Guest interview from author Lygia Day Peñaflor
Lygia Day Peñaflor is the author of Creep: A Love Story, All of This Is True, and Unscripted Joss Byrd. She also teaches young Hollywood stars on television and movie sets. Her students have included cast members of Gossip Girl, Boardwalk Empire, Spielberg’s West Side Story, and others. She lives on Long Island, NY, where she rides horses and flies from a trapeze. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @lygiaday.
I gasped when I saw the final cover art for my novel Creep: A Love Story, a dark YA about Rafi, a lonely sophomore, whose obsession with the most popular couple in school leads to tragedy. The cover is evocative, intense, and, well . . . creepy. It clearly conveys the tone of the novel: thrilling but not a crime novel, sad but intriguing. As soon as I saw it, I just had to reach out to cover designer Julia Feingold in order to thank her. I also had questions about the creative process. She was generous enough to share her answers here. Thank you, Julia!
What are your specialties as an artist?
I went to school for illustration, but I also focus on graphic design. I also do a lot of printmaking, painting, and hand lettering.
Cover design is a competitive field and a dream job for many artists. How did you become a cover designer for HarperCollins?
I applied on the website, actually! It was always a dream of mine to work in publishing, and because of my love for illustration, the Children’s department at Harper has been amazing for me.
How are artists chosen for each project, and how did Creep: A Love Story come your way?
Usually for each project we pitch 2-4 artists. We then work with the editors and the author to decide who to move forward with. Creep came my way after the Clarion and HarperCollins merger. My amazing art director, Alison Donalty, thought I would be the right fit to work on it.
I remember seeing a few concepts and then choosing to work with yours. What were your goals for this cover?
Our goals for this cover were to demonstrate Rafi’s obsession and the book’s creepy vibe without veering too much into horror or stalking themes.
Right! That was really important because I didn’t want readers to think this was a horror novel or a murder mystery. It’s a dark contemporary but not a traditional thriller. So, what concepts from the novel influenced your choices?
What influenced me the most was Rafi’s interest in music (I’m a huge Radiohead fan!!) and trying to show how she is obsessed with Laney and Nico. That’s why we decided to have lots of repetitive design aspects, trying to get across how she’s so focused on one thing.
I love the repetitive handwritten scrawl. I can imagine Rafi doing that! As the author, I was given the opportunity to contribute notes during the design process. I know that you collaborate with the sales and marketing department, as well. What’s it like working with so many people on a project?
It can be easy for some books and tougher for others! For this, it was hard to find the correct balance of obsession / stalking / creepy, and whether to show a couple or just one girl. Ultimately, we all decided we loved the direction we ended up with.
Tell me about the perfectly creepy photograph that’s featured on the cover.
Yes, the photo was taken by the incredible Andi Bierlein! Andi is a friend of mine, and it’s a polaroid of our friend Isabella. It was really exciting for me to be able to hire such a talented up-and-coming photographer. So, this cover has a very special place in my heart.
Originally, I had resisted using a photo, but this one changed my mind. Can you share some of the other creative stages this cover went through?
We went through a ton of different stages for this cover. We had always thought Andi’s photography was the right way to go. We even did a photoshoot together with a couple but didn’t feel it was right for the cover. We had some type-only directions, and we even asked members of our design team to send in their own versions of what their Creep cover would look like! By the end, we had a ton of different covers but ultimately ended up with the one you see now, which is quite close to the original cover concepts I had designed when I first got the project.
For this cover, all of it is hand done and scanned. The type is called Letraset, which designers used before computers were around (keep an eye out for lots of Letraset in the interior). I made the paint swatches, did all the ‘creep’ lettering in pencil, and ‘a love story’ was made with this set of stamps I have. It was super fun to do a more traditional and tactile cover! It was also so fun to design the binding specs, which I included a photo of, as well.
What’s your favorite part of the book design process?
My favorite part of the book design process is coming up with concepts and hiring artists. It’s such a joy to be able to hire illustrators, photographers, and designers who do incredible work and give them amazing projects – like this cover – to work on! And we get such varied and interesting projects; we are always getting to work with new people.
My other favorite part is hand-lettering! It’s so fun to draw what sort of type each book needs, like finding its personality.
Any advice for young artists who are interested in book design?
I would say, definitely keep up your personal practice. Whether it be doing your own versions of book covers, painting, print-making, or other design work, etc.! We love seeing artists’ personal projects; it gives us a great idea of who they are.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
This cover has been so much fun to work on, and I’m happy that you love it as much as we do. It’s such a special and personal cover for me , and it’s one of my first big books, too. I also love how different it looks and feels from so many other books out there right now.
Where can we see your work? And where can we follow you?
You can see my work at juliafeingold.com and follow me on Instagram @j_feingold And follow Andi @nyc.andi
