My colleague Jennifer from Publishers Group Canada just handed me a copy of the new Dave Eggers book Zeitoun and, as with all new McSweeney’s first edition hardcovers, it is a thing of beauty.
Unfortunately the image above does not really do the (jacketless) cover justice (and I’m so low-tech that I don’t have a camera here in the office to take a snap for you).
On the finished book, the buildings, paddle, and skin (and the reflections) in Rachell Sumpter‘s lovely (front and back) cover illustrations are accentuated in a bold yellow ochre (which I think you can just make out in the image above).
The front cover is embellished with silver lettering and highlights, and — to finish it all off — the illustrations are offset by a lovely dark red spine that wraps about ¾ of an inch onto the front and back of the book.
No doubt a designer would be able to tell you all the wonderful specs and technical terms for all of this, but I hope — if nothing else — I’ve persuaded you to seek out Zeitoun in your local bookstore and look for yourself.
(Full disclosure: PGC are part of Raincoast Books — the folks I work for — just not the part I work for, if that makes sense).
UPDATE:
A recent Wall Street Journal feature on Zeitoun included this picture of the finished book:
Just saw this in the bookstore and thought to myself… Dave Eggers… a beautifully produced cover… MUST HAVE! Thanks for showing this.