Monday, March 23, 2009

Discussing Christi Friesen's book - "polymer clay and mix media - together at last"

Lisa clarke had an interesting post in her polka dot cottage few weeks ago, she was discussing book covers, the book discussed was Christi Friesen's book - "polymer clay and mix media - together at last".
Since i am also a graphic designer, it's the first think i am looking at, and as a book lover i wanted to say some words about the issue.
Lisa offered this book as a gift to one of the commenters - and yay! :) i won "the lottory" and got the book yesterday by mail (thank you so much lisa)

I had the whole day looking and reading Christi's book, with her special humor and such a unique art talent. i loved the book, it is full of projects (exacly my kind of book), they are presented with beautiful photos and Christi's special (and clear) way of writting and cute funny drawings.

I do think that her beautiful pieces should be presented more colorfully on this book cover, similar to her other books. There are so many gorgous photos in there, choosing different colors would make this book look much more appealing & "tailored" to it's content - look like a fancy dress. i loved her other book designs - they are so "exactly her".

It was important to me to share my joy from her book and thank her for sharing her art & beauty with us. I hope in my heart that Christi is not disappointed from this bit of critics, i hate doing that, i don't want to make her beautiful face sad.

This is an important issue, and i must say i am not experienced with working along with publishers, do artists allowed to say their opinion about their own book design? or is it a choice of the editor? i don't know.

if you are a Christi Friesen's fan (and i am) buy it with confident, she is the best!

4 comments:

  1. Iris, I'm glad you received the book and are enjoying it.

    I, too, hope that my original post on the topic conveyed the respect I have for Christi and her art. And I hope that it was clear that I wholeheartedly recommend the new book, despite the fact that I was not "wowed" by the cover :-)

    From what I understand, most times cover art is at the discretion of the publisher and has very little to do with what the author may prefer.

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  2. Hi Iris (and hi to Lisa too) - I meant to comment on this when I saw it on Lisa's blog, but got distracted and forgot - I really appreciated the book review from both of you and I was so delighted that you both enjoyed the interior ;-) I thought the comment about the cover was appropriate and I kinda felt the same way myself. My son and I collaborate on the covers of the series I publish, so I take it as a very nice compliment that you've liked those covers (and I'll pass that on to him as well - he's great -- he can read my mind when it comes to graphics!) I really enjoyed working with the folks at CPI on the book you're discussing - but ultimately the interior layout and cover design were something they did in house. Of course, this book has done rather well for them (thanks to all you folks that have been buying it, and in your case, Lisa - selling it as well! yay!) so I think we both learned a little on this project - I'll get to have a bit more input on the cover for the next one! But thanks so much for putting your opinions out there, I hope it helped anyone not quite sure about picking up a copy to maybe give it a try. You gals are groovy!

    cf

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  3. If I had to go by just the cover to decide if I wanted the book... I would not have chosen to purchase it. But since I am a CF fan already, I knew I had to have the book, regardless of the cover design. I am glad to hear that CF will have more input into the cover design from now on though. CFI love your work!!!!!!!!

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  4. I just bought it and have made 2 projects already! It's super!

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