Dalkey Press’ Quarterly Review of Contemporary Fiction
The Dalkey Press needed a new look for their quarterly Review of Contemporary Fiction. The client requested something with a look that is modern but not sterile or pretentious. The solution shown has a cover design that is interesting but can be easily duplicated by an in-house designer for the series. The typography of the interior is focused largely on readability, with fonts that are modern and friendly.
Cover variations for successive issues
Title page and copyright page
Table of contents
Chapter spread
Cover Design for the 2006 Fall/Winter Issue of the Ninth Letter
The Ninth Letter is a literary publication published twice a year as a collaboration between the English and Art & Design departments at the University of Illinois. Much of the writing in the 2006 Fall/Winter edition had a feeling of surreality or a struggle of the characters to define their reality. The below cover concept illustrates this with the idea of ‘going down the rabbit hole’ – however, the viewer can’t be sure if the character on the front is coming or going from reality. The cover was intended to be printed on a dark navy cardstock, with white foil stamping for the illustration. I chose to move all of the issue details (featured authors) to the back cover, to further the sense of mystery of the issue.
Front cover
Back cover
Illustration for Short Fiction in the 2006 Fall/Winter issue of Ninth Letter
I created a couple spreads of artwork for a short fiction titled ‘Apples Could Make You Laugh’ in the Fall/Winter 2006 edition of the Ninth Letter. The story tells of a desperate office worker obsessing over a female coworker who doesn’t return the feelings. The reader can’t be sure if the encounters described by the character actually happened or if they are all in his head. In this image, his romanticized daydreams of her swirl over the pages to entangle her, while she slowly cuts herself free.
Title page
Final page
