Beginning to End – Hard Mouth: Cover Design, Nicole Caputo

Beginning to End follows a book from inception to bookshelf. For our second "season," we're following Hard Mouth, Amanda Goldblatt's debut adventure novel about a woman facing—and sometimes fleeing from—her father's drawn-out battle with cancer. Counterpoint Press published the book in August. We previously spoke with both the author and agent of the book. Next up: cover designer, Nicole Caputo, Creative Director for Counterpoint Press and Catapult, and Co-founder of She Designs Books.

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Some titles just echo down the aisles. Some titles deserve to consume covers. Amanda Goldblatt’s novel Hard Mouth, a dense narrative told from the perspective of a tight-lipped daughter caring for her cancer-ridden father in his final days, is one such title. Hard Mouth. What are those words doing together? Where will this story take us? Designer Nicole Caputo designed the cover of Hard Mouth with Goldblatt’s straightforward, tense, and smart narrative approach in mind.

Consider the mystery of the cover: bold, white typeface. Enormous title. Then, in a swarm of intrigue, we encounter both the precision of geometry and the chaos of nature as trees and leaves bisect one another in some sort of reflective symmetry. What does it mean? Why, suddenly, are we aching to figure out the story? Caputo, who serves as the Creative Director of Catapult and Counterpoint Press, looked to the art of Giovanni Cafagna, whose work blends the twin magics of nature and technology. “His work captures the energy of the book’s pace and gives a sense of place,” Caputo said. “this particular piece embodied the meticulousness, cleverness and sharpness of the writing style but also tension,  and the narrator who is so tightly controlled. I also like the symbolism of being entangled and of bondage, of isolation and the repetition that represents something being off-kilter, which was important to Amanda [Goldblatt].” 

Indeed, the Cafagna image featured on the Hard Mouth cover draws potential readers to the story inside. It also serves as the perfect dynamic backdrop for the novel’s dramatic, punch-packing title. “The moment I heard this title I knew I wanted to feature it as largely as I possibly could,” Caputo said. “I had started with a narrower typeface, but we found it was not holding up to the purposely invasive trees and overlapping branches. It also had a little bit of sci-fi feel, so I redrew the letterforms to give a bit more heft and we covered it in a raised gloss for some shine and to add a bit of depth.” Each of Caputo's typeface revisions served the cover well: the weight of the letters and the gleam of the gloss make for a book whose art goes beyond the narratives. As an object, the thing shines. 

Collaboration defines the bookmaking process, and the author-designer handoff is perhaps one of the most critical creative intersections of the entire affair. Caputo was able to seamlessly convert the intrigue and singularity of Hard Mouth’s narrative into a cover that generates questions in the minds of all who encounter it: what the hell is this book? Wouldn’t I be a badass if I read it? Hard Mouth calls out from the shelves, and it sings from every page.

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