Brand Bible

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BRAND BIBLE228

(Text)





I’m known for book design, but I would certainly like

to do more. I’m capable of more than just that.



No. The approach I take with my work doesn’t really

lend itself to building a brand because each project

has its own character and issues that can’t have a

brand ID placed on them. Finding a style and saying,

“This is the look or palette I want to carry out on the

next dozen projects,” would not work in the projects

and clients my studio works with.

Creating culture, one

book at a time

19

How to Brand

a Book



Rodrigo Corral

Rodrigo Corral

Design

Creative Director,

Farrar, Straus

& Giroux

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229

(Text)



It plays a part in every cover. Once it has been handed

to the marketing department, they take the imagery

you craft and borrow elements for use in advertise-

ments and promotion. Whether it’s in a three-by-

three-inch ad space in The New Yorker or a full-page

ad in the Sunday Book Review, that’s the measure of

the importance of branding in book design: being able

to take the cover you designed and chop it up into

smaller pieces to use as a selling tool.





The writing and the reviews. The book itself has to

be well-written and the design has to translate that

for the reader, making sure it is genuine and clear in

its message. The more attention a book can garner for

its literary merits, the more you will see the cover,

and that’s when a cover becomes important. If a book

has gone on to sell very well, designers automatically

start to look at the cover as successful. I think it’s just

a lucky coincidence. When I think about A Million

Little Pieces, which I designed, I am so excited that

that cover was for a best-selling book, but I would

not say that cover played any part in it becoming a

best seller.





From the perspective of an author, publisher,

and agent, I think they feel that the designer isn’t

really thinking about the life of the book—about

what will happen to the book once it’s published. I

think designers are more invested in the process of

coming up with a great solution for these concerns

than the publishers give them credit for.

From the perspective of the designer, I think there’s

a feeling that publishers don’t understand the

process well. There’s a feeling that publishers and

designers speak dierent languages. It’s denitely

arranged so that when you go into a meeting with

the publisher and the editors to talk about the cover,



 

A selection of book

covers by Rodrigo

Corral Design

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