John Gall on Designing Jenny Offill's Weather
John Gall is Creative Director at Knopf in New York. Here he talks us through his process for designing Weather by Jenny Offill.
I was a big fan of Jenny Offill’s previous book Dept. of Speculation so I was excited when her new novel, Weather, landed on our Spring 2020 list. Told via the thoughts that are consuming the mind and life of the main character who is a librarian, the novel addresses climate change and other modern day, end-of-times stressors as she navigates her day-to-day existence: going to a work, taking care of a child, dealing with relationships, etc. This was one of the first jackets I worked on upon returning to Knopf as creative director so luckily there are a number of approaches I worked through (not the usual for me!) as I was trying to regain my footing.
My first thought was a Weather Channel-style weather map in the shape of a woman’s face. I still think it was a good idea but needed someone with more talent to execute! I don’t think I ever even showed this to anyone!
The first direction I actually presented was much simpler in concept and execution. A dark cloud rendered somewhat innocently, as if it could be a logo for an evil internet startup. The main character does a lot of research into disaster preparedness via online as well as at the library where she works.
I also made a few things that didn’t necessarily go anywhere but were interesting byproducts.
The author was interested in trying a collage approach—a great idea considering the fragmented storytelling approach the novel takes.
When I work on a collage, I like the process to be totally open to chance, accidents and whatever random thoughts float through my head. But when creating a collage for editorial purposes, the ends need to justify the means, so the serendipity has to be reigned in and the final image should be somewhat “appealing” to other humans. Though I still want to be able to surprise myself and make something exciting and unexpected. So there’s a lot of swapping images in and out and moving things this way and that until you get something that—and I hate using this word—”works”.
Final cover
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.