Liz Moloney’s proofs of her book cover and interiors produced by a local printer evidenced poor selection of typeface, color and design. The typography had no kerning. Indeed, nothing was right except for her carefully wrought manuscript, Elizabeth, Learning to Dress Myself from the Inside Out.
With Liz’s approval of my estimate, I started fresh. For the cover layout, I selected one of the two straw hats from the original design. After outlining its shape, I superimposed it upon a gray background with torn paper edges, signifying the author’s difficult life; then landed this remarkable hat upon a field of light blue, signifying the new-found serenity she carries into her senior years.
I used the typeface, Mona Lisa Solid ITC, for the book title; its color matches the bachelor buttons in the crown of the straw hat. For the subhead, author’s name, and back cover, I used ITC Leawood. The interior pages have the same typefaces. Before importing the manuscript text, I made sure to create master page templates and typography style sheets.
Liz Moloney’s printer provided copies of all her files. From them, I salvaged the pen and ink drawings of articles of clothing that set the scene of each chapter, and the photos of Liz’s family placed at the ending of Elizabeth. I resaved each image as a separate jpeg file and converted to black and white for printing.
I am very pleased to have experienced Liz’s arduous life journey and to showcase it in a beautifully designed book. See additional book cover designs.
