First

Jamie Stafford-Hill on Designing First, Become Ashes

After designing the cover for K. M. Szpara’s first book, Docile, Irene Gallo, publisher of Tordotcom, asked me to work on his second novel. First, Become Ashes is a contemporary fantasy novel but they wanted to stay far away from anything evoking classic quest or genre fantasy, going for more of a crossover upmarket literary look. On Docile I’d had good luck working from the clear and useful ideas suggested by the author and editor and felt good about the simple brief: something type-driven, using imagery of fire and/or meadowlarks, possibly evoking a phoenix. Irene also mentioned the “bright and unusual” color used on Docile, suggesting the possibility of establishing a sort of strong color brand for the author.

Jamie Stafford-Hill on Designing First, Become Ashes