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Chabon by Connie Gabbert

These stunning Michael Chabon covers are the work of Oregon-based designer Connie Gabbert. Although evocative in some way of faded ink, old-time letterpress, silkscreened posters and linocuts illustrations, interestingly these designs will never see actually see print themselves.

Connie knew from the start that they would be e-books and would not go to press, but apparently the design process was not that different, at least not to begin with. “It’s when the covers are approved that the process feels different,” she says. “There is no spine to build, no back cover copy, no print files to prepare. It is a bit sad to know that I won’t see the finals printed, but it’s also interesting to be a part of the e-book industry and to see the packaging exist only online.”

According to Connie, the challenge was actually making the approved cover direction work for the other four titles in the series. “The first approved cover was for Wonder Boys, and from there, I had to come up with new color palettes and new imagery for the rest of the series,” she says. “The goal was to make them look unified but individually unique. I really liked how Richard Bravery achieved this with his Chabon series, keeping the type in a fixed location, while the imagery changed from cover to cover… [T]he first stab at these covers was hand-lettered. While I love working illustrated type into cover designs, the final type feels very fitting for Chabon and the covers that he already has. I’m not often asked to create masculine covers, so it was a fun change of pace.”

You can read more about Connie’s type choices for these covers at Fonts in Use, and see more of her work on her website and design:related.