Colin Webber on Designing Fire Season
Colin Webber is an Associate Art Director at Penguin Random House. Here he gives us a peek into his process for designing the luminous cover for Fire Season.
Spokane Falls, 1889, immediately following the Great Fire, three enterprising protagonists do their best to capitalize on the situation and soon find their fates (and one’s ill-gotten fortune) intertwined for better or worse… but mostly worse. In the prologue we are treated to a parable about the three types of criminals, which, of course, foreshadows the behavior of our central characters. The most fearsome of these being someone who can manipulate others into doing their will without them even realizing it, 'as if by magic'.
I felt that using a large, central flame element to encompass the majority of the jacket would be a good framing device for the totality of the disaster. The stark empty space also provides a ‘clean slate’ for the characters to reinvent themselves as they do throughout the narrative. The original comps featured a portrait of a woman in period clothes set upside down. The woman (Roslyn), we learn, has supernatural abilities, levitation being one of them, so the inverted portrait was my subtle way to show that there’s something special and unexpected about her character.
Stylistically it was felt that the original illustration didn’t resemble the character (or rather her occupation) enough and was revisited a few times before landing on the final jacket. I struggled to create subsequent imagery that matched the established aesthetic without reading as ‘too cartoonish’ and ultimately landed on the approach of manipulating a photo to hint at the mysterious female character. I wanted the imagery to play with positive/negative space, and used color to suggest a sort of light/intensity as if the flame has been screened over the type.
The approach for this cover, fortunately, was always to lean more bold/graphic/modern etc… and steer away from the tropes of traditional western/historic novels, sepia tones, and especially “No backs of women, or women walking away”. I tried to find a balance with art and type that felt textured, and old fashioned enough to signal a story set in the past, while creating an overall package that would really pop off the shelf.
There were a couple other designs that I really enjoyed which didn’t make the cut. One features a mystic eye which was meant to symbolize Roslyn’s visions/premonitions, another one of her abilities. While this didn’t make the front cover, I was able to work it onto the spine - which I’m quite pleased about.
Another design was a really stripped back all-type jacket with customized letterforms (flames of course) and a single match. The idea being that the initial disaster and chaos thereafter is all man-made.
This novel masterfully blends history and fantasy with the right amount of dark humor to capture both the entrepreneurial spirit and folly of man in equal measure. The detail and depth of the characters is unlike anything I’ve read in a while. This hilarious and heartfelt work is not one to be missed. I highly recommend it!
Book cover design is rarely done in a vacuum so shout out to AD Jason Ramirez for really letting me explore both the cool and cringe-worthy range of covers I worked on for this. And of course the Viking team for acquiring this title. Thank you to Vyki and the team at Spine Magazine. I always enjoy reading other’s behind-the-scenes process and seeing the various outtakes much more than rambling on about my own, but it’s been a lot of fun. =)
Final cover
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.