Rejected!

Working in graphic design usually means managing large files. That’s the case for me, anyway. As the designer of several publishing imprints, space fills up pretty quickly on my hard drive. It’s to the point now where I’m at capacity and preparing to delete a lot of things in order to move forward. Going back through my files from the past few years I’ve discovered a lot of rejected book jacket ideas. It’s interesting to see just what makes the cut and what doesn’t. In the spirit of one of my favorite book design blogs, Shelved Books, I thought it would be fun to post some of them here as a way to say goodbye before they make their way to my iMac’s Trashcan. I prefer some of these to what ended up actually being the cover that was chosen, but some are also obviously not the right fit. I won’t say which is which; you can decide for yourself. It’s also nice to see what I believe to be some significant growth in my design capabilities, despite making a few great (lucky?) choices early on.

Behold: