John Herreid Design + Art

Toward the Gleam

2011-06-01T12:46:00.001-07:00

So, what to do with a book which features a protagonist based on a rather famous author but who is never named?

Well, in the case of Toward the Gleam I thought of evoking the author's art without copying it. Trouble is, I am not talented enough to do it myself.

But I did know someone who is.

Here's the sketch I sent off to illustrator and artisan Daniel Mitsui. He sent back a much more detailed sketch which needed only minor revision, and the final artwork arrived very soon after.

You can see the original black and white illustrations he did here. (I loved the cover so much that I got permission to have him do a title page as well)

Here's the final cover. It's in solid spot colors: black, cream, and metallic silver and gold. I had to create separate "plates" for each color in Photoshop and layer them to get the effect you see. It looks even better in person due to the spot-gloss.

Padre Pio Under Investigation

2011-02-11T15:17:00.000-08:00

A new book detailing the Vatican investigation of Padre Pio, with documents from the Secret Archive.

I wanted Padre Pio to look isolated and lonely on the cover. The crucifix at the top is a photo I took in Lisbon, from a cathedral that collapsed in the big earthquake they had in the 18th century.

Manalive : book version

2011-01-06T09:02:00.001-08:00

Click for a bigger view. I previously designed an audio book version of this.

I wanted the lettering to look hand lettered, but also wanted more precision than I had on the audio book. I laid out the type, printed it, and traced over with pen by hand to get the look I wanted.

Belgian Abbey Tripel

2010-11-18T08:27:00.000-08:00

This is the second year that I've brewed a Christmas beer to share with friends and family. This is the label for this year's brew.

The Inklings, Tolkien, Williams, and Lewis

2010-11-11T08:50:00.001-08:00

Sketches created for the Looking for the King website and trailer.

Recent DVD covers

2010-10-28T12:48:00.000-07:00

Puttin' on the Ritz

2010-10-13T08:36:00.001-07:00

My cover for the Ignatius Critical Edition of Frankenstein gets a nice review at Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog. Just in time for Halloween!

Looking for the King

2010-10-13T08:17:00.000-07:00

Another cover that was worked, reworked, etc.

The initial draft was based on poster designs from the 1930's. I did a rough version (incomplete faces and hands on the figures, illustrated in Adobe Illustrator with textures added in Photoshop), but it was thought that it looked a bit too cartoonish.

After a few more drafts, we ended up with the final, which brings together several scenes and themes from the book. I used several photo elements, including one photo I took myself (the figure with the spear). The end result looks a bit more "Narnia" and less retro. The author was a great help in identifying things that needed to be on the cover.

Illustrations for Gilbert magazine

2010-07-20T07:40:00.000-07:00

These two are for the "Summer Film Fest" that Gilbert magazine does every year.

Paths of the Messiah

2010-04-27T07:19:00.001-07:00

I actually designed this cover a year ago, but delays in editing held it up.

BART sketches

2010-01-18T13:00:00.001-08:00

Pages from my sketchbook. I often sketch book / dvd cover ideas as well as my fellow passengers on the BART train.

More recent work

2010-01-04T12:06:00.001-08:00

The Reluctant Saint is a fun little film about St. Joseph of Cupertino, who was known for levitating. For this cover I had my brother-in-law jump for the camera, then added in the Italian village and clouds.

This cover uses images I found via Flickr--again. I got in contact with the photographer and worked out a deal for image usage.

Support Education and Art!

2009-09-22T10:12:00.000-07:00

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, here's a chance to support education and add some art to your home! An Evening with G.K. Chesterton features a performance by Chuck Chalberg as well as a silent auction with art from Ted Schluenderfritz, Ellen Price, and myself. You can own the original drawing from The Well and the Shallows! Come join us this weekend!

Two recent DVD jackets

2009-09-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

Not quite out on DVD yet, but the jackets are done! For the "Joseph" DVD, I was trying to make the title look carved out of wood in Photoshop. It failed, so I ended up carving it for real on a piece of scrap wood.

