Zoe Norvell and the Many Versions of Dorothy Parker in Hollywood
Zoe Norvell is a Washington, DC-based freelance cover designer and Founder of I Need a Book Cover and I Need a Book Interior. Here she takes us through the many design directions that eventually led to the pretty perfect final cover of Dorothy Parker in Hollywood.
The original title for Dorothy Parker in Hollywood was Out There.
Out There came to me a full 12 months ago through John Vairo, a real gem of a guy and an Associate Art Director at Gallery Books (S&S). With a title like ‘Out There’ for a book about the incredible Dorothy Parker, the original vision for this jacket was colorful and a bit wild. John envisioned a classic portrait of Dorothy that was enhanced with “Jean Cocteau-inspired drawings.” When I looked up Jean Cocteau, I immediately thought of the branding for British DJs Disclosure. Rad.
It was clear that collage would be another route worth trying. Given Dorothy’s lifespan (1893-1967), most of her portraits are black and white, which meant collage would be a great way to spice up her otherwise quiet vintage photos.
For this initial round, I enlisted the help of my new friend Luisa Dias. I love her work and knew she’d be great at handling the Jean-Cocteau directions. I’ve been a one-woman design studio for 9 years and have been wanting to expand, so it was really fun to contract out a piece of this puzzle and art direct this lovely designer in Portugal that I was just getting to know. I pulled together this mood board for Luisa and translated the vision:
Luisa totally nailed it - as I knew she would. She sent back a killer batch and I helped her double her number of design options by introducing new background colors and fonts.
In addition to her colorful collages, I added a few of my own kind of “out there” interpretations to the mix:
At some point during this early stage, Pam, Gallery’s art manager and photo researcher extraordinaire, found this crazy image of Dorothy Parker from the 40s posing infront of a collection of weird objects. Out There, indeed! So I threw that into the Round 1 mix as well:
John’s response was the best reply ever: “OMG you fucking nailed this cover dumb hard LOL. I love every single one! Not a revision request from me! It's exactly how I envisioned it when we discussed them over Zoom.”
If only all of my Round 1 PDFs received this type of response!!! If. only.
After we sent R1, the title changed to Dorothy Parker in Hollywood, which was originally the Out There subtitle. The Gallery editorial team didn’t go for Luisa’s collages or my illustrations but was instead drawn to that smorgasbord saxophone image. Round 2 involved showing the team various overlay colors, layouts, and different font options. They were interested in a handwritten approach. John had specific tweaks before he shared these with his team. Round 2 and Round 3 looked like this:
At this point, the author and her agent reviewed a select number of my designs, sent to them by the publisher. Their feedback was specific and spot on - As much as they loved the wacky saxophone image, especially since it was rare to see Dorothy in full-color, the objects felt like a mismatch with the content and title of the book: which focused on her time in Hollywood. “We are unsure if the objects represent Hollywood, screenwriting, and parties … the dominant saxophone might indicate that Parker had a secret life as a Jazz musician. This is almost a NYC Dorothy rather than Hollywood Dorothy. We are not sure a reader would automatically know this is a book about Hollywood and movies.” They had a point!
The new direction was to move towards a vintage Hollywood look – something that showed Parker amongst the glitz, glamour and excess “in a town she despised.” There was one image (circa 1935) that stood out among the rest because of how glamorous Dorothy appeared, so that was the one we all gravitated toward. These requests sent me down a rabbit hole of old Hollywood, silver-screen, movie-poster typography. Rounds 4 and 5 looked like this:
This direction was super fun to explore, but ultimately, these were all rejected. Dorothy was a writer, not a movie star, and these sent the wrong message. Upon seeing R4/5, the team decided to move away from the silver screen and stick with “vintage glam.” They also wanted to move away from grays and were adamant that I inject some COLOR into this old photo.
Here’s what I sent in Round 6:
At the end of the day, our final jacket wasn’t so “out there” after all. Instead, the team zeroed in on a more straightforward design that draws attention to the subject herself. This formal font paired with her regal pose helps to showcase a literary icon who effortlessly blended sharp insight with an irreverent charm that continues to resonate with readers today. The yellow border pops.
Special thanks for John Vairo, Jr, Lisa Litwack, Pam Grant, and Luisa Dias!
Editor, artworker and lifelong bibliophile.