In-Focus: Rifle Paper Co.
Anna Bond, the creative director, illustrator, designer, and co-owner of Rifle Paper Co. jumped into the world of paper goods in 2009 with a vision to create playful, vintage-inspired products.
Anna’s hand-painted illustrations, strong attention to detail and whimsical approach to her designs has helped build Rifle Paper Co. into an international brand. We spoke to Anna earlier this year to explore her working process, inspirations and illustration tips for designing gorgeous book covers.
Can you tell us in a few words what makes a great book cover?
A great cover is beautiful, compelling, timeless, and enriches the experience of reading the book. It will stand out across the room and still look relevant in 20 years. One of my favorite classic covers is The Great Gatsby with that royal blue background and piercing yellow eyes. It sets the tone for the book in such a great way.
A great cover is beautiful, compelling, timeless, and enriches the experience of reading the book.
For me, it’s all about reading the story and writing down all the details that I find interesting and compelling. I end up with a whole notebook of sketches and notes. I then try to capture the mood with the color palette as much as possible. For example, Anne of Green Gables has a periwinkle background and that was my nod to her Prince Edward Island setting as well as her charming and youthful personality. The typography and layout are the same… they need to reflect the tone of the story. One of the biggest things with type is researching the era and what typefaces were used at that time for a jumping off point.
What role does experimentation play in your creative work? What advice would you give?
Find your favorite covers and study what you love about them and what makes them great. Make sure to really dig into the story and look for compelling elements and the heart of it. As a designer it’s important to use all of your tools – whether it’s physical or digital to create the best design possible. I think it’s important to be playful while working on ideas and concepts. I primarily hand-paint all my designs but I never shy away from using the computer as a tool to manipulate and enhance my paintings to make them better.
The first thing I do is read the book or refresh my memory on the story, characters, and theme to look for details that I can use in the design. I then start sketching for composition and style for at least two different design directions.
As a designer it’s important to use all of your tools – whether it’s physical or digital to create the best design possible.
Do you do much research before you get to work? What’s involved in the process?
The majority of the research that I do is about what other covers have already been done to make sure that I am not repeating anything and that I’m approaching my cover from a fresh perspective. I now have a Microsoft Surface Pro so I am doing all of my initial sketch work on there digitally. Then I sketch out the design with pencil on paper so that I can paint over it. Once I have my design painted I work digitally to edit colors and move things around. I often paint elements separately so that I have the most flexibility later on to edit.
riflepaperco.com
Extracts from this feature appear in 21 book illustration and design tips on Digital Arts online Read the feature here.