Design Corps was recently asked to design a dust jacket cover for the hardcover book Living Beyond the Sanctuary published by FaithWalk Publishing and written by Glenn McDonald. The book challenges Christians to get out of their comfortable churches in order to be "salt & light", bringing the Good News to a fallen world. There have been many books on this theme (see below).
And this title lent itself to some straightforward interpretations. But we wanted to have the cover work on several deeper levels:
• stylistically sophisticated,
• intellectually intriguing,
• aesthetically appealing, and
• philosophically revealing.
Design Corps first submitted three concepts to establish the direction that the publisher wanted to go with the cover, two of which were straightforward representations of the books title or content, and one which was an interpretaion of its principles and meaning. At first the publisher leaned toward the straightforward representation, but over time after much back and forth between the publisher and the author they each concluded that they were drawn as well to the more sophisticated interpretation. Therefore, just as the actual art was created through layering of multiple layers of photographs and effects, so the selected design incorporated strengths in conveying meaning on multiple levels:
Style:
The audience was defined as Christians in the Emerging Church movement, which basically means they eschew the trappings of tradition (in the form, ritual, and established dress of church) in order to engage a post-modern culture in it’s own terms. Therefore style of layout, type, etc. was intentionally post-modern and “anti-traditional”.
Content:
The title did not need to be repeated in an image of a sanctuary. Instead we wanted to accentuate the meaning by showing a man walking through puddles on a rainy day to convey that the “real world” is not all nice and comfortable. We also included along with the puddles images of people in the background, the very impetus for getting “beyond the sanctuary”.Aesthetics:
The strong blue color and the intriguing angle made for a powerful shelf presence for the cover. But the image was given a lot of attention to give it an appealing texture so that the closer you get the more you see that every part is rich in a texture of ripples or rain. Four photos were merged to come up with the final photo. as well as several digital effects to add the texture.
Deeper Meaning:
The richest aspects of multi-layering are not in the aesthetic qualities but in the latent meaning sometimes only discovered as one comes to understand the message of the book. There are several aspects of the cover design that are intentional yet subtle.
• first, as mentioned above, the rainy atmosphere is a visual affirmation that life is not about comfort and seclusion but about our interactions with others
• second, the main figure is not the focus. Rather, his steps out into the world.
• third, what we do see of the main figure is in the poor reflection of the puddle, upside down and degraded by raindrops. This portrays a Christian theme of loss of self and of self-focus. John the Baptist said, “I must become less, He (Christ) must become more.” This is at the heart of McDonald’s message.
• fourth, unlike the reflection of the main figure, the figures in the background are seeming to come forward from obscurity to clarity. This illustrates the books emphasis of having a focus for other persons and their welfare.
The final result was a book cover that combines meaning, texture, strategy and color. So much thought is put into the interior of a book, it should be assumed that the cover would have equal depth in an appropriate manner so as to reflect the intent, meaning and message of the writing while still having strategic marketing value.