St. John Nepomucene Neumann

2009-07-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

The hap hap happiest writer

2009-07-24T12:04:00.000-07:00

A sketch of Evelyn Waugh. He loved kittens*, babies**, and the films of Shirley Temple.***

* possibly a lie
** definitely a lie
*** well, yes, another lie.

The Curé d'Ars Today

2009-07-20T12:15:00.000-07:00

A design for the re-release of this book, first published around 25 years ago.

St. Raymond of Penafort

2009-07-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

You may be asking, if you saw my post at SmallPax today, why Dominican Saints are so awesome. The answer: I don't know.

Anyway, here's St. Raymond of Penafort. According to legend:

Aside from his scholarly pursuits, Raymond preached with untiring zeal to the Jews and Moors (Arab invaders of Spain). He also acted as spiritual director for King James of Aragon and Saint Peter Nolasco, whom he aided in founding the Order of Our Lady of Mercy (Mercedarians) for the ransom of captives from the Moors.

King James valued Raymond so highly that on several occasions he sent him on missions to the Holy See. At one time, however, he stoutly resisted Raymond's admonitions regarding chastity, and a miracle was required before the monarch consented to reform his life. This miracle took place during a visit to Majorca on which Raymond had accompanied the king in the hope of strengthening Christianity there. They had been on the island only a short time when Raymond discovered that the king was involved in a sinful love affair with a woman of the court. The king refused to listen to Raymond's protests, and when Raymond threatened to leave the island, the king threatened with death anyone who would give him passage.
Thereupon, or so it is said, Raymond spread his cloak on the water, set up his staff as a mast, and, having rigged up a corner of the cloak as a sail, boarded this miraculous "boat," setting his course for Barcelona. He arrived there the same day, having covered 140 miles in about six hours. A great crowd assembled at the waterfront witnessed the end of this marvelous voyage, which inspired numerous conversions.

Read more here. Though it isn't official, I would say he is the patron saint of windsurfing, having originated it.

Half-hour cover: A Short History of the World

2009-07-16T16:31:00.000-07:00

A Short History of the World by J.M. Roberts is a pretty good overview of history, which mostly consists of peoples and nations beating the crap out of each other.

Mick Wiggins

2009-07-15T12:20:00.000-07:00

I was introduced to Mick Wiggins' art via the cover to My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell. The Caustic Cover Critic has an interview with him--he does this great retro-looking art in Photoshop using a mouse. Sort of a high-tech luddite, in a good way. Check it out!

Half hour cover: The Metamorphosis

2009-07-13T12:15:00.001-07:00

Stupid Blogger compression makes this look chock-full-o'-artifacts, so clicky for better view.

Half hour cover: The Human Factor

2009-07-06T12:18:00.001-07:00

A novel of espionage by Graham Greene, The Human Factor is one of his typical later (1970's) spy books that (sort of like John le Carré) shows a weariness with the Cold War. It concerns double-agents and secret government-sanctioned murder, among other things. Codes sent by the number of times a telephone rings figure into the plot, and so into my design.

Half hour cover: The Golden Age

2009-07-01T12:48:00.000-07:00

The Golden Age is the first book in a trilogy by John C. Wright. The paperback that I read had a cover that (I thought) inadequately portrayed what the book was about, which is a semi-humorous sci-fi novel set in the far future in which people are normally surrounded by computer-generated imagery instead of reality. The sun and Neptune figure into the plot, as do masquerades, so I put these on the cover.

Half hour covers

2009-06-30T12:38:00.000-07:00

The other day, I was inspired by this post on the Book Covers Blog. From now on, when I finish reading a book, I will do a quick cover, no more than 30 minutes spent on it. It's a fun exercise so far, and helps keep the design skills working when in between projects.

This first one is Hadrian VII, by Baron Corvo, a flamboyant English eccentric. It's basically an ode to his own awesomeness and how great he would be as Pope. In the novel, a thinly disguised version of himself is elected pontiff and wreaks havoc in the Church (usually while chain-smoking).

The Red Book of Chinese Martyrs

2009-06-25T20:43:00.001-07:00

This book, an account of recent martyrs in China, was first published in Italian. Here's the Italian cover:

The art director asked me to create an English language version of the cover, which I did.

After some discussion, it was decided that the English language version didn't flow well. So I make several comps. The shoe-shaped notes written in Chinese that feature on all covers are a testimony of what happened to a Catholic girl who was imprisoned. The notes were slipped into a priest's shoe and smuggled out. The girl is pictured on this next cover. After being released from prison, she was forced into marriage with a Communist Party member, and nothing more is known about her life.

After a few more drafts, we settled on this:

I was a little leery of it at first, wondering about the violence depicted. But after deciding to crop the faces of the Red Guards, which I felt made the cover more powerful (showing a faceless, oppressive government in action), I finished it up. The final has spot gloss on the lettering, and the back cover shows some of the victims of Communist persecution profiled in the book.

Manalive, the audio book

2009-06-19T20:45:00.000-07:00

A while back I designed the poster for an upcoming film adaptation of G.K. Chesterton's novel, Manalive. One of the stars of the movie, Kevin O'Brien, did a dramatic reading of the text which will be coming out soon. Here's the mockup (note that I had the name wrong--Dale Ahlquist.) A pivotal scene in the book involves a revolver, and it opens with a large man scrambling after his white panama hat through London.

The London houses here were inspired by a book on early 20th century London that I picked up at a used bookstore a few years ago.

Pen and ink, colored in Photoshop.

Fra Lawrence Lew

2009-05-28T15:54:00.000-07:00

Dominican Brother Lawrence Lew is a source of inspiration. Located at Blackfriars, he has managed to photograph many of the most beautiful churches and chapels in England, and during his travels has also photographed Rome, Lourdes, and other centers of Catholic faith and culture. His photography is on Flickr here.

As well as being a gifted photographer, Br. Lawrence also writes for The New Liturgical Movement.

I first used one of Br. Lawrence's photos for the cover of Faith and the Future.

With the new book, Handbook of Catholic Apologetics, the powers that be wanted a cover that illustrated a variety of concepts. After pondering for a while and creating a few mockups, I decided to revisit the rich trove of stained-glass images that Br. Lawrence had on Flickr. From there, everything fell into place.

The final cover is matte with spot-gloss on the images and lettering.

The Well and the Shallows

2009-04-29T14:49:00.001-07:00

The Well and the Shallows is a collection of essays by G.K. Chesterton. I worked on several ideas (lost now, since I worked on this book three years ago), but since we had published several books within recent years that used photographs of Chesterton on the cover, I thought I would try something different. Most caricatures I found had been used by other publishers as well, so I decided to try my hand at one. After a few tries, I came up with a caricature that the art director approved. The pen drawing (thanks to my trusty Microns) was then colored in Photoshop using a limited palette to imitate a book cover from the 1930’s I had found and liked.

This is one of the few covers I've designed that I still like.

The Death of a Pope

2009-04-26T19:20:00.001-07:00

The Death of a Pope is a thriller by Piers Paul Read, probably best known for his non-fiction book, Alive. It was pretty cool working on a book by him, as I've read a number of his novels and I've been a fan for years.

The book involves a plot against the papacy and a young British woman who gets involved in it inadvertently. I can't say too much more without spoiling the story!

I needed to have an image that conveyed a bit of the story without getting too involved. Once concept was a demon under the Vatican, or under the Sistine Chapel, with smoke. This didn't really work beyond the sketch stage without starting to look comical. One of the other ideas, shown above, was to depict a shadowy figure with a briefcase in front of St. Peter's Basilica. This looked a bit cliché when I did a mockup, like a paperback you'd pick up in the checkout line at Safeway.

I also did a number of mockups involving keys, one with a skeleton that I'm glad we didn't use since I just saw it on another recent book, and a few using imagery from Michelangelo's Last Judgement. But the one that was chosen after many rounds of reworking was this:

The final is a hardcover, with the title and author name embossed on the dust-jacket. The cloud imagery has a double meaning once you read the book. You can see a website I helped set up for it here.

Welcome

2009-04-22T17:17:00.000-07:00

I've decided to start a design blog. You lucky people!

In the future, book covers, DVD covers, design process, art, etc. For now, one of my recent cover designs that I think came out fairly nice.