Emily Mahon and Kimberly Glyder on Collaborating for All of You, Every Single One
Emily Mahon is a Philadelphia-born graphic designer, currently working as an Art Director for Doubleday. Kimberly Glyder’s studio specializes in book design, illustration and lettering. Her work has been featured in the AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers show, the Type Director’s Club Annual Exhibition, Print magazine, American Illustration, the American University Presses Book Jacket and Journal Show, and the New York Book Show. Here they take us through their process for designing All of You, Every Single One.
Emily Mahon:
All of You Every Single One, a literary novel set in the bohemian enclave of early 20th century Vienna, follows a group of queer-identifying characters before and during World War II. The process behind the cover took a few starkly different courses before settling on an approach that focused specifically on artists of the Vienna Secession movement. The original idea from the Art Director, Deb Wood, was to focus on sense of place and/or a single object that could represent the story. One of the key characters in the story is a tailor and so I felt that the thread/needle/mannequin represented a key element of the story. I wanted to include some of the striking typography that is relevant to the period.
After this attempt I started looking specifically for Vienna Secession artists, which included pieces by Klimt and some lesser known artists of the period like Josef Diveky, Julius Klinger, and Mila von Luttich. I looked for pieces that could relate to the central relationship of the two female protagonists. These designs were getting closer, but still weren’t exactly hitting the mark.
After broadening my search I discovered some beautiful Viennese found-art pieces that play on beautiful shapes and patterns. One piece in particular by Koloman Moser, called “Early Spring, Illustration to a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke” struck me as being quite relevant to the period and the story, but the women depicted didn’t feel quite right. This piece was in public domain, which gave us some flexibility in how it would be used. Deb and I decided to use it as a foundation for a more relevant rendition, and it was suggested that we have it redrawn it to make it work better for the story. I immediately thought of Kim Glyder to rework this piece. Kim is an illustrator/designer who can do it all, and so amazingly well.
These were the last iterations of the cover before Kim redrew the figures with the book’s characters as inspiration. I had tried a few type options and ended up going with a version of one of these for the final. By reimagining the palette, adding more pattern and detail, Kim truly brought this image to life!
Kimberly Glyder:
Last April, Deb Wood, the AD at Abrams, reached out asking me to work on recreating the cover art for All of You Every Single One.
The consensus was that the illustration, corrected very slightly for the cover, was a great fit, but needed an update to represent the characters better. My goal was to create an illustration that complimented Emily’s beautiful design more fully.
Original art
Original composition, designed by Emily
Deb passed along specific directions on which details should be taken into consideration, such as clothing styles, hair colors, etc. In short, it was important that the overall style echo the Vienna Secession, even while we update the art with a more modern feel.
Looking at the original, I realized because of the age and slight distressing of the patterns, etc., this would require a new, fully rendered drawing. While reworking, I adapted the patterns and to make them work more symmetrically within the trim size. The mesmerizing inner background required quite a bit of finessing. I also researched other Vienna Secession patterns and created a variety of motifs that could be adapted into our illustration.
With the first rounds, I kept the colors simplified to reds and blacks, then later began introducing more colors.
The most fulfilling part of the process was updating the clothing. I had a great time reworking the styles, adding patterns and fine details with guidance from Deb. Each color is a new layer, so aligning all the pieces so they worked harmoniously was the final key to the art coming together.
Once I had shown multiple color ways, we settled on a the final rather quickly so that the cover could move into production. The author noted, “using the original (art) as a springboard for this design is perfectly in keeping with the ‘rewriting history’ elements of the novel.”
Final Illustration
Final cover
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.