The Bonfire of the Vanities: sketches

I was thinking of a big bonfire.


I was thinking an Empire State Building is just an Empire State Building. But it looked more like a hypodermic needle/drug story.
And tried to use an 80s color palette inspired by Playboy pin-up / Duran Duran's RIO artist Patrick Nagel.


with Olga Grlic // Go Studio

I was thinking 1980s NYC and Sherman McCoy, a Wall Street “Master of the Universe” who has it all—a Park Avenue apartment, a job that brings wealth, power and prestige, a beautiful wife, an even more beautiful mistress as a retelling of The Fall of Icarus.






Pieter Bruegel, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus c. 1558
Oil on canvas, mounted on wood, 73.5 x 112 cm
Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, Brussels

The Right Stuff: final

by Tom Wolfe // Picador
February 20 1962, Cape Canaveral, Florida. The 134-ton Atlas rocket with Astronaut John Glenn in the Mercury capsule roars from the launching pad at 9:47 AM, EST, on flight that put him into orbit just minutes later.


The Right Stuff is the latest selection for the ONE BOOK, ONE CHICAGO program for Fall 2008. This award-winning program presented by the Chicago Public Library encourages all Chicagoans to read the same book at the same time, and to come together with friends and neighbors to share and discuss a great work of literature.
What a great idea! And check out their awesome resource guide. It's chock full of great interviews, articles, historical background and timelines. Really well done.

The Right Stuff: sketches

My initial idea. A single gleaming silver star, ascending to the heavens, leaving the Earth's atmosphere and a trail of sound waves behind, just about to pierce the blackness of space to become one with the stars. Blah, blah, blah.
The gradient sky was inspired by the Japanese screen painter Ando Hiroshige.



Iconic Astronaut. I liked this idea very much. Which astronaut will be the chosen one with the "right stuff" to go to outerspace first? The silhouetted figure would've printed against a background of matte silver. In the end, I think this approach was too sexy for my cover.


The Mercury Seven: (left to right, back row) Alan Shepard, Virgil "Gus" Grissom and L. Gordon Cooper; (front row) Walter Schirra, Donald "Deke" Slayton, John Glenn and Scott Carpenter.

With Olga Grlic // Go Studio:

2008 New York Book Show Winner

I am pleased to announce that the Picador Art Department has swept the 2008 New York Book Show in the category of General Trade / Quality Paperback for Individual Book Cover Design.

Tom Zoellner's THE HEARTLESS STONE // Picador


Galt Niederhoffer's A TAXONOMY OF BARNACLES // SMP / Picador,
(illustrated by Pierre Mornet / Marlena Agency & Pete Garceau)


and Michael Cunningham's FLESH AND BLOOD // Picador.


Also Michael Lewis' THE BLIND SIDE, a freelance job I designed for Ingsu Liu / Art Director // W.W. Norton


We also won in the General Trade / Quality Paperback for Book Cover
Design / SERIES.

THE PARIS REVIEW INTERVIEWS, Volumes 1 & 2 // Picador / The Paris Review,


and the Laurie R. King crime series:
THE BEEKEEPER'S APPRENTICE, A MONSTROUS REGIMENT OF WOMEN, THE MOOR, and A LETTER OF MARY // Picador
(Major props to Adam Auerbach who illustrated this entire series).



Congratulations go to Lisa G. & Adriana C. in Production and our Printers, Phoenix Color & Lehigh Lithographers for their outstanding efforts, and my Publisher Frances C. and the incredible Picador Editorial staff for their trust.

The Hidden Man

by Anthony Flacco

Art Director: Beck Stvan // Mortalis / Random House

A historical thriller featuring a detective and a hypnotist/illusionist set against the backdrop of 1915 San Francisco during The Panama Pacific International Exposition.

The Diving Pool

three novellas by Yoko Ogawa / translated by Stephen Snyder // Picador

A haunting trio of novellas about love, fertility, obsession, and how even the most innocent gestures may contain a hairline crack of cruel intent. Spare, beautiful, and twisted, The Diving Pool is a disquieting and at times darkly humorous collection about normal people who suddenly discover their own dark possibilities.

• A young woman records the daily moods of her pregnant sister in a diary, taking meticulous note of a pregnancy that may or may not be a hallucination—but whose hallucination is it, hers or her sister's?

• A woman nostalgically visits her old college dormitory on the outskirts of Tokyo, a boarding house run by a mysterious triple amputee with one leg.

• The title story is about a lonely teenage girl who falls in love with her foster brother as she watches him leap from a high diving board into a pool, wishing that she was the water—a peculiar infatuation that sends unexpected ripples through her life.
  

