Book Covers
Redesign: Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
I redesigned the cover of Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, Gabrielle Zevin’s 2021 novel about a pair of childhood friends, Sam and Sadie, as they grow up, apart, and together again while developing video games together.
The original cover, designed by John Gall for A.A. Knopf, features “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” by Hokusai, an artwork the characters discuss at an important turning point in the story. Though the image is iconic and the cover makes excellent use of it, there are other meaningful images and themes throughout the novel, which I have attempted to make use of in my interpretations.
Sam and Sadie’s relationship is founded on and centered around video games. As children, they bond over playing the Nintendo in the game room of the hospital where Sam is receiving treatment for a severe foot injury and Sadie’s older sister is undergoing chemotherapy, as well as the Donkey Kong arcade cabinet in the pizza shop owned by Sam’s grandparents. I respect that John Gall’s cover is able to evoke that era of video gaming through the typeface selection without making direct references to specific video game iconography, but that was an area I was interested in including in my designs.
The Details
Cover #1
The first cover features a depiction of a restaurant with a gaming cabinet, representing Sam’s grandparents’ pizza shop. After searching for stock images of both restaurants and arcade machines, I selected of the interior of a restaurant with a glowing jukebox. Many of the other restaurant images I had seen had a sterile quality or didn’t match the description of the restaurant in the book, so I appreciated this image’s tone and composition. I then removed the background of another stock image of an arcade machine at an appropriate angle, placed it over the jukebox, and edited it to match the lighting of the scene around it.
Unedited stock photos (Credit: Erik McLean, Sami Aksu)
After these edits, I moved onto the typography, which I initially struggled with because of the image’s composition. I didn’t want to obscure the arcade machine, but at the original scale, I would’ve needed to make the title too small to achieve this. As a compromise, I increased the scale of the image to give the machine dedicated space while increasing the area for the typography. I downloaded a number of typefaces that evoke early video games of the 1980s and 1990s and landed on using Wheaton. After positioning the title where I wanted it, I added a drop shadow for contrast and additional copy from the original cover, as well as a blurb from NPR in the typeface Barlow Medium Italic in order to be legible at a smaller point size.
Cover #2
The second cover was quite challenging, as I initially imagined it as a split design incorporating the aesthetics of the characters’ video game interest as well as the novel’s ongoing references to Shakespearian plays. I visualized half of the cover containing a theatre balcony while the other showed a cluster of pixels like one might see zoomed in on a screen. While I was able to execute my idea using a layer mask, my first attempt did not feel cohesive from a composition and color scheme standpoint.
For my second attempt, I added a parchment texture to the Shakespearian half, but this similarly did not mesh with the pixelated side, and I found it hard to adjust the brightness and contrast in a way that suited the right half. Throughout these changes, my favorite aspect was the typography. I used Instrument Serif on the lefthand side and Game Paused on the right, and I spent a good amount of time making small adjustments to where they split to make sure they were aligned and legible.
As much as I wanted to juxtapose the two major thematic influences of the story, I was willing to concede that the lefthand theatre serif side would not capture the tone or essence of the novel alone and moved on to using only the pixelated elements.
First and second cover attempts
Cover #3
For the third cover, I knew that I wanted to create another representation of Sadie and Sam’s childhood friendship, though in a different style. I looked up the original Nintendo Entertainment System that the pair bonded over and decided to create a custom illustration that was minimalist enough to stand starkly in the center, loosely inspired by the UK cover of Sally Rooney’s Normal People.
I made a (very) rough sketch in Photoshop, copied the layer, and moved into Illustrator. I mainly used the pen tool, switching to direct selection to adjust the anchor points until the box shape had the proper dimensions and structure. Next, I added the title in the font used in the previous cover, Game Over, but used the shear tool to make each word flush with the face of the box shape. Though I worried about legibility, the repetition in the title made me more confident that the sheared type would be clear to viewers; I also made the scale of the illustration larger than I originally planned to help with this.
Spec Project: Red Light Heaven by Bess Atwell
This project is a spec cover based on the song “Red Light Heaven” by Bess Atwell.
The Details
Details coming soon!
The Lyrics
You believe in nothing and I’m the same
But, unlike me, yes I know you like it that way
I heard something about a saving grace
In my self-help phase
But I missed that page
[Chorus]
I can’t stop looking for that red light
Heaven is below my feet
And I could beat around the fucking bush all week
And I won’t be funny or fast
I won’t make you dance
I won’t help you forget
You need a bit of that
[Post-Chorus]
And I know, I know, I know
We were once together but now we are alone
Turning the music up in the kitchen when I’m cooking solo, solo
So long I can’t look back without thinking it’s all wrong, wrong
[Verse 2]
If you want to start again one day
Was I hеre before, could I spеll my name
When you arrive at the baggage claim
Would you pick me up if I lose my way?
I can’t stop looking for that red light
Heaven is below my feet
You said talk was cheap, but I’ll send you letters in my sleep
You know I won’t be
Funny or fast
I won’t make you dance
I won’t help you forget
You need a bit of that
[Post-Chorus]
And I know, I know, I know
We were once together but now we are alone
Turning the music up in the kitchen when I’m cooking solo, solo
So long I can’t look back without thinking it’s all wrong, wrong
Wrong, wrong
Wrong (I know, I know, I know)
(I know, I know, I know)
Wrong (I know, I know, I know)