Consecration Pond
Book Cover Design | Interior Design & Layout | Art Direction
client: Toad Hall Editions and Laura Bonazzoli
THE PROJECT: I knew that the design for the cover of Consecration Pond needed to incorporate the feel of being “hand-made” and so I invited an illustrator to create an image for the cover—that illustrator Elizabeth Ogle who specializes in narrative illustration, also happens to be Laura’s daughter.
Our early conversations were about the feel of the stories, the themes and the overall vibe of the book —this is a book about the nature of wisdom, the risks and gifts of allowing ourselves to be seen, forgiveness, redemption and the challenge of creating meaning in the wake of loss.
We also looked at the architecture of the book:
a collection of linked short stories that stand alone and also form a cohesive story “cycle” when read together;
some of the characters move in and out of the stories and the reader meets them several times;
all the stories take place around the one central character—Consecration Pond.
We talked about the landscape of these stories:
how they’re set around a pond in Maine;
how there’s a long view and the stories create a map forward;
how there’s also a sharp focus—the pond, and so we had to consider the seasons;
how to represent nature, and light and dark;
how to illustrate the idea of forgiveness and what the illustration would need to “feel” like to convey that idea.
And in the end, we created a cover that represents Laura’s work and the themes of the stories.
Liz’s outstanding sense of color, composition, and design is demonstrated in the gorgeous cover and interior she created for my book of linked short stories, Consecration Pond. She worked from my initial suggestions, but also brought her own expertise to make the cover and interior better than I could have imagined in echoing the haunting, meditative feel of the prose. Without hesitation, I would work with her again.
—Laura Bonazzoli | Author.
