Alison Forner on Designing The Appointment
Alison Forner is an Art Director at Avid Reader Press and Simon & Schuster, whose work has been recognized by the American Institute of Graphic Arts in their 50 Books/50 Covers Show. Here she tells us about her process for designing The Appointment.
In book publishing, there are certain genres or themes that repeat year after year. There’s the sweeping historical novel set in WWII, the contemporary coming-of-age story, the confessional memoir… all the usual suspects that make an appearance in different forms each publishing season. As cover designers, we know what type of imagery those books require and the challenge lies in reinventing a familiar look to make it feel fresh and new.
One theme you never, ever come across: the darkly funny monologue that takes place in a gynecologist’s office and involves a stream-of-consciousness tour of Hitler-centered sexual fantasies, overbearing mothers, squirrel tails, and gender reassignment surgery as historical reparation. That book did not exist until The Appointment came along, and I’ll be forever grateful to Katharina Volckmer for writing something that defies classification. Her book was a dream project for me because there was no visual precedent—it was my job to figure out what the book needed and create a visual language for it.
The Appointment is the kind of book that lets your mind drift and wander. At some points you’re deeply rooted in the narrative; at others you’re following your own tangents inspired by the content. The manuscript pushed me to think about so much, but I just kept coming back to the idea of transformation: evolving personalities, theories, bodies. I knew the jacket needed to convey a sense of movement and change to mirror the narrator’s journey.
Often when I start working on a new project, I’ll visit stock photo sites to get my brain moving. I’ll type in certain phrases or words just to get my thought process up and running. This exercise is almost exclusively about brainstorming for me—I never end up with imagery I can actually use in my design. But in this case, I happened to come across a series of photos that seemed right in every way. There was the sense of movement, the androgyny. A sense of inner drama.
Once I had the right photos and a working layout, I realized there was something missing from the design. The images themselves were unusual, but the photos alone didn’t capture the subversive tone of the book. I needed a way to signal the manuscript’s dark humor; some kind of twist to take it from a visually pleasing image to one that actually communicated something.
I also felt the figure’s face should be obscured in some way—for literary novels especially, I think it’s important to allow the reader to envision their own characters. I thought, what if I gave the figure sunglasses? (I had just finished watching the Elton John biopic Rocketman and I’m pretty sure I was subconsciously channeling the movie….) And then…what if they were Star of David sunglasses?? One of the themes running throughout the book is the narrator’s struggle with their German heritage in relation to Judaism, so this visual would tie-in perfectly with the book. But I worried it might be offensive—graphic design is about communication, and as book designers you need to be aware of and take responsibility for the messages you’re putting out into the world. Ultimately, I decided this kind of risk made sense for the book because it hints at the type of story the reader is about to engage with. The star glasses were the perfect solution; it’s as if the figure is literally seeing through the lens of Jewish identity.
Thankfully Katharina loved the design immediately and approved it exactly as is, which makes this project an anomaly in my world!
Final cover
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.