---

---

1. Visually take us through your professional journey. Create a diagram that summarizes your career to date.

2. When did you realize you wanted to become a book cover designer? Did you stumble into this career or did you intentionally pursue it?

Erin Fitzsimmons: I fall into the category of “people who had no idea book cover design was a thing”. I loved reading books when I was young, and wanted to be an artist, but it never registered that I could be an artist for books. My college experience at Gallatin encouraged me to dip my toes into a wide range of different fields of knowledge, and it was like I was picking up pieces of a puzzle, only I didn’t know what the puzzle was meant to be. It also taught me to try and fail: a photo editing job at a newspaper led to temp position at a magazine and then a photo research position at a textbook publisher. There my art director, Adam Bohannon, asked if I wanted to try designing a book cover and despite having never designed anything in my life, and I jumped at the chance. Suddenly everything clicked: I was able to combine my love for imagery and storytelling with a growing interest in typography and design. It all made sense—finally—what those individual pieces were for, and the puzzle started to come together.

3. Do you ever go through periods where you feel completely creatively tapped out? How do you refill your cup and then get back to work?

Erin Fitzsimmons: Absolutely. I am working full-time in-house during the day and freelancing at night, so there are very often moments where I cannot stand to stare at an empty InDesign document. I need a shift in approach in order to reset my brain. Sometimes that means taking a step back from designing the cover and creating a moodboard instead, switching to my iPad and sketching thumbnails, or breaking out a notebook and ink pens to doodle. When I’m really stuck, I’ll find my brain wandering while I’m coloring with my daughter and suddenly I’m sketching book cover thumbnails in crayon on the back of coloring pages. It’s the not-trying-to-make-a-cover that can unlock things for me.

4. Do you show your designs to any non-coworkers before submitting them? Who and why?

5. What’s one creative skill you wish you had time to pursue so that you could incorporate it into future designs?

Erin Fitzsimmons: I would love to paint. My parents are both beautiful painters and fine artists, so I haven’t given up hope that I have it somewhere in me?! One day…

6. Name one author you would love to design for before you retire.  

Erin Fitzsimmons: Tana French.

---

“The best covers feel unique to other books in the market because they are unique to that one book.”

---

7. I loved it when Jamie Keenan said “It’s not an art director’s job to make your Instagram grid look nice.” How do you balance creating a cover that has mass market appeal with creating something truly unique?

Erin Fitzsimmons: Ha! I also loved this, as both an art director working with designers and a designer who wants a nice Instagram grid. I don’t think it’s outside the realm of possibility to achieve both, as rare as it seems. That balance is something I think about constantly, and it’s tricky because of how many outside influences are involved in cover approval. We as designers and art directors have the initial level of control, on what we create and what we share. That first round is so crucial—you’re setting the stage for what the cover could be, and what it should be. But beyond that, a lot of the process is out of our control.

If I am allowed the space, I try to always bring it back to the book itself. For me, the best covers feel unique to other books in the market because they are unique to that one book. We all have folders of killed work that could probably be recycled for another book, but the really exciting covers could only be the cover for that book. And, in reverse, it feels like that book could only ever have that cover. The cover design becomes synonymous with the book itself. That’s what I’m aiming for in my own designs, at least, and if I can help art direct a cover to achieve that, it is equally as rewarding. (Besides, killed work still looks great on the feed!)

8. What is one book cover from your archive that you feel is especially great, but never received much press or notoriety for some reason. We’ve all got one or two of those in the archive! 

Erin Fitzsimmons: The one that comes to mind is Heroine by Mindy McGinnis. I’ll never forget standing at my desk with the editor to brainstorm a title-driven approach and realizing that the letters of the title also spelled heroin, hero, and her. It falls into that category of covers that could only work for one particular book, and is one that came together relatively quickly from quick pencil thumbnail to fully realized cover. As a finished cover (with blind spot UV!), I think it fits the book perfectly, signals exactly what you’re going to get with a Mindy McGinnis read, and feels timeless in a way that YA covers don’t always feel.

9. About how many times have you written “a novel” on a piece of paper and then scanned it?.

Erin Fitzsimmons: Hundreds, easily. Here’s how you know I’m a nerd: I recently spent a Friday night writing a few dozen in Procreate and then using a font design app to create an “A Novel” font where each character is a different sketch. (Pro-tip: don’t do this! The characters will be too small and rasterized. Instead, turn them all into bitmaps and create a CC library 😇 )

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? 

Erin Fitzsimmons: “Oh, so you write books?!”

For more Q&As from our pool of talented designers, explore the 10 Questions series page.
Special thanks to Amanda Hudson for creating the series’ blog post cover design.