Working on Troy Blackford‘s new audiobook cover with Mark Chatterley of In Ear Entertainment was an entertaining experience on so many levels. Troy writes in a creative explosion of observations, feelings, and modern day angst. Edgar Allan Poe meets Paul Auster. Weirdness within the normal. Right up my street, really.
Audiobook cover, showing a googly-eyed oven with a normal stove top with oven gloves and a bright yellow casserole pot.
Artwork by iNKLiNGS designed for In Ear Entertainment audiobook of They Who Cry Out Seek to be Heard by Troy Blackford
Mark gave me Tory’s script to read before I started designs on the one audiobook cover design he needed. This contained the full collection of short stories to be included on the audiobook – already a great start.
1. Involve your designer early. The earlier the better. Let them in on your ‘story’, your inspirations, your hopes, your fears.
It was typed up in courier, generously double-spaced, and I devoured it. Not literally, just read it cover to cover, sitting in short sunny sessions in my garden. Lapped this book up. All that energy oozing from the characters’ inner dialogues.
Mark’s brief was to do something eye-catching for its audiobook cover, bearing in mind that website visitors would need to notice it at thumbnail size, competing alongside all the other web ‘noise’. He also gave me free reign on choosing whichever story grabbed me most. Again: bingo! Designer-heaven.
2. With fun quirky creative projects, especially, you might benefit from unexpected great results if you allow your designer to ‘choose’. It even boosts their creative process and helps with motivation and focus. Involvement, trust, and free flow – all in one fell swoop.
And finally, Mark’s feedback for amends were intuitive. A physical reaction to what was in front of him, steering well clear of thoughts about how I should fix it.
“Is there a way we can make the title stand out more? The name works really well along the top, but I think the title gets a little lost in the middle. I’m not sure if this is a colour issue or not, I just know when I get to ‘Cry Out’ my eyes go funny. Which I think then leads to an imbalance (that is the only way I can describe it) in ‘to be Heard’ which seems too strong. Sorry I can’t explain what I mean any better. Hopefully you see it too?”
~ Mark Chatterley via email
Did he really effectively apologise for not being more specific? Well to me, this description was spot-on. Note his softening statements, shown in bold. It was a clear reaction to what the existing type for the cover title was ‘doing to him’ as a viewer. Tangibly even! It could not have been clearer. And yet it was gentle, polite, unassuming. He takes responsibility for his observations because he knows these to be true. He asks me whether I understand.
And so… yes, I did “see it too”. Vividly, now that he had shared his response. The brownie points were multiplying.
3. Designers like to be told what your issue is with their design – from your perspective. What was it that you felt, thought, heard, saw, smelt? Leave the design solutions to us to sort out – that is, the How?, the Why? That’s our job.
It takes a confident client to trust their designer to deliver exactly what they need, naturally. Try it sometime with a project you are not too worried about and can ‘let go’ of. Prepare to be amazed.
If you happen to have a spare hour and a half to kill, get down to In Ear Entertainment’s online shop and buy this audiobook for £3.50. There’s something wonderfully experiential about real voices telling you tall tales while you type.
Narjas has since bought the audiobook those who cry out seek to be heard herself, and loves the company it provides while she crafts her creative concoctions, cooking up the next concept driving herself crazy with clever-cloggsy kookiness.
