This is 10 Questions, an interview series where we get to know the designers from the directory a little better. Today, meet Anthony Brambilla! Anthony worked at Barnes & Noble before becoming a cover designer. Since 2023, he’s been a designer with Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Read about his career journey and interests below!
1. Visually take us through your professional journey. Create a diagram that summarizes your career to date.
2. When did you realize that you wanted to become a book cover designer?
Anthony Brambilla: I was working at Barnes & Noble at the time and one day while I was sorting through books I had an epiphany, I was so inspired by all of these covers that I wanted to give it a try myself, so I did some redesigns of books I liked and really started to fall in love with the process.
3. If you couldn’t design book covers for a living (or hold any job in the creative field), what’s another career that you think you would’ve excelled in or have wanted to try?
Anthony Brambilla: Well originally I was going to go to college to major in History, so maybe I would have become a history teacher, or an historian.
4. How do you use Instagram?
Anthony Brambilla: Ive been using it as a source of inspiration but also as a networking tool, I like connecting with fellow designers, It’s much more authentic compared to Linkedin in my opinion.
5. Spread good design. Who is one (non-book-cover) graphic designer or artist that we should check out?
Anthony Brambilla: One of my absolute favorite artists is Syd Mead, he was a visual futurist and industrial designer, he’s done designs and illustrations for many companies and magazines, and has done concept work for movies, such as Alien and Bladerunner. His gouache paintings are amazing, I can stare at them all day.
6. If you HAD to devote one day per week to a side hustle or creative pursuit, describe how you would spend that day.
Anthony Brambilla: I would spend that entire day oil painting, I just started with this medium and I want to get better with it, it’s a very fun (yet costly) hobby…in a perfect world I’d have a nice studio space. (one day!)
7. What’s your ideal auditory environment while working?
Anthony Brambilla: Most of the time i’ll have a YouTube video in the background or sometimes i’ll have music playing, but if I need to really lock in and focus on something then Ill have nothing playing in the background, just the sound of my air purifier, I can’t have complete silence…I’m pretty sure I have tinnitus…
8. What’s one creative skill you wish you had time to pursue so that you could incorporate it into future designs?
Anthony Brambilla: Hand-lettering…that’s my kryptonite…
9. Name one author you would love to design for before you retire.
Anthony Brambilla: One of my closest friends is an author (K.L. Walther) I’d love to design one of her future novels!
10. The INABC Exit Question. You’re at a party and you just told a stranger that you’re a book cover designer. What’s the most common response you get from people when they hear this?
Anthony Brambilla: When I tell people I work in publishing most of the time people say “oh you can design my book cover” which I absolutely would!
