose from when I do collage work and it worked out perfectly with Bridgeman.
Images utilised on this cover:
Butterflies, English School, (19th century) / © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images
Rivertrout, from the series 'Collection of Fish' (colour woodblock print), Hiroshige, Ando or Utagawa (1797-1858) / © Christie's Images / Bridgeman Images
Pear Blossom, Dietzsch, Barbara Regina (1706-83) / Bridgeman Images
Leopards, English School, (19th century) / © Look and Learn / Bridgeman Images
The Great Passion
This book is about a boy who is struggling with the death of his mother and Bach as his school’s cantor who changed the boy’s life. I wanted to include a human element on the cover—that's why I used the painting with the hands on the piano. And I included the pattern and the Bach’s musical notes on the side to reflect the era in which the novel is set.
Images utilised on this cover:
A Musician, c.1700-50 (oil on canvas), English School, (18th century) / Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge, UK / © Fitzwilliam Museum / Bridgeman Images
Pages from Score of the 'St. Matthew Passion', 1727 (pen and ink on paper), Bach, Johann Sebastian (1748-78) / Staatsbibliothek, Berlin, Germany / Bridgeman Images
Harpsichord keyboard close up / © Chris Stock. All rights reserved 2022 / Bridgeman Images
Sweat - A History of Exercise
When I was designing this cover, I came across this painting and I thought Oh my God this is it! The book itself touches upon Ancient Greece but it also talks about modern times so I wanted to show both on the cover without looking too historical. That’s why I chose the handwritten type so it has that modern look.
Images utilised on this cover:
Two Wrestlers, Francazano, Cesare (1612-53) / Prado, Madrid, Spain / Bridgeman Images
How useful is Bridgeman as a resource for your day-to-day design work?
The Bridgeman Images Archive has a wide range of images which gives me a lot of options to choose from. Whenever I need to find a historical image for the cover, I always go to Bridgeman to look for it. Also, the resolution of Bridgeman's Images is typically so high that however much I blow it up it's never pixelated.
Follow Myunghee Kwon's work through her website or her instagram.
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