Stephen Brayda on Designing New Memoir Consent
Stephen Brayda is an Art Director for HarperVia. Here he takes us through his process for creating the cover for Vanessa Springora’s memoir, Consent.
Summing up Vanessa Springora’s experience in a singular, all-encompassing graphic was a daunting task. Already an international literary sensation, Consent is an exposé on power, trauma and recovery. My personal design standards were higher than usual, and my canvas blank longer than usual.
The first directions I initially explored fell short. Butterflies - a nod to Nabokov - carried little emotional weight for this particular package.
The cover begged for something more authentic. I explored work by an amazing French collage artist whose portfolio I’ve long admired. Rozenn Le Gall was already aware of the impact Springora’s memoir was having in France, and graciously allowed me to design with an existing piece of hers. Though headed in the right direction, something about the cover still needed attention and I requested new solutions from Rozenn.
After weeks of designing and redesigning, editor Juan Mila and I decided scaling back Rozenn’s original collage and removing the arm from the piece was all the cover needed: this allowed the longing eye of the collaged face to take center stage.
Final cover
The jacket was printed on an uncoated stock to replicate the paper Rozenn’s collage was originally made with and help speak to the authenticity and intimacy behind Springora’s words.
Full cover
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.