Design × Feelings
How emotions play a part in my practice
Feelings are an integral part of my design practice.
For some, capital “D” Design is a supremely objective, reason-driven profession. In many sectors, it is and (mostly) should be. Something designed to save lives, for instance, should probably rely more upon fact than feeling. However I don’t save lives, I design book covers.
My emotions are why I design book covers in the first place. I design books (and promo materials for the library) because I’d rather stop designing altogether than make something in order to sell the latest toothpaste or gadget stealing attention from our lives.1 Feelings even dictate the kinds of book covers I work on, which is bold considering I was desperate to work on any “real” book cover just seven years ago.
Naturally, feelings also play a part in my actual design process.
When I am designing a book cover, I am guided by excitement. I may get excited for a variety of reasons, but this emotion is always a guidepost. I get excited when I have an idea I think is particularly good, clever, or appropriate for the book. I get excited when I try a new technique, or when a client asks for a collaged option. I get excited when I move something ten pixels and the metaphorical puzzle suddenly clicks into place. There is anticipation while I wait for the client to decide on a direction—will they go for the weird one? (There’s always at least one weird one). The choices I make do have logic, but this logic is usually far from objective. My favorite work, both from myself and others, tends to have a subjective logic about it. After all, isn’t this true of books themselves?
There is also curiosity and fear, both of which are flirtations with the unknown. How do I best represent this book? Have I already had my last good idea? Can I push myself to do something new?
I am also guided by disappointment. Or, rather, the anticipation of disappointment. Just this morning, I removed a cover I liked from a client presentation because when I searched my feelings,2 I knew that if this cover was chosen over some of the other options I made, I would be disappointed—even if I liked the cover in its own right. I do everything in my power to only send work I would be happy to see on the shelf. If I cannot design enough options that would make me happy, I settle for nothing less than content. At least, that is, until revisions begin.
A good designer needs access to their emotions, even frustration, but must also be able to close the valve when necessary.
In the revision phase of a project, the most common feelings I experience are dread and frustration. Dread comes before I begin the edits, knowing that change must come to something I like and worked hard on, when my proximity to the work still blinds me to how it can be improved or else better serve some publishing goal. Frustration arises when I receive a revision I do not agree with. This happens less often now that I don’t work with CEOs writing “calling cards,” but frustration is still inevitable in client work. A good designer needs access to their emotions—even frustration—but must also be able to shut the valve when necessary. They must care enough to do a good job, but must also be able to detach themselves from any particular outcome. I can do this, but it usually takes a few days. If the frustration persists, I know there is something worth pushing back on—but, if possible, with frustration in the back seat. Frustration can tell you where you should go, but it shouldn’t drive you there. The best work is imbued with emotion, but that work—or future, similar work—will not see the light of day if emotion gets the better of its designer.
Then, there is relief; a cover has been chosen! Relief comes even if the chosen rectangle is not my preferred rectangle.3 Depending on what was chosen, I may also be elated or disappointed. But regardless, it is another job complete, another paycheck on the way, and another opportunity to do more, good work in the finite time I have left to do it in.
In Case You Missed It
I chatted with Abra McAndrew about why we didn’t like this recent cover of Wuthering Heights.
Hanne Blank Boyd invited me to share some “Reasons Not to Quit”
What I’m Reading (books)
The links below are affiliate links with bookshop.org. Buying a book via those links is a great way to support the newsletter! You can also buy something else and still choose to benefit Nathaniel Roy Design.
Make Your Art No Matter What by Beth Pickens
100 Essays I Don’t Have Time to Write by Sara Ruhl
A Manual for Cleaning Women by Lucia Berlin
What I’m Working On
A biography about someone you have definitely heard of(!)
Thanks for Reading!
Thank you for reading! I mean it.
If you’d like to keep this newsletter going and help me say no to designing soul-sucking books about corporate events, email marketing, and raising capital, consider becoming a paid subscriber or buying me a coffee.
Until next time,
—Nathaniel
I almost wrote “die,” but that felt slightly too dramatic—slightly.
Yes, I just quoted Yoda, what about it?
Talking like this helps me remember that what I do is cool, but not THAT important.