Johnny One-Eye

by Jerome Charyn

Art Director: Chin-Yee Lai // W. W. Norton & Co.

Brief Descriptions:
Double agent John Stocking is seventeen when the novel opens in 1775. The son of a legendary, pipe-smoking whorehouse madam (a real historical figure) whose "nuns" cater to both rebel American and British military men, Stocking is a scholarship student at King's College. Working as a scribe composing love letters for high-ranking soldier, he has been caught breaking into George Washington's camp, and is accused of poisoning Washington himself. Historical characters including Washington, Hamilton, both General Howes, and a parade harlot dart in and out of the story, which features the burning of Manhattan by the British.

Direction: Strong, bold, edgy, fun and sexy.

The publishing house thought this was a wonderful cover for the title but unfortunately it was killed by a major bookseller buyer. Oh well.


I based my silhouette on the portrait of George Washington at the Battle of Princeton, 1781, by Charles Willson Peale.

The Beekeeper's Apprentice

by Laurie R. King // Picador

• The New York Book Show 2008 Award winner // Paperback Series

Cover illustration by Adam Auerbach.

A Monstrous Regiment of Women

by Laurie R. King // Picador

• The New York Book Show 2008 Award winner // Paperback Series

Cover illustration by Adam Auerbach.

A Letter of Mary

by Laurie R. King // Picador

• The New York Book Show 2008 Award winner // Paperback Series

Cover illustration by Adam Auerbach.

The Moor

by Laurie R. King // Picador

• The New York Book Show 2008 Award winner // Paperback Series

Cover illustration by Adam Auerbach.

The Kindness of Women

by J. G. Ballard // Picador

The latest addition in the J.G. Ballard redesigned series for Picador. A semi-autobiographical sequel to Empire of the Sun.

I finally heard from Ballard's agent that he liked this cover. He actually said he liked it. Nice. This is high praise since he wasn't fond of any of my other redesigns for him. Or for that matter, any of his covers ever published anywhere.
And thanks to The Book Design Review Blog for the kindness of their words in highlighting this cover and the Picador list.

J. G Ballard dies age 78 // April 18, 2009.

Labors of the Heart: stories

by Claire Davis // Picador

Cover photograph by Henry Sene Yee

These stories take place in the Big Sky Country of Montana.
This photograph is one I took over the big sky of Coney Island:

The Paris Review Interviews: vol. 2 // final

introduction by Orhan Pamuk / edited by Philip Gourevitch // The Paris Review / Picador

• A PRINT's Regional Design Annual Selection

• The New York Book Show 2008 Award winner // Paperback Series

Author and The Paris Review editor Philip Gourevitch loved the yellow used on volume one and wanted us to continue the bright palette for this four volume series. I didn't want to go to red just yet and he suggested a "pool chalk" blue. This second volume will print with a fluorescent blue / PMS 801 background.

The Exotics Trade // Wall and Mean

Some comps that didn't go anywhere...






...except for the very last one at the bottom right. I forgot that that was the published jacket. Thanks for the correction Francine.

by Thomas "Tom" Bernard

Art Director: Francine Kass // W. W. Norton & Co.

Watching the World Change

by David Friend // Picador

Cover photograph by Patrick Witty

• A readerville.com Most Coveted Covers Selection, No. 152

This cover was just selected by readerville.com as their Most Coveted Covers. Nice. Thank to Keith H. for bringing this to my attention and thank you Karen Templer for choosing Picador.

The attack on the World Trade Center was the most watched event in human history. And footage from that day came not only from TV news sources, but also from workers, tourist, and passersby, each of whose lives would change dramatically when confronted with the sights of the attacks. The author uncovers the stories behind those incredible images. The towers crumbling, people falling, fragments of the remaining structure, people frantically running from engulfing debris, firefighters raising the American flag over ground zero, and many more.
Finding the one representational image out of all of these was difficult and emotionally hard. But what they all have in common was that we all watched these images with shock and horror. I thought the cover image was the best choice for the book. Us.

Author David Friend posted his admiration of my cover design on his blog.

"For those who have resisted purchasing the hardcover because of the pricetag, now is your opportunity to obtain a light, portable copy, with a sleek new cover, designed by Henry Sene Yee, which has a bold, noir, mid-50s feel, reminiscent of film posters by Saul Bass. The graphic echo of the twin towers is evident on the spine, the title page, and even in the juxtaposition of the title and subtitle on the cover."

Saul Bass? Wow. Thanks David

Authors@Google presents David Friend // September 5, 2